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The Pornographers - Criterion Collection Director: Shohei Imamura Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Black & White, Widescreen Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 127 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-08-05 Buy from Amazon |
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From Description Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend's obsession. Imamura's comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time. |
 "A Film About Love"The Pornographers is an ironic title for a film about love. Sex drive is like the ever present gravity which more or less impacts on planets. However look at all the odd twists & turns in the characters' lives that would have been unlikely if they were only trying to get laid. Sometimes the hero's thoughts dart back to his lover's little girl as she was injured under a vehicle. His lover later winds up insane & exposes herself to passerby - a moving depiction of permanent loss, although some ding-dongs in the audience thought they were supposed to laugh.  "a tame film with a misleading title."This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. The film "The Pornographers" known in Japan as "Jinruigaku Nyumon" literally translates as "Anthropology Introduction" While the movie is about a group who makes pornographic films, the movie itself is very tame in terms of the explicitness of the conduct portrayed. It would most likely get a PG-13 rating today. However there is a theme of incest which I think should be R-rated material. The story is about a group of men who make pornographic films for a living and to support his landlady's family. He is also trying to avoid the police and the Yakuza (Japanese mafia.) When he falls in love with his step-daughter things get out of hand. The DVD only has a theatrical trailer as a special feature which is disappointing as I thing that they could have added information on events surrounding th controversey of this film.  "a very young work"This is a film that shows the potential of Shohei Imamura, but im afraid it does not fulfill it. The film trys to hard to be arty:the jump cuts and "creative" camera movement serve only to confuse and alienate the viewer. Imamura is a master film maker, and this isnt a horrible film, but if you want to see his best, get "the Eel" or "warm water under a red bridge"  "Pickled Pork"Subu believes himself to be a philanthropist. Through his painstaking work, Subu, Pickled Pork, aides the suffering of middle-aged me who well in the urban sprawls of Japan by offering them things that soothe their weary minds and bodies. Subu is not a spiritual leader or a doctor but a creator of pornography. 8mm film, audio recordings of lovers having sex, cut and paste photos of young starlet having sex with sumo wrestlers, stimulants from Hong Kong, erotic literature, etc. Subu has a hand in all levels of pornography. As a filmmaker, he hires prostitutes and men who work in such locations as bathhouses to star in his films. He even custom makes films for his climates such as one depicting a doctor raping a schoolgirl. The film was requested by a man who was unable to perform the act himself. As a go-between, Subu helps older, respectable gentlemen to meet women such as when he aides an old businessman who wants to have sex with a virgin because he is bitter that he was not the first man to sleep with his wife. Subu aides this man by hiring a woman who plays a "professional virgin," but who in fact has just birthed a child. Besides a few encounters with the yakuza who want a cut of his profits, Subu seems to be on top of his profession, however, Subu faces a few problems as well. Living with his common-law wife, Haru, and her two children: Koichi and Keiko, Subu struggles to keep order within the household. Although she adores Subu, Haru believes that her dead husband's soul resides within a carp that she keeps within a tank inside the family home. Consumed with guilt that she lives with another man, she promised her husband that she would remain unmarried; Haru believes that when the carp jumps in its tank it is displaying her husband's discontentedness with her decisions. Koichi continuously demands money from his mother and Subu and rarely shows thankfulness when he does receive the money. However, the fifteen-year-old Keiko is Subu's biggest thorn in his side. Although Keiko continuously ditches school, drinks large quantities of alcohol, and sleeps with a number of men, these are not the reasons why Subu has issues with the girl. His problem stems from the fact that he has sexual desire for the girl which he displays by smelling the girl's soiled underwear and groping her when she is almost unconscious from drink. With Haru suffering from a heart ailment, what will happen to this family if something was to happen to her? Like in a number of his earlier films, such as Pigs and Battleships (1961) and My Second Brother (1959), Imamura in The Pornographers does a wonderful job of depicting the lives of Japan's subsistence level citizens. While quite toned down in comparison to its source material, Nozaka Akiyuki's novel which details the film-making process and its hazards, such as when a woman gets an infection from paint chips after using a tengu mask as a dildo and the making of a Rape of Nanking fantasy film, The Pornographers has a few eyebrow raising moments such as the father/retarded daughter porn duo and the three filmmakers discussing what is wrong with a father having sex with his own daughter. An interesting film to add to your Japanese film collection, hopefully we will see the release of more of Imamura's early films in the near future.  "Quaint and Silly."There is a case for decrepit cinematic 'crud' being universal. This is it. Get Ozu's "Tokyo Story" instead (out on Criterion). That is a piece of timeless lyrical cinema. This film merely confirms that risque cinema quickly loses its potency (losing it in favour of a ephemeral revolutionary stance). A Waste. |
