[New post] KOJI WAKAMATSU- THE ONE WHO TOOK THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED BY
The Japanese Society SSC posted: " TW: Mentions of rape, murder, stalking, and home invasions Written by Tina Antil Japan's erotic cinema rebel? Japan's leading director who was banned from the USA and Russia? A member of the Japanese Yakuza (Mafia) who became a famous director? Jap"
TW: Mentions of rape, murder, stalking, and home invasions
Written by Tina Antil
Japan's erotic cinema rebel? Japan's leading director who was banned from the USA and Russia? A member of the Japanese Yakuza (Mafia) who became a famous director? Japan's most important director to emerge in the pink film genre? Yes, we are talking about Koji Wakamatsu.
Koji Wakamatsu (1936-2012) born in Wakuya, Miyagi, Japan emerged as one of the most important directors in Pink Eiga or soft-core pornography. Just like his movie genre preference, his entry into the cinema world was also very unconventional. After being expelled from high school, he came to Tokyo with no job and money. In order to make the ends meet he decided to work for a Japanese yakuza. However, fate had different plans for him. In the post-war period, filmmakers had to pay the powerful yakuza gangs for permission to shoot on their turf.
Wakamatsu's role was to bring the lunch boxes, which were provided by the gangs as a way of receiving payment for their 'services' to the sets. His new line of work resulted in a stretch in prison, where his brutal treatment at the hands of the guards helped shape the anti-authoritarian attitude that stayed with him until his death. He said, "When I got out, I really wanted to get back against the authorities, but I thought if I used violence, I'd end up in prison again. So I decided to use another weapon: films. If you use violence in your films, it's only in the world of imagination, so at least you can't get charged with anything criminal."
When I got out, I really wanted to get back against the authorities, but I thought if I used violence, I'd end up in prison again. So I decided to use another weapon: films. If you use violence in your films, it's only in the world of imagination, so at least you can't get charged with anything criminal.
- Koji Wakamatsu in an interview
Utilising the connections he had made on the sets he had previously been in the business of extorting, he got his start in the industry, eschewing film school, which he dismissed as, "all about making money."
Wakamatsu is one of the most important directors in the pink eiga genre however he believed that his films weren't really Pink eiga, though they bear many of the hallmarks. These films gave directors a lot of creative freedom once the required quota of sex scenes were met, allowing filmmakers to hone their craft through the genre. Wakamatsu used his work to deliver his anti-establishment messages and test the boundaries of censorship. Eventually, a dispute with producer-distributor Nikkatsu over the release of one of his films led to him forming his own company, Wakamatsu Productions.
Wakamatsu's independent films of the late 1960s were very low-budget, but often artistically done works, and usually concerned with sex and extreme violence mixed with political messages. Some critics have suggested that these films were an intentional provocation to the government, in order to generate free publicity resulting from censorship controversies. His films were usually produced for less than 1,000,000 yen (about $5,000), necessitating extreme cost-cutting measures including location shooting, single-takes, and natural lighting. His early films were usually in black and white with occasional bursts of colour for theatrical effect.
Based on popularity some of his most famous movies are-
10. Violated Angels (1967)
Violated Angels (1967)
A young man breaks into a nurses' rooming house and one-by-one kills off the nurses therein. In the tradition of Wakamatsu's other pink eiga, there is much sexuality and nudity. However, most of the actual murders take place off screen. Based on the crimes committed by Richard Speck, who murdered eight nurses in Chicago just a year before the film's release; Wakamatsu portrays sexual and violent content to represent the fear and frustration of the times and critique authority in compelling ways. Repressed society pushed to breakdown, desire sublimated into nihilistic urge, tenderness perverted.
9. A pool without water (1982)
The man has a monotonous job punching tickets for the Japanese railway. One night, while walking home, he saves Jun from getting raped by two hoodlums. A few days later, he sneaks into her house but gets discovered. Later, as he watches his son subdue an insect with a chemical, the man gets an idea to subdue women while they're sleeping so he won't be discovered sneaking into their home. His new hobby spirals out of control as his confidence grows.
8. Dark Story of a Japanese Rapist (1969)
Study about a young disturbed man, who rapes and kills women and collects their bodies in a cave. A work based on the case of Yoshiro Kodaira, a serial rape murder case shortly after the World War II.
7. Vagabond of Sex (1967)
Vagabond of Sex (1967)
In Wakamatsu's film, a man leaves his family in Tokyo to travel and engage in various sexual escapades. When he returns home he finds out that his wife is starring in Imamura's documentary about her search for her missing husband. The movie is a parody of Imamura's A Man Vanishes (1967)
6. Sacred Mother Kannon (1977)
Sacred Mother Kannon (1977)
Sacred Mother Kannon tells the story of a nun who believes herself to be the reincarnation of the legendary Happyaku Bikuni. Happyaku Bikuni supposedly became immortal as the result of eating mermaid's flesh, and lived for eight hundred years before finally disappearing into a cave in Wakasa. One of his most critically esteemed films is Sacred Mother Kannon, which has been called a 'textbook example' for the use of metaphor and symbolism in contemporary cinema.
5. The embryos hunt in secret (1966)
The embryos hunt in secret (1966)
Set in an apartment, a woman is held against her will and abused by her boss. He tied her up in a small apartment and tortures her. She is undressed, whipped and tortured with a razor blade. He also brushes her hair, applies make-up on her, and breaks down and cries in the foetal position. But surprisingly, the film suggests that she is the one controlling her disturbed and obsessed captor. In the end the girl gets free and has her revenge.
4. Caterpillar (2010)
This anti-war epic, which competed for the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2010, is the story of a soldier who returns from theWorld War II with all his limbs amputated. In the first scene, Lt. Kurokawa scourges, rapes and disembowels Chinese people during war. Later, he returns home as a war hero, but with a horribly mutated body. He is alive but reduced to a torso, deaf and mute, with burns covering half his face, but three medals on his chest. Despite his condition, he is still constantly eager for sex. The sexual acts are rough and are imposed on his wife, who is repulsed by him. Despite welcoming the prominence that comes with being the loving caretaker of the village war hero, Sigeko quietly begins to take her revenge for his past transgressions. The film concludes with the disabled veteran committing suicide by dragging himself into a pond.
3. Go, go, Second time virgin (1969)
Go, go, Second time virgin (1969)
After being raped on an unknown rooftop, nineteen year-old girl Poppo meets a mysterious boy, and both share their sexual traumas and fears, with fatal consequences. This dark story of rape and revenge is often cited as a classic example of Wakamatsu's many exploitation adult flicks.
2. The Millennial rapture (2012)
The story centres around Japan's bunraku caste – of which the author of the original stories was a member – who did what were considered "unclean jobs" in centuries gone by, and whose descendants still face occasional prejudice in Japan today. "Based on Kenji Nakagami's novel [English Title: A Thousand Years of Happiness], the film was shown at the Venice Film Festival this year. It's the story of an old person who has faced discrimination throughout an entire lifetime.
1. United Red Army (2008)
United Red Army (2008)
The film is a documentary-style look at the self-destruction within a group of the revolutionary Japanese Red Army. Japanese student protests soon lead to the formation of a new, left-wing group, the United Red Army. Led by Hiroko Nagat and Tsuneo Mori, the band of young adults head to the mountains for paramilitary training. Despite the group's opposition to Japan's military strategies , the leaders mimic the practice of killing members for minor infractions like kissing. The group's brief rise to power culminates in the Asama-Sanso incident, in which many members were assassinated.
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