This 35mm screening is part of the Japanese Avant-garde & Experimental Film Festival (full details here). The festival examines national identity, cultural memory and perceptions of history through a programme of repertory cinema and contemporary experimental short film. Fierce satires and poetic meditations on existence from the post-war period are interwoven with expressive and intimate reflections on ‘being’ in present-day Japan.
Barbican Cinema introduction:
Much of Imamura’s breakout film concerns itself with the activities of a gang operating in Yokosuka. With piercing, CinemaScope shots, Pigs and Battleships explores the real-world consequences of American control, and its continued military presence in Japan. Imamura’s gangsters are involved in every aspect of life in the impoverished town, allowing the director to wryly follow along; peering into doorways and down alleyways to give us a cinematic time capsule of 1960s Japan. Exploring high and low, Imamura’s film captures the very breath of the city.
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