27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

NINJA BUGE CHO

BAND OF NINJA
by Nagisa Oshima
Country: Japan
Year: 1967
Duration: 131'


BAND OF NINJA
The difficult challenge of transforming
the homonymous manga by Sanpei
Shirato into a film that is half imaginary
and half historical. The original drawings
are filmed and brought to life through
the editing and the actors’ voices.
The sixteenth century was the stage
or power struggles in which the ninjas
were of fundamental importance
in determining the balance of power.
A peasant revolt is underway.

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

regia/director
Nagisa Oshima
soggetto/story
dal manga omonimo di/
from the manga of the same
title by Sanpei Shirato
sceneggiatura/screenplay
Mamoru Sasaki,
Nagisa Oshima
fotografia/cinematography
Akira Takada
montaggio/film editing
Sueko Shiraishi
musica/music
Hikaru Hayashi
suono/sound
Hideo Nishizaki
interpreti e personaggi/
cast and characters
Kei Yamamoto
(Jutaro Yuki),
Noriko Matsumoto
(Hotarubi), Kei Sato
(Shuzen Sakagami),
Yoshiyuki Fukuda (Dojin
Mufu), Hikaru Hayashi
(Tokichiro Kinoshita)
produttori/producers
Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji
Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima
produzione/production
Sozosha
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