Adachi Masao: Activist in cinema

by Julian Ross

Adachi Masao has directed a broad range of genres, from softcore porn (the pink movies) to experimental documentaries, and has contributed as a screenwriter, producer, film critic, and occasionally as organiser of film screenings. Adachi's abundant output came to a sudden stop in 1974, when he left for Lebanon to fight with the Palestinian resistance. He would stay there for more than 27 years.

Student filmmaker

Adachi was still a student when he joined the Nichidai Eiken (Nihon University New Film Club), a collective of student filmmakers with a leading role in the development of experimental Japanese film in the late 50s and early 60s. Expression and cooperation were two key values. Adachi participated in the production of at least two films: Bowl (1961) and Closed Vagina (1963). The latter was screened throughout the country, often accompanied by performances by artists and musicians. It was around that time that Adachi co-founded the VAN Film Science Research Centre, which was located in his shared apartment. VAN consisted of an improvised film laboratory, and a meeting space for filmmakers, artists and activists.

In the mid-1960s Adachi became a prolific screenwriter, after meeting cinematographer Wakamatsu Koji - the enfant terrible of the pink movie. This softcore porn was already at the centre of an overview programme at IFFR in 1995. The genre was popular outside of the official distribution channels in the 60s and 70s, which left more room for radical experiments. Adachi used different pseudonyms while collaborating with Wakamatsu, and their cooperation lasted until Wakamatsu's death in 2012. Their joint works are generally regarded as the most radical and political productions in the pink movie genre. Secrets Behind the Wall (1965) was called a 'national disgrace', and Ecstasy of the Angels (1972) ‘dangerous’, because it seemed to predict bombings in the heart of Tokyo.

Socially engaged porn

Despite the fact that Adachi and Wakamatsu worked from a male point of view, they also reached a female audience. Their films found recognition outside of the world of porn as well, and were screened in art cinemas like the Art Theatre Shinjuku Bunka and the underground cinema Theatre Scorpio, which opened with Adachi's first feature film, the surrealistic Galaxy (1967). Adachi also directed a number of pink movies for Wakamatsu Productions, including Sex Game (1968) and Female Student Guerrilla (1969), that stand out for their absurdist comedic elements, and commitment to the nationwide student protests in the 60s in Japan.

Adachi saw film criticism as another form of activism, and in 1970 - together with writer Matsuda Masao and others - he revitalised the influential film magazine Eiga Hihyo and joined the editorial team. In the magazine they discussed their 'landscape theory', about the ethics of filmmaking and the role of cinema in challenging capitalism. These theoretical exercises were mainly inspired by a group direction project, the experimental documentary AKA Serial Killer (1969). The filmmakers wanted to provide a counterweight to the sensationalist reporting on teenage serial killer Nagayama Norio, and produced a documentary in the slow cinema genre, in which they followed Norio's travels in Japan, and showed the audience the landscapes he might have seen. Adachi and Wakamatsu used a similar contemplative approach of moviemaking when producing the propagandist newsreel Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War (1972). They made the film while visiting Lebanon on their way back from the 1971 Cannes film festival. Two years later, Adachi would heed his own call to support the Palestinian resistance, and left for Lebanon as a member of the terrorist group Japanese Red Army. He only returned in 2000, after having been deported from the country.