Oshima Nagisa
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- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:12 pm
Not necessarily DVD-related, but the much-awaited nearly complete Oshima retro that James Quandt has been working on for years is finally happening and will be traveling to various North American venues this fall. If you live near a big city, don't miss this as it's one of the very few chances you will ever have to see most of these films on film with English subtitles. DVDs of the higher-profile titles will almost certainly follow, although don't expect New Yorker to do much with the titles they control (as I mentioned earlier, Janus now has the rights to Cruel Story of Youth and some of the other early films so something is being planned).
- Awesome Welles
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
- Location: London
- otis
- Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:43 am
Seconded. In the meantime, there are 3 Oshimas in the BFI's Japanese Gems season in July: Violence at Noon, Boy and The Ceremony. But a proper retrospective would be incredibly welcome.FSimeoni wrote:Here's hoping it comes to London!
- Awesome Welles
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
- Location: London
I did not know that! Where the hell are the BFI with my programme! I'll be seeing all three I think.otis wrote:Seconded. In the meantime, there are 3 Oshimas in the BFI's Japanese Gems season in July: Violence at Noon, Boy and The Ceremony. But a proper retrospective would be incredibly welcome.
Can anyone recommend any of the others as must sees?
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- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:12 pm
The source is a conversation I had with James Quandt, but he alludes to it in his notes for another Japanese series this summer. I don't know if it's going to London, but I'd be surprised if at least part of it doesn't come over.What's your source, do you have a link?
- otis
- Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:43 am
For simplicity's sake, here's the complete programme of the BFI season by director:FSimeoni wrote:Can anyone recommend any of the others as must sees?
Kurosawa: Rashomon; Stray Dog; Ikiru
Oshima: Violence at Noon; Boy; The Ceremony
Shindo: The Naked Island, Onibaba, A Last Note
Imamura: Intentions of Murder; Vengeance is Mine; Black Rain
Yamada: A Wedding; Tora-san's Sunrise and Sunset; The Yellow Handkerchief
Suzuki: Tokyo Drifter; Branded to Kill; Zigeunerweisen
Ichikawa: A Full-up Train; Conflagration; Her Brother
Haneda: Akiko: Portrait of a Dancer; Ode to Mount Hayachine; Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa
Any of our Japan experts want to offer some recommendations?
Last edited by otis on Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:47 pm
It's also in the coming soon section of the Cinematheque booklet. Having not seen any Oshima and living in Toronto, I can't wait!ptmd wrote:The source is a conversation I had with James Quandt, but he alludes to it in his notes for another Japanese series this summer. I don't know if it's going to London, but I'd be surprised if at least part of it doesn't come over.What's your source, do you have a link?
- Awesome Welles
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
- Location: London
Email from Geoff Andrew, Head of Programming at the BFI Southbank:
EDIT: Follow up email:Thank you for your email enquiring about Oshima, which has been forwarded to me.
As it happens we have been in long-term discussions with James Quandt about Oshima, so yes, we shall be doing the retrospective here; the date is yet to be decided.
We do hope that there will be restorations; we are waiting upon James to let us know more about what is likely to be made available.
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- Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:47 pm
What I usually do is go to see the ones that aren't on R1 DVD, or likely won't be easily available for a LONG while.otis wrote:For simplicity's sake, here's the complete programme of the BFI season by director:FSimeoni wrote:Can anyone recommend any of the others as must sees?
Kurosawa: Rashomon; Stray Dog; Ikiru
Oshima: Violence at Noon; Boy; The Ceremony
Shindo: The Naked Island, Onibaba, A Last Note
Imamura: Intentions of Murder; Vengeance is Mine; Black Rain
Yamada: A Wedding; Tora-san's Sunrise and Sunset; The Yellow Handkerchief
Suzuki: Tokyo Drifter; Branded to Kill; Zigeunerweisen
Ichikawa: A Full-up Train; Conflagration; Her Brother
Haneda: Akiko: Portrait of a Dancer; Ode to Mount Hayachine; Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa
Any of our Japan experts want to offer some recommendations?
So from that list, that would be mostly Ichikawa (at least from this list), Shindo, Haneda, Yamada, and of course Oshima.
Also, Imamura's Intentions of Murder has, in the past, gotten a lot praise from critics and colleagues here in Toronto; so that may be something I would consider seeing too. I'm certainly considering it, even though Imamura is starting to catch on in North America and will probably be better represented in the future. It's guys like Oshima and Yamada that I'm worried about missing and never seeing again for another 10-15 years.
- otis
- Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:43 am
Great news! Now watch them programme it for a month I'm not in London...FSimeoni wrote:Email from Geoff Andrew, Head of Programming at the BFI Southbank:
Thank you for your email enquiring about Oshima, which has been forwarded to me.
As it happens we have been in long-term discussions with James Quandt about Oshima, so yes, we shall be doing the retrospective here; the date is yet to be decided.
- shirobamba
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:23 pm
- Location: Germany
Meanwhile Carlotta has announced the extras for the forthcoming Oshima releases. As expected no revolutionary revelations:
A Town of Love and Hope (1959)
Tomorrow's Suns (1959, 6 min)
A short ad film Oshima made for Shochiku introducing new upcoming actors of the studio.
100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1995, 52 min)
Documentary commissioned by the BFI in 1995.
Cruel Story of Youth (1960)
Japan Under Pressure (25 min)
Video intro: Donald Richie talks about Oshima's early work.
Excerpts from Oshima's Notebooks (11 min)
An essay describing Oshima's thoughts, while he was writing „Story of Cruel Youth“
Trailer
Burial of the Sun (1960)
The Rebellion of Nagisa Oshima (25 min)
The first 4 films of Oshima form something like a portrait of the Japanese youths of the 60's.
Yoichi Umemoto, film critic and professor at Yokohama University talks about the impact of the nonconformity in these films on youth culture.
In addition, the boxset contains a 68 pages booklet with new essays by Diane Arnaud, Nicolas Thévenin, Hubert Niogret and Max Tessier.
Night and Fog in Japan (1960)
Spotlights (2001, 11 min)
Oshima talks about his concept of mise en scène for Night and Fog.
Trailer
Pleasures of the Flesh (1965)
Beyond the Taboos (2008, 25 min)
Video intro by Jean Douchet
Trailer
A Town of Love and Hope (1959)
Tomorrow's Suns (1959, 6 min)
A short ad film Oshima made for Shochiku introducing new upcoming actors of the studio.
100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1995, 52 min)
Documentary commissioned by the BFI in 1995.
Cruel Story of Youth (1960)
Japan Under Pressure (25 min)
Video intro: Donald Richie talks about Oshima's early work.
Excerpts from Oshima's Notebooks (11 min)
An essay describing Oshima's thoughts, while he was writing „Story of Cruel Youth“
Trailer
Burial of the Sun (1960)
The Rebellion of Nagisa Oshima (25 min)
The first 4 films of Oshima form something like a portrait of the Japanese youths of the 60's.
Yoichi Umemoto, film critic and professor at Yokohama University talks about the impact of the nonconformity in these films on youth culture.
In addition, the boxset contains a 68 pages booklet with new essays by Diane Arnaud, Nicolas Thévenin, Hubert Niogret and Max Tessier.
Night and Fog in Japan (1960)
Spotlights (2001, 11 min)
Oshima talks about his concept of mise en scène for Night and Fog.
Trailer
Pleasures of the Flesh (1965)
Beyond the Taboos (2008, 25 min)
Video intro by Jean Douchet
Trailer
- sidehacker
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:49 am
- Location: Bowling Green, Ohio
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I'll be curious to see what Richie says/thinks of Oshima as well as what language he'll be speaking in. Has anyone seen or rather heard him speaking in French?
Some enticing features here, but unless the transfers are new and somehow better than the RJ2 discs, I won't buy it. For those who are curious, Tomorrow's Sun is on youtube.
Some enticing features here, but unless the transfers are new and somehow better than the RJ2 discs, I won't buy it. For those who are curious, Tomorrow's Sun is on youtube.
- shirobamba
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:23 pm
- Location: Germany
Now, Richie is mumbling in English. Surprisingly he's not talking about the films in context of Sun Tribe. He gives an overview of the political developments in post-war Japan, and tries to define Oshima's position as a political maverick filmmaker, who, though a leftist himself, is raging against the Stalinism of the 50's JPC and later against the sectarianism of the New Left in the 60's. Richie tells a couple of interesting stories about Oshima's way of working with actors and his (that is: Oshima's) self-definition as a criminal...sidehacker wrote:I'll be curious to see what Richie says/thinks of Oshima as well as what language he'll be speaking in. Has anyone seen or rather heard him speaking in French?
Some enticing features here, but unless the transfers are new and somehow better than the RJ2 discs, I won't buy it. For those who are curious, Tomorrow's Sun is on youtube.
And for the transfers: Night and Fog, and Pleasures are definitely new transfers. Both are superior as far as sharpness/detail is concerned. I don't like the contrast boosting in Pleasures though, because it destroys the subtle "Shochiku-colour palette" (much as MEK has described it for Ozu). But that's a matter of taste in the end.
I'm not sure if the "Youth trilogy" has all new transfers. All of them are sharper, than the Shochikus, but even though they are converted to PAL none of them shows any sign of PAL speed-up. The runtimes are exactly the same a Shochiku's NTSC transfers. In addition (or maybe because of that), despite the progressive encoding, they are plagued with ghosting, not too distracting, but anyway.
- Cronenfly
- Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:04 pm
Congratulations, Steven; the above statement of yours is quoted in the Fall 2008 Cinematheque Ontario programme, on page 38. It's wrongly (or rather intentionally vaguely) attributed as being what "one fan recently wrote on Criterion's website", but it's still pretty cool...Steven H wrote:What a stunning, hilarious, and unforgettable film Three Resurrected Drunkards is.
- sidehacker
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:49 am
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- Contact:
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
Ha! That is pretty cool. I feel vaguely famous. To celebrate, I'll buy everyone a drink in the good name of hyperbole!Cronenfly wrote:Congratulations, Steven; the above statement of yours is quoted in the Fall 2008 Cinematheque Ontario programme, on page 38. It's wrongly (or rather intentionally vaguely) attributed as being what "one fan recently wrote on Criterion's website", but it's still pretty cool...Steven H wrote:What a stunning, hilarious, and unforgettable film Three Resurrected Drunkards is.
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- Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:18 am
I saw Diary of a Shinjuku Thief tonight in Manhattan, and oh God. If you thought it was dense and challenging before, try watching it with faulty, delayed and out of order subtitles.
From what I could properly follow, I was very, very impressed. I had expected some kind of mostly gritty Bresson-by-way-of-Oshima thing, and it was this delightful abstract comedy-drama.
It's a crime that this, Violence At Noon and others still aren't out on DVD over here.
From what I could properly follow, I was very, very impressed. I had expected some kind of mostly gritty Bresson-by-way-of-Oshima thing, and it was this delightful abstract comedy-drama.
It's a crime that this, Violence At Noon and others still aren't out on DVD over here.
- shirobamba
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:23 pm
- Location: Germany
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
My sympathies, but if it's any consolation a first (or fifth) encounter with this film is bound to be discombobulating, however good the subtitling! One thing I love about the film is, as you note, how playful it is, and how the style and approach to the material changes every ten to fifteen minutes (though Oshima never quite gets round to Bresson). I've seen it more times than any other Oshima film, but it still strikes me like a Tex Avery frying pan every time.royalton wrote:I saw Diary of a Shinjuku Thief tonight in Manhattan, and oh God. If you thought it was dense and challenging before, try watching it with faulty, delayed and out of order subtitles.
From what I could properly follow, I was very, very impressed. I had expected some kind of mostly gritty Bresson-by-way-of-Oshima thing, and it was this delightful abstract comedy-drama.