THE ISLAND OF THE FINAL BATTLE
Testimony of when, in 1944, Japanese
soldiers found an honorable death
as they fought at Saipan by throwing
themselves from a cliff known as the
banzai or the suicide cliff. Images of
the terrible ruins of Saipan and the
wreck of the ship on which Japanese
civilians had tried to evacuate the island
Biography
film director
Nagisa Oshima
Nagisa Ōshima (Tamano, Japan, 1931 - Fujisawa, Japan, 2013) is considered one of the maestros of Japanese cinema. An exponent of “nuberu bagu,” his films depict the contradictions of Japanese society since WWII, in which growing materialism is flanked by strict observance of centuries-old rules, generating oxymorons and irresolvable conflicts. His most important films include Cruel Story (1960); The Sun’s Burial (1960); Night and Fog in Japan (1960); The Ceremony (1971); In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a true sensation because of its explicit sexual content; Empire of Passion (1978), which won Best Director at Cannes; and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983), which received a BAFTA for Best Score. His final film was Taboo (1999), presented in competition at Cannes. In 2009, the Torino Film Festival dedicated a complete retrospective to him.
FILMOGRAFIA
Seishun zankoku monogatari (Racconto crudele della giovinezza, 1960), Taiyō no hakaba (Il cimitero del sole, 1960), Nihon no yoru to kiri (Notte e nebbia in Giappone, 1960), Etsuraku (Il godimento, 1965), Muri shinju: Nihon no natsu (Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, 1967), Koshikei (Death by Hanging, 1968), Gishiki (La cerimonia, 1971), Ai no korīda (Ecco l’impero dei sensi, 1976), Ai no bōrei (L’impero della passione, 1978), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (Furyo, 1983), Max mon amour (Max amore mio, 1986), Gohatto (Tabù - Gohatto, 1999).
Cast
& Credits
Nagisa Oshima
fotografia/cinematography
Hajime Masuda
montaggio/film editing
Ryoichi Tomizuka
musica/music
Yuzo Koyama
suono/sound
Hiroshi Kawai
produttore/producer
Junichi Ushiyama
produzione/production
Nippon A-V Productions
(NAV)