27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

ETSURAKU

PLEASURES OF THE FLESH
by Nagisa Oshima
Country: Japan
Year: 1965
Duration: 90'


PLEASURES OF THE FLESH
Sozosha, the company founded by
Oshima and which made twelve films
in eight years, debuts with a metaphor –
part detective story and part melodrama
– about the Marxist difference between
exchange value and use value.
An employee, who has committed
a murder for the girl he secretly loves,
is blackmailed by a public servant until
the day her marriage is announced.

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, sceneggiatura/
director, screenplay
Nagisa Oshima
soggetto/story
dal romanzo Il godimento
dentro la bara/from the novel
Kan no naka no
Etsuraku di/by
Futaro Yamada
fotografia/cinematography
Akira Takada
montaggio/film editing
Keiichi Uraoka
musica/music
Joji Yuasa
suono/sound
Hideo Nishizaki
interpreti e personaggi/
cast and characters
Katsuo Nakamura (Atsushi
Wakisaka), Mariko Kaga
(Shoko Inaba), Yumiko
Nogawa (Hitomi, una
cameriera/Waitress),
Masako Yagi (Shizuko, una
cameriera/Waitress)
produttore/producer
Masayuki Nakajima
produzione/production
Sozosha
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