Gohatto

Sai’s only major acting role to date repays a favour to Oshima, who launched his career by making him assistant director on In the Realm of the Senses. He plays the leader of the Shinsen-gumi, a Kyoto samurai militia of the 1860s, notorious for having secretly overthrown its own founder and for its tolerance of homosexuality. Casting an ethnic Korean in this role is one of Oshima’s many provocations, as is casting the equally working-class-identified Kitano Takeshi as the militia’s second-in-command, but both directors acquit themselves with complete authority. The film’s plot turns on the arrival of a beautiful new recruit who knowingly stirs up sexual tensions and rivalries in the barracks, creating a kind of ‘trouble’ which cannot be ignored. Oshima ends his career as he began it, with an account of the ‘revolutionary’ power of sexuality and the perils of desire. The film is blessed with Sakamoto Ryuichi’s best-ever score.

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