Profound Desires of the Gods (Imamura, 1968): ICA Cinema, 2pm
This is part of the Shōhei Imamura season at the ICA. Full details here.ICA Cinema introduction:
Set on the fictional island of Kurage which, as an islander sings
throughout the film, is said to have been forged by discarded objects
thrown by incestuous brother and sister gods, Imamura’s final fiction
film for almost a decade builds upon many of the obsessions that
characterised his work throughout the 60s, namely the clash between the
primitive and the civilized.
At the heart of the film sits both the Futori family, outcast from the
rest of the islands inhabitants due a variety of indiscretions, ranging
from incest to infidelity, improper fishing practices to mental
instability, and Kariya, a Tokyo engineer sent to the island to oversee
the opening of a Sugar manufacturing facility.
From its lush tropical forests to its shining turquoise seas, all
captured in mesmerising technicolor, Kurage appears to be an island
paradise. However under its paradisiacal surface Kariya quickly
discovers that the island is not only teeming with the animals and
insects Imamura regularly trains his camera upon - but also with deep
rooted superstitions, privation, and duplicities. Despite his attempts
to complete his work, Kariya finds himself engulfed by the primal urges
of the Futori family, and as the months pass under the beating sun, he
slowly finds himself drawn into their way of life. Profound Desires of the Gods expands the obsessions that had
animated the first decade of Imamura’s work to his largest canvas yet
and in the island of Kurage (Okinawa in reality) he finds the means to
examine the entire strata of a society from its messy familial dramas to
its political machinations. However, the film is by no means an
exercise in intellectual study, whilst Imamura’s famous anthropological
outlook is ever-present, its blood, flesh, and feeling that sits at its
heart. A history of Japan made myth, Imamura traces the evolution of a
nation from the agrarian to the industrial, the primitive to the modern,
but all the while taking great pains to remind us that no matter how
things change our foundations are as desirous and ritualistic as ever.
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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