Celebrity Biographies
Nagisa Oshima
The always controversial and controversial Nagisa Oshima, one of the most successful Japanese filmmakers in the world, died at the age of 80, on January 15, 2013, in a hospital in southern Tokyo, from a lung infection. Although he is mostly known for his provocative and erotic films, he is also the author of “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”, and his films are more interesting than it seems.
Born on March 31, 1932, in Kyoto, at the time when Nagisa Oshima was studying law at the University of his hometown, he became a student leader. A convinced militant of the left, he organized demonstrations, especially against the Security Pact, which his country signed with the United States.
Right after graduating, Nagisa Oshima started working as an assistant director at the Shochiku Ofuna studios. Two years later she had become editor-in-chief of Eiga Hihyo, a popular film magazine.
He directed his first feature film, Ai to kibo no machi , in 1959, followed by Cruel Tales of Youth and the controversial Night and Fog in Japan , which, based on the wedding of two young activists, shows a country divided by political ideology. Considered one of the peaks of the New Wave of Japanese cinema, the truth is that it caused such controversy that it was withdrawn from theaters three days after its premiere. In addition, Oshima had a heated confrontation with studio executives, for which he eventually resigned from his job.
After founding Sozosha, his own production company, he shoots one of his most interesting titles, La dam (1961) , an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Kenzaburo Oé . He was following in the footsteps of an African American who pilots a plane that crashes near a village during World War II. The locals treat him as if he were an animal.
He denounced the repression of minorities in his country with Amakusa shiro tokisada , one of his most well-rounded works, about the revolt of the Japanese Christians in the Shimabara region, in the 17th century, due to the imposition of a tax, after the who were strongly retaliated against, and massacred. The medium -length film Yunbogi no nikki denounces the difficulties of Koreans living in the land of the rising sun. It also had a Korean protagonist The Execution , about a student of such origin, sentenced to death for murdering two young Japanese women.
After The Ceremony (1971) , with autobiographical elements, it achieved wide international diffusion, especially in Europe, with El imperio de los sentidos , due to its high erotic content, as it starred a couple who let themselves be carried away by their impulse sexual to unimaginable and destructive extremes. The empire of passion is also located in the same risqué line.
Far more interesting is Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , centered around a British soldier ( David Bowie ) sent to a strict Japanese army prison camp in Java. Focused on culture shock, the film has an outstanding soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto , and great work by Takeshi Kitano (the protagonist, David Bowie , is not quite convincing).
Recognized in Europe as a master of morbidity and eroticism, he directs Max, my love , with Charlotte Rampling (the Spanish Victoria Abril was also in the cast). This is a far-fetched, clearly provocative comedy about a woman’s zoophilic relationship with a chimpanzee. The public did not respond, and Oshima was almost retired in the late 1990s, only busy with the occasional documentary and TV movie. His latest work, Gohatto , from 1999, also raised eyebrows, especially in his country, since it tells a story of samurai, including homosexuals.
Married to actress Akiko Koyama , who survives him, Oshima cast her as a supporting role in several of his films.