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Paper Abstract: Analysis of the Japanese film director's movies. Controversy over his films. Charges of obscenity. Censorship of Oshima's films. Powerful social force of film. Connectioins between sexual, political and criminal transgressions in his films. Issue of personal artistic freedom. Cites examples of his work and theories in several of his films including IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. Paper Introduction: The Japanese film director Oshima Nagisa (b. 1932) is an artist who has been regularly subjected to censure and even to censorship. Although he is best known in the West for his 1976 film In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no Corrida), Oshima's movies have caused controversy since very near the beginning of his career in the 1950s. In addition to directing films--which he now does only rarely--he is a prolific writer on film theory and commentator on social topics, as well as the host of a long-running talk show on Japanese television. At the heart of the censorship that Oshima seems to provoke is his view of the relationship between the individual and society. In many of his films (and in his writings and frequent interviews) Oshima indicates that "a violent break with society is necessary to effect any real social growth" or, indeed, any significant change Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Basically itwas a story of the betrayal of the New Left by the Old Left, a betrayalthat centered around the renewal and re-writing of the Japan-U.S. Currents in Japanese Cinema: Essays. In Japan, at least, he was quitecertain that this would happen. "Signs of Sexuality in Oshima's Tales of Passion." Wide Angle 9.2 (1987): 32-46. One such possibility of transgression that had crossed Oshima's mindwhile making Shinjuku was, he recalled, that he should simply ask theactors to engage in the sex act and see what would happen. In the film, however, the wedding is interruptedby the presence of a hunted radical whom the police seek for participationin disruptive protests over the renewal of the Security Pact. Even without theexplicit presentation of sex it would have been a dangerous subject. Instead Oshima's 'crime' wasthe transgression of the boundaries that had been agreed upon by many inthe society for many years. and Screenwriter). and Screenwriter). But the original story approved by the studio had a coda in which thetwo reconciled and "there was the brave, heart-warming message thattogether they would build a more genuine society" (Sato, 214). In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no Corrida). I am now standing trial because I believe in freedom of expression, and I am certain that my trial is meaningless unless freedom of expression is considered and argued about in conjunction with the freedom of people to listen to and read that which is expressed. His films hadconsistently dealt with sexuality and its radical potential in one way oranother since 1965, but he had shied away from "the kind of filmmaking thatmakes the sexual act its central concern" until he arrived at Shinjuku(Cinema, Censorship, 257). Following a brief discussionof the political films and Oshima's theories about transgression this essaywill discuss the censorship case and the relationship between Oshima's filmand his theories. In Japan, however, the censorship laws were strict inregard to the portrayal of sexuality and Oshima wound up on trial forobscenity--a case that he fought with great eloquence and extensive debateabout the nature of censorship and obscenity. It was transgressivein the sense that it broke through the limitations that had simply beenassumed for centuries--just as Oshima's film broke through the same kind oflimitations that had been placed on art. In Oshima's filmed version the boyreturned to his home determined to rebel against this hypocritical society. A Town of Love and Hope (Ai to Kibo no Machi). For Oshima this devotion tothe sexual experience--despite the abandonment of will, rationality, andsociety--was a positive expenditure of human energy. Yamaguchi Seiichiro had argued, when arrestedfor the obscenity of one of his films, that "if these films are repressedon the pretext of obscenity, the most effective way of fighting back wouldbe to respond by making the concept of obscenity meaningless, that's bycreating works that are even more obscene" (quoted in Oshima, (Cinema,Censorship, 258). Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema. Marise C. As he said,"cinema can't change if the cinematic modes of production don't change" andhe saw his role as an artist as that of the transgressive guerrilla whowould bring about change, born of his dissatisfaction with the endlessrepetition of traditional forms, by challenging seemingly fundamentalassumptions that were made about film art and film commerce (quoted inTurim, "Signs," 33). For the presentation of this radical notion Oshima once againdeveloped formal innovations that fit the subject. Thompson and Arthur Nolletti. When the studio declined to do so (at least for awhile), and to refuse to discuss the matter, Oshima was out of a job.Whether he was forced to leave or left of his own accord is uncertain, butit still amounted to a very serious step for a Japanese film directorbecause of the very tightly controlled nature of the studio system inJapan. [But] I find the lives of anonymous people who go to their deaths without expressing themselves at all and without making any pronouncements are far nobler than my own (Cinema, Censorship, 285-6). Following Yamaguchi's suggestion, Oshima had made afilm that was more 'obscene' than anything the censors normally deemedobscene and, in doing so, had invited censorship in order to challenge it.Oshima's example may not have been taken up with great eagerness but,especially in the last few years, European directors such as CatherineBreillat, Bruno Dumont, Patrice Chйreau, and others have made quiteexplicit sexual activity a part of their films without exciting nearly asmuch comment, or as many attempts at censorship, as Oshima faced. Oshima had longbelieved that "it is guerrillas who change manners and customs and make newones" and he held that this was the case because people only paid attentionto what was novel, even shocking, in terms of manners (Cinema, Censorship,234). Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.--- (Dir. "Oshima on Oshima." Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History. The head of the Shochiku studio, for whom Oshima was anemployee, selected Oshima's story to be filmed because it fit the genre of"humanistic stories on the lives of average city dwellers" which he haddeveloped at the studio (Sato, 214). The district of Tokyo mentioned in the film's title was wellknown as a center of student political activism, which frequently eruptedinto violent demonstrations in the late 196 s. 86-9 .---. The film was pulled from distribution because, the studio argued, itwas making no money. As he noted, it was essentially, therefore, a false accusation--evenaccording to the censorship laws--and false accusations arose "from thepolice's anxiety about their reputation when a crime has taken place andthe perpetrator has not been prosecuted" (Cinema, Censorship, 283). I had resolved not to make that kind of film if there were no possibility of complete sexual expression. In addition to directing films--which he now does only rarely--he is a prolific writer on film theory andcommentator on social topics, as well as the host of a long-running talkshow on Japanese television. Oshimaregularly refused to become involved in party politics because he sawpolitics more as a means of asserting the individual's will in the face ofsocial restrictions and as a matter of facilitating that rebellion(Tessier). Shochiku Company, 196 .--- (Dir. Ed. The Japanese film director Oshima Nagisa (b. As Tessier puts it, this was a "test of strength betweenOshima and the 'Japanese state' that had been postponed for a long time"(83). The radical nature of Night and Fog in Japan can only be understoodin the context of Japanese politics of the postwar period. But the willingness to take risks and addressfundamental questions about personal freedoms that are, he believes,obscured by tradition and received ideas is a major part of his function asan artist. Thus Oshima made theseemingly odd combination of a story about the permutations of a sexualrelationship and political violence. The state, therefore, as the embodiment of thewill of the society and its enforcer, becomes repressive in ensuring thatthings remain as they are. Butthe transgressive qualities of their behavior were heightened even in themaking of the film. Oshima produced a radical film experiencein which he rejected standard narrative in favor of a series of complicatedflashbacks in a mere 45 sequence shots. Sexual expression carried to its logical conclusion would result in the direct filming of sexual intercourse (Cinema, Censorship, 257).When the producer Anatole Dauman asked Oshima if he wished to make such afilm he was surprised by the offer but, he reports, "the only thing to dowas smile and agree" (Cinema, Censorship, 258). Review of Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima, 1956-1978. Attempts to change traditional mores develop out of the individual'sdissatisfaction with the society's effort to perpetuate the manners thathave become the status quo. and Screenwriter). and Screenwriter). and Screenwriter). He first offered a lengthy explication of why no crime had beencommitted according to the technicalities of the law, thereby exposing thefact that the state simply wished to prosecute Oshima Nagisa for obscenityand was willing to go to some lengths to do so. Thefilms had always made strong connections between sexual, political, andcriminal transgressions but in the 197 s he took advantage of an offer by aFrench film producer to make as frankly sexual a picture as he wished andproduced In the Realm of the Senses. The movie played to large audiences throughout Western Europe,Canada, and, after an initial setback, the United States; being censoredonly in Belgium. SecurityPact at the time the film was made. The refusalof the various leftists to deal with his plight signified the failure ofthe left to engage the important question of Japan's integration into theU.S. But when his little con is discovered he is labeled adelinquent and refused a job. She releases the pigeon and has her brother shoot itdown. 1932) is an artist whohas been regularly subjected to censure and even to censorship. Thecrime that disturbed the police was not, however, anything that wasproscribed by the actual extent of the law. Oshima's films rely on more involved spectators who "construct whatthey perceive" and the loosely put together elements of a film such asDiary of a Shinjuku Thief are the filmmaker's offering to the "text" thatis created out of the filmmaker-spectator collaboration (Casebier, 8). "Criminality, Eroticism, and Oshima." Wide Angle 9.2 (1987): 47-59.Oshima Nagisa. He destroyed the pigeon coop that would have allowed him to continue as a'delinquent' and by refusing both the option of reforming and the option ofretaining the 'delinquent' label, he indicates that he will assert himselfagainst this society (in some unspecified way) and, thereby, raises "theissue of the autonomy of rebellion" (Sato, 215). The recent assassination of the Socialist PartyLeader and the generally unsettled air of society regarding leftistpolitics and the Security Pact made a film such as Oshima's an undesirableventure for a major corporation. Oshima was exiled from commercial filmmaking for nearly five yearsand during that time he primarily made television documentaries. Increasingly, however, his commentary centered on the nature ofthe disturbance in social complacency caused by criminal behavior. In the earlier part of Oshima's career his films were disturbing tothe establishment primarily because of his political views and his commentson the nature of Japanese society as it emerged after the debacle of WorldWar II. Film Quarterly, 47.4 (1994): 37-38.---. But in Japan it played only in an extremely mutilated andcensored form. In many of his films (and in his writings and frequentinterviews) Oshima indicates that "a violent break with society isnecessary to effect any real social growth" or, indeed, any significantchange in one's life, and these breaks "are shown to have repercussions inspheres both political and sexual" (Knee, p. Oshima noted that if Shochiku was withdrawing the film because ofpoor attendance the sudden surge in demand to see the film following thestudio's self-censorship, should have meant that they would, logically, bereleasing it again. Dawn Lawson. Night and Fog in Japan (Nibon no Yoru to Kiri). Oshima,however, seized on the opportunity to express the notions about rebellion,transgression, and social change that had been implicit in his films fordecades. This theme was continued in Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth (196 ),which is often referred to as his best film, where Oshima, as he put it,"attempted to capture the substance of modern times in acts of cruelty"(quoted in Tessier, 73). Additionally, however,transgressions against the state (as the embodiment of society's rules)lead to the opportunity, or the occasions, of this freed sexuality. In his anger over the stupidity of theaffair the boy sells the bird to the girl again--determined to rebelagainst this absurd system--and the girl is angry with what she perceivesas his betrayal. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Trans. But inOshima's view there can be no personal freedoms if such ruptures are notinitiated periodically. Japanese society was largely in favor ofaccepting American dominance in the region and frightened by events inKorea. The independently produced 1968 film Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (whichis also known simply as Shinjuku) was one of the films in which Oshimacontinued his investigations into the dimensions of sexuality as a powerfulsocial force. The film was highly theatrical inits stylization and the style of filming was different for each eradepicted in the flashbacks. Shochiku Company, 196 .--- (Dir. 48). The reason Oshima made In the Realm of the Senses was that it wastransgressive in the sense that was most important to him. Argos Films-Oshima Productions, 1976.--- (Dir. The story Oshima ultimately chose for the film was the true tale ofan obsessive affair between a man (Kichi) and his servant (Sado) that endedwhen she strangled him during sexual intercourse and sliced off his penis,which she was still carrying with her when the police arrested her severaldays later. Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History. With its fierce indictment of politics andsociety and its highly unusual style Night and Fog in Japan was not thecommercially promising melodrama Shochiku studio had hoped for but a"revolutionary, incendiary bomb" that the studio would never haveauthorized "if they had known for one instant what it was about" (Tessier,73). In the Realm of the Senses was an interesting, well-made film in itsown right that broke barriers of different kinds along with the actualdepiction of sexual activity. The problem, as developed in the film, was thatof overcoming the weight of tradition in order to generate "culturalinnovation" and the artistic problem was to find a new film form in whichto represent this (Desser, 26). None the less it was as formallyradical as Shinjuku or Night and Fog in Japan had been. Cruel Story of Youth (Seishun Zankoku Monogatari). In Oshima's opinion it was not, as was sometimes held, thatmores had greater power to change society than politics, but that "theforces unable to change society though politics shift to manners andcustoms" in order to make the breaks that bring about change (Oshima,Cinema, Censorship, 234). Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. New York: Kodansha International/USA, 1982.Tessier, Max. As an artist Oshima himself has made these breaksat several points in his career. But he found the notions of anotherJapanese director inspiring. Gregory Barrett. He has not, perhaps, suffered as much ashis characters do. The film was seized by New Yorkcustoms officials when it arrived to be shown at the New York FilmFestival. 69-85.Turim, Maureen. Oshima was 27, still apprentice-age in the highly structured Japanesefilm industry, when he made his first feature-length film, A Town of Loveand Hope (1959). The film had great impact and spoke to the nearimpossibility of breaking through the constraints of society in theordinary way. "Oshima Nagisa, or The Battered Energy of Desire." Trans. At one point, however, Kichi works his way back to thehouse while fighting against the tide of a parade of soldiers marching offto war. Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima, 1956-1978. The film was then put together in a waythat made it look as though it had been edited "in an intuitive and totallyhaphazard manner" and the sequences were united by a series of transitionalcommentaries (spoken by Oshima's friends, collaborators, and others) "onsexuality, crime, and repression" (Tessier, 8 -1). But the new films were even stronger indictmentsof the society and the levels of brutality that lurked, repressed, beneathits surface. In this film he usedhand-held 16mm cameras (with both black and white and color stock) andallowed the cameras to move very freely, even using footage of actualevents, thus lending the film a semi-documentary appearance even in itsmost confined interior sequences. At the heart of the censorship that Oshimaseems to provoke is his view of the relationship between the individual andsociety. But for his greatest triumph of surprising subject matter and itsradical connotations, In the Realm of the Senses, Oshima employed a fairlystandard 'look' for the film, which primarily takes place indoors andfeatures only two principal characters. Oshima and other young directors of the time were alsoturning away from "the traditional genres of melodrama and historical epic"and looking for a "more vital modernistic filmic expression" that wouldgive voice to the problems of contemporary Japan, defeated in the war andjust emerging from the shadow of the U.S. It was the rebellious act of defying socialmores that the prosecutors and the police found so disturbing that theyfelt they had to make a case against Oshima--whether they had one or not.This was, of course, the culmination of Oshima's long-standing defiance ofsocial convention and the probing, harsh, and, of course, transgressivenature of the criticisms of the society that he had offered in his filmsfor many years. But it was soon released and enjoyed commercial success in theUnited States. Althoughhe is best known in the West for his 1976 film In the Realm of the Senses(Ai no Corrida), Oshima's movies have caused controversy since very nearthe beginning of his career in the 195 s. In the story a poor teenagerrepeatedly sells a homing pigeon in a mild con game that nets him verylittle money. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988.Knee, Adam. His movement against this stream, the societal stream "in the daysof militarism," points up the lovers' defiance of social norms and theextent to which radical sexuality is opposed to everything the societystands for which, at the time the story is set in, meant the expansion ofempire (Tessier, 83). The film offered, for example, one of thefirst scenarios in which "female sexuality is affirmed" as well asincorporating numerous acts that indicated that showed "as desirable [and]pleasurable, that which might be considered crude" (Turim, "Signs," 39).But at its center the film was about a desire that "not only mocks thenotion of will and rationality, [but is] focused finally on a singleobject: the impossible sustained pleasure of a nearly constant state ofever-increasing orgasm" (Turim, "Signs," 37). They are generally, for instance, shown in interiors--locked inside the world of their obsession--and are rarely featured inexterior shots. Works CitedCasebier, Allan."Oshima in Contemporary Theoretical Perspective." Wide Angle 9.2 (1987): 4-17.Desser, David. Radical politics is radicalized by the violence,criminality and, perhaps, even the freedom of sexuality inherent in it.Thus, when he made his return to feature films he continued to createstylistically innovative films and his subjects largely involved a returnto the theme of rebellion and the breaking of social rules and taboos--sometimes set in a political context that was far less specific in itstargets than Night and Fog's attack on the Security Pact had been. And, he claimed,it brought him to a deeper understanding that while the freedom of theartist to express himself was very important social repression had thegreatest effect on those who were not artists, the ordinary people whosefreedom of access and whose own expression was repressed. As he described his intention: The film is about a young man and a girl seeking the right moment to reach sexual climax. Theyoung woman in Shinjuku, for example, is caught in the act of stealing abook, precipitating her relationship with the man in the story. At the same time, it is the story of Shinjuku and its riots. Sozosha, 1968.--- (Dir. The story of this mutual sexual obsession was shocking itselfbut Oshima's decision to make it the subject of a film that depicted actualsexual activity made its bizarre qualities resonate even more. Shochiku Company, 1959.Sato Sadao. Trans. Annette Michelson. The final image of the film is the slain pigeon which is emblematicof the end of the socially unsanctioned friendship between the rich girland the poor boy. But Oshima objected and cited the numbers of viewers,which compared favorably to other films at the time, and protested thatthere were, instead, "reasons of a political nature behind this shutdown"(Oshima, "Oshima," 86). Those who make theseradical breaks with society are usually forced to suffer for them. Needless to say, Japanese law, which did not permit eventhe sight of pubic hair or genitalia, was bound to find In the Realm of theSenses obscene. Thus guerrilla tactics (in social terms, thetransgressions committed by criminals, political activists, and sexualadventurers) are the only means available make change happen. The extremeand even criminal aspect of their behavior ensures that this can never bemistaken for a love story of the conventional sort. Oshima was fully aware of, and unintimidated by, the possibility thathis film would provoke censorship. Because he had shot the film on stock imported from Franceand then shipped it back to Europe for development Oshima technicallyevaded the Japanese laws regarding the "production" of obscene materials.And, since the film had not been shown in Japan except in the mutilatedform allowed by the censorship board, the charge of obscenity that waseventually filed against Oshima was, "hypocritically" as Tessier notes,directed against a book on the film that featured stills (83). These questions were hotly debated--especially in view of the recentoverthrow of the Korean government and America's growing Cold War fears ofleftist politics in any form--and Oshima was merciless about the tendencyof the supposedly radical forces in Japanese politics to take cover in thesafety of the return of tradition that was accompanying the resurgence ofgreat economic prosperity. When he sells the bird to a wealthy girl they become friendsand, on leaving school, he passes the examination for employment in herfather's firm. The theoretical notionbehind this new formal approach was that film itself, when it employs thestandard forms and means, is part of the endless repetition thatconstitutes unthinking tradition--the tradition that Oshima believed neededto be smashed from time to time by radical new ways of looking at things.Ordinary narrative films made by the studios employed what can be called"naive realism," that is, they attempt to persuade the viewer "thatperception is an unmediated, passive reception of sensation" and induceher/him to set aside disbelief in the conventions in order to accept thatwhat happens before her/him on the screen is, somehow, reality (Casebier,8). The story revolved around a weddingbetween a member of the Old Left and a New Left activist and the studio hadassumed that since it was a wedding story "it could be exploited as amelodrama" (Desser, 25). Oshima eventually won his case--though it dragged on for nearly fiveyears-- but the real triumph for him lay in making it clear, to a widepublic, that this case demonstrated his thesis that it took activetransgression of social mores to bring about true change. Theoutraged studio head deplored the 'leftist' message of the film, whichseemed to argue that any accord between labor and management is impossible,and Oshima was suspended from work. security network. I attempted to express Shinjuku as an area of disruption through these two young people and the various characters with whom they have contact (quoted in Tessier, 8 ).The theme of the film is the idea that intense sexual awareness serves as"a catalyst for liberated, revolutionary attitudes in the struggle againstthe repression of the state" (Tessier, 8 ). occupation (Turim, Review, 38).Despite the radical tendency exhibited in his films, Cruel Story of Youthwas a great financial success and Shochiku was willing, therefore, to granthim a great deal of leeway when he presented his plans for a film that wasto become Night and Fog in Japan (196 ). Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku Dorobbo Nikki). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.