Dumbheads Must Die !

Jitsuko YoshimuraKaneto Shindô's 1964 release ONIBABA.

For someone like myself, it's always a treat to see the early work of talented directors, PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS is one such case. It's a times lewd, bawdy, silly, smart, political, satirical, with unequal mixtures of greed, lust, love and lots of pigs.

Like the early movies of Ozu which are just beginning to appear in English translation, at least in Hong Kong versions, I hope that more Imamura's movies begin to find a resurgence of interest with dvd distributors and cinematheques. In addition I'd like to see early films become available of Oshima, Kinoshita, Inagaki, and others. A unique problem with Japanese films before World War II is that many existing negatives and prints were destroyed during the war. Toward the end of the war, incendiary bombings of Tokyo burned down much of the capital and its suburbs. Home construction in Japan was still largely wooden at the time of the war (in addition to paper interior walls and grass mats), and the fire bombing raids devastated those cities involved. One such raid, called Operation Meetinghouse killed 100,000 people in one single night. In total 67 of Japan's largest cities lost 500,000 people to these raids and left 5 million homeless. It was during these raids that many of Japans film archives were lost forever, including large lists of the country's most endeared and popular titles. Protocol II of the U.N. Convention on conventional weapons and Protocol I of the Geneva Convention prohibit the use of these weapons on civilian targets, however they were still used by the U.S. military up until Vietnam and even Operation Iraqi Freedom (the second Gulf War).

During the post war years the Japanese film studios continued to produce movies, however most were under American Occupation censor approval before releases were allowed. It was only in the later 1950's that some Japanese productions began to investigate the intense cultural changes which had taken place in their country. We see masters such as Mizoguchi and Naruse, even Kurosawa looking into social and political inquiries. Some of their early assistants became the enfant terribles of the 1960's, one of whom was Imamura. Intense disapproval of American occupation and military bases began to surface during this time in the universities and intellectual writings of Japan. In retrospect it proved a very intense period of foment, and PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS is embossed with many inquisitive themes. Imamura creates almost chaotic films at times, what Mikhail Bakhtin refers to as "Carnivalesque." In epochs of censorship, humor and satire often become vehicles through which artists disguise far more profound subject matter than first meets the eye--a time honored tradition still used in oppressed communities today. Which isn't to say Imamura is trying to constantly slip coded notes to his viewers, his humor is broad, brash and cheeky. I've never seen any of his movies, even the Cannes Festival Award winning dramas of the 1990's that were completely devoid of humor--athough the censorship issues have long since become Nationalistic or economic rather than being birthed by Occupational forces.

So, If you get a chance rent it. It might lack the finesse of his movies in later years, but there's no denying he has something to say and does so in a most entertaining and raw manner. I came across some photos to corroborate the information on Tokyo in WWII.