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