Violence at High Noon

Violência ao Meio-dia estreava há 55 anos no Japão. Sou amplamente a favor da leitura de que as mulheres de Oshima representam politicamente o Japão, aqui especificamente a protagonista é o Japão do pós-guerra com seus 20 anos assombrada pelo patriarcado militarizado reacionário reverbera nas democracias do mundo e ainda reluz em certo aspecto no Japão dos anos 60, por mais que flertar com ele induza a um suicídio moral que sempre dá errado, segue-se em frente. Box Versátil Nuberu Ba

Another day, another Oshima examination of the intersection of class and sexual desire, this time with a murderer and commentary on the urban/rural divide buried in so many cinematic tricks even the French left bank would struggle to keep up.

More skilful shots than in PLEASURES OF THE FLESH.

Possibly my favorite from the Oshima eclipse set. Not the greatest film but it was a great watch.

Nouvelle Vogue flair and an endearingly fractured narrative make this an engrossing experience.

It's brilliant on a technical level, but the flashy, dizzying style doesn't really seem appropriate and even serves to undermine the film's emotional impact. Then again, the story and themes are so flimsy that it wouldn't have much impact regardless. Interesting but surprisingly unmoving.

Hands-down my favorite Japanese new wave film so far, even Yoshishige's cinematography can't compare to how amazing this looks. Easily my favorite b&w cinematography ever, and the nonlinear editing is closer to the level of Roeg's than even Resnais could hope for. Actually, this entire film aesthetically makes basically every nouvelle vague film look primitive by comparison. Without the style the film would probably be nothing, but so what?

An exploration of people bound together by violence, failure, lonelieness and despair. I found the film's cinematic aspects more intriguing than its thematic aspects. Oshima's compositions can be striking, and the frame is often blown out with glaring sunlight. There's an unusually large number of cuts, and at points certain shots and pans get looped, flipped, or reversed, a kind of schizophrenic turmoil of camera movement. Definitely an interesting piece of work.

The editing is psychotic.