Yasuzo Masumura - Passion to the extreme

An unrepentant provocateur and pioneer of the Japanese New Wave, Yasuzo Masumura directed [είναι κάτι λιγότερο από 60] more than 60 films from 1957 to 1982, comfortably covering the distance from youthful romance to pop satire, from period horror films to anti-war drama, from extravagant melodrama to surreal eroticism and from exploitation to merciless social commentary. Although he insisted on working inside the studio system, he managed to preserve intact his eccentric artistic identity, where West and East, sex and death, b-movies and auteur cinema intersect with a bang. Instead of giving in to compromise, he saw his foray into popular film genres as an opportunity to explore the wildest and darkest facets of human nature. The conflict between individual freedom and social compromise feverishly traverses his work, inextricably linked to a perpetual and at times risky exploration of human sexuality. The roles and the battle of the sexes, erotic passion as an extreme form of expression and a series of uniquely assertive (for Japanese cinema) female characters transform his films into battlefields, from which no one escapes unscathed. Despite the frequently nihilistic atmosphere, however, his heroes are not crushed by social norms but from their uncontrollable desire to overcome them. They do not yield; they rebel, violently claiming their right to freedom and pleasure, even if this leads to their selfdestruction.

Thanasis Patsavos

The House of Wooden Blocks

On his return from school, young Ichiro finds his father in bed with his adopted sister, Namie. Enraged, he decides to outdo his father in terms of immoral behaviour. And this is only the beginning ...

Kisses

Boy meets girl in the anything but romantic environment of a prison, where they are visiting their fathers. Kinichi and Akiko, reaching the watershed between the teenage and adult years, are ...

Giants and Toys

The three leading caramel companies of the marketplace are preparing their new campaigns and the marketing executives are sharpening their knives. In the middle of the hectic competition, a young ...

All Mixed Up

An irresistibly beautiful model lures a bored housewife into a lesbian romance. Soon enough, the former's impotent lover and the latter's meek husband are also involved in a diabolical ...

Red Angel

During the Sino-Japanese war, nurse Nishi is placed in a mobile surgical unit and grows fully dedicated to her duty. Prepared to endure anything, she even forgives the dehumanized soldiers who ...

Blind Beast

Using the pulp novel by Edogawa Rampo, also known as the Japanese Poe, as his point of departure and infusing it with elements from John Fowles' “The Collector” and Georges ...

Tattoo

Masumura's muse, Ayako Wakao, portrays yet again the ultimate femme fatale in Otsuya, a woman in love with a socially inferior man. As her parents would never agree to such a marriage, the ...

A Wife Confesses

During a mountaineering excursion, young Ayako is faced with a grueling dilemma: in order to prevent an accident that threatens to send everyone to the grave, she will have to choose between ...