We continue our discussion of Japanese films this month by returning to the world of Yoshishige Yoshida and his 1970 film Heroic Purgatory. It's the story of Nakano (Mariko Okada). She returns home with a lost teenager, Ayu (Kazumi Tsutsui). Meanwhile, a man posing as her dad tries to get her back, causing Nanako's husband, Shoda (Naizo Kamoda) to recall his youth as a revolutionary. Like his previous film, Eros plus Massacre, Heroic Purgatory moves with its own logic moving back and forth in time in order to tell its story.
Earl Jackson and Axel Kohagen join Mike to try and parse this dense tale of revolutionaries through the mid- to late-20th century.
Special Guest: Dick Stegewerns Guest Co-Hosts: Chris Stachiw, Samm Deighan
We’re kicking off 2020 with one in a whole series of films that were released in 1969.
Up first is a film that captures the essence of the Japanese New Wave, Yoshishige "Kiju" Yoshida's Eros + Massacre. The film sets up two parallel stories, one set in the late teens/early twenties of the 1900s and the other in the contemporary 1969. The early story concerns the anarchist Osugi Kasae (Toshiyuki Hosokawa) and the three women in his life, most pointedly Ito Noe (Mariko Okada). These true figures from history are contrasted with the fictional characters of 1969 which include Eiko, Megumi, and Wada.
Samm Deighan and an irate Chris Stachiw join Mike to smugly discuss the film. We're joined by special guest Professor Dick Stegewerns, author of Kiju Yoshida: 50 Years of Avant-Garde Filmmaking in Post-War Japan.
Guest Co-Hosts: Axel Kohagen, Earl Jackson
Special Guest: