Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (Kawashima, 1957): ICA Cinema, 8.30pm
This film is part of the Shōhei Imamura season at the ICA. Full details here.ICA introduction:
The ensemble comedy masterpiece directed by Imamura’s mentor Yūzō Kawashima, co-written with Imamura and Keichi Tanaka, takes place mostly within a high-class brothel in the Shinegawa district right before the end of the Shogunate. A critique of the Meiji Restoration period, the film exposes the encroachment of Westernisation in Japan, against rapidly dissipating ideas of honour and tradition, as sacred promises are ruptured, and deception offers the only turns to fortune. Imamura wrote about the making of the film: “When, during the writing of the screenplay, I asked him what the film was really about, Kawashima answered: ‘About the positive flight,’ but I didn't have the faintest idea what he meant by this. In any case, this film is essential for an understanding of Kawashima.” Although much has been written about Imamura’s working relationship with Ozu, experts including Audie Bock, Max Tessler and James Quandt have emphasised that Yūzō Kawashima’s off-beat, individualistic comedies have had a huge influence on Imamura’s style.
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment