Oshima Nagisa
OSHIMA Nagisa (1932 -2013, Japan) is an influential master who was active in the student movement without supporting any particular political party. He joined the Shochiku Film Company in 1954 as an assistant director and writer. His directed his first film in 1959. After the New Wave movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s he broke away from Shochiku to form his own independent production company, Sozosha, in 1965. Industrialization and Westernization are his main themes. Many of Oshima's earlier films, such as Taiyo no hakaba/The Sun's Burial (1960), feature rebellious, underprivileged youths in anti-heroic roles. The film for which he is probably best known in the West, Ai no corrida/In the Realm of the Senses (1976), centers on an obsessive sexual relationship. Other well known films are Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Gohatto.
Filmography
Ai to kibo no machi/A Town of Love and Hope (1959), Seishun zankoku monogatari/Naked Youth (1960), Taiyo no hakaba/The Sun's Burial (1960), Nihon no yoru to kiri/Night and Fog in Japan (1960), Shiiku/The Catch (1961), Amakusa shiro tokisada/The Revolt (1962), Watashi wa Bellett/It's Me Here, Bellett (1964), Chiisana boken ryoko/A Small Child's First Adventure (1964), Yunbogi no nikki/Yunbogi's Diary (1965), Etsuraku/The Pleasures of the Flesh (1965), Hakachu no torima/Violence at High Noon (1966), Ninja bugei-cho/Band of Ninja (1967), Nihon shunka-ko/Sing a Song of Sex (1967), Muri shinju: Nihon no natsu/Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967), Koshikei/Death by Hanging (1968), Kaette kita yopparai/Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968), Shinjuku dorobo nikki/Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968), Shonen/Boy (1969), Tokyo senso sengo hiwa (1970), The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), Gishiki/The Ceremony (1971), Natsu no imoto/Dear Summer Sister (1972), Ai no corrida/Empire of the Senses (1976), Ai no borei/Empire of Passion (1978), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Max, mon amour (1986), Kyoto, My Mother's Place (1991), Gohatto/Tabou (1999)