Wednesday,
November 14 - Saturday, November 17
In
Memoriam: Shohei Imamura 1926 - 2006
 Born
in Tokyo in 1926, Shohei Imamura was son of
a
physician. Attending schools that should have resulted in him
taking his place among the elite of Japan’s society, he neglected
his schoolwork in favor of radical politics and eventually became
associated with racketeers and prostitutes, the people of the
lower classes with whom his pictures would later be populated.
This segment of society Imamura termed “the real Japan,” not
the wish-fulfilling “official Japan” whose tidied-up portrayals
were familiar to most viewers outside the country. After graduating
from University in 1951, he attended the assistant director’s
program at Ofuna studios where he worked Yasujiro Ozo (Tokyo
Story) but soon came to prefer the work of Yuzo Kawashima,
whose interest in lower-class life fit with his own perspective.
In
the 60s and 70s, his interest turned to documentary filmmaking,
including such controversial material as The Making of a
Prostitute (1975), which dealt with women forced into
prostitution and sent to brothels overseas. As Imamura’s fame
began to grow, he returned to the narrative form and won the
Palme d’Or at Cannes for Ballad of Narayama (1982)
and 1997, The Eel won a second Palme D’Or. The
Eel, Dr. Akagi (1998) and Warm Water under a Red Bridge
(2001) share an acting ensemble that creates a series of
misfits and outcasts that lives up to Imamura’s dictate: “I
want to make messy, really human, Japanese, unsettling films.”
Touring
program assembled by Adam Sekuler, Northwest Film Forum and
Tom Vick, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution.
We thank the following individuals and institutions for their
assistance with this retrospective: Mari Hiruta, The Japan Foundation,
Tokyo, Yoshihiro Nihei, The Japan Foundation, Los
Angeles, Imamura Productions, Tokyo, Brian Belovarac and Janus
Films.
Wednesday,
November 14 at 7pm
Stolen
Desire (Nusumareta Yokubo)
dir.
Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1958, 35mm, 92 mins, b/w, Japanese w/
English subtitles
 Imamura’s
first film contains a series of depictions that are the beginning
of his career-long preoccupation with life on the fringes of
Japanese society. A troupe of itinerant actors, based on a group
that Imamura once belonged to, find themselves in a rough and
vulgar part of Osaka.
The
director Shinkichi (Osama Takizawa), modeled after Imamura,
is a young intellectual who has quit the university for the
theater. The ignorant audience is not impressed with the Kabuki-like
presentation he has intended so he adds a dash of striptease
to the show.
The
locals greet the play with raunchy humor but the director must
come to grips with life’s sober reality.
Thursday,
November 15 at 7pm
The
Insect Woman
dir.
Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1963, 35mm, 123 mins, b/w, Japanese w/
English subtitles
 The
Insect Woman, whose
original title translates as Entomological Chronicles of
Japan, is an examination of the behavior of a rural woman
who survives the postwar period on instinct and resilient, insect-like
persistence. Born with questionable paternity, Tome Matsuki
(Sachiko Hidari) endures a difficult childhood. Her union activities
and romantic involvement with a supervisor at the mill cause
her to leave and find work in Tokyo. Resorting to prostitution
to survive the postwar depression, she rises to the role of
boss of a call girl ring, using the cunning and slyness that
are her only real weapons in Japan’s patriarchal society.
Friday,
November 16 at 7pm
The
Making of a Prostitute
dir.
Shohei Imamura, Japan , 1975, 16mm, 70 mins, color, Japanese
w/ English subtitles
 In
the 30s and 40s, many Japanese women were sent abroad to be
sold into sexual slavery. Women served as a labor force and
export commodity in support of their country’s expansion. Imamura’s
documentary tells the heartbreaking story of a woman who was
sent to a brothel and forced to live as a prostitute for the
Japanese soldiers. Now quite old, she tells how she was tricked
into leaving her home and was sent to Malaysia, never to see
her family again. Imamura deals with the subjugation of women
during the war and the resilience with which they met and bore
their fate.
Saturday,
November 17 at 2pm
The
Profound Desire of the Gods
dir.
Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1968, 16mm, 150 mins, color, Japanese
w/ English subtitles
 The
Profound Desire of the Gods
tells the struggle of a remote island community to reconcile
their ancient traditions with the industrializing efforts of
modern Japan. A construction company engineer comes to an isolated
village to survey the prospects for development. The islander’s
primitive conditions and strange beliefs dumbfound him, in particular,
the Futori family; outcasts who are punished by the gods for
a long-standing history of taboo practices, including incest.
Saturday,
November 17 at 7pm
Black
Rain
dir.
Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1989, 35mm, 123 mins, color, Japanese
w/ English subtitles
 On
August 6, 1945, a young girl travels on the back of a truck,
thinking of the silk wedding gown she’s picking up from her
grandmother. Perhaps she will wear it soon. At a tea ceremony
later that morning she sees a blinding flash and hurries outside
to witness the surreal sight of a mushroom cloud rising above
the island. She boards a boat for Hiroshima and on her way home
is covered with a curious form of black rain that fell on the
area of the blast. Five years later, although apparently healthy,
Yasuko is still unmarried. Suitors come and go, but everyone
finds out about the “black rain”.
|
