Gishiki

Nagisa Oshima, Japanese cinema's enfant terrible, introduces us to a dangerously nuclear family of alleged war criminals, communists, sex offenders and radical right-wingers, plus a former baseball pitcher and a katana-wielding cop thrown in apparently just for the sheer hell of it. Together, they comprise a mutual aberration society that milks dry the psychic stress and anguish of weddings and funerals. Is their shock-horror behavior offer convincing criticism of postwar Japanese society? Oshima leans into exploitation to score his points, but the net result sometimes smacks of "Mondo Cane" shockumentaries.

Thankfully, there are built-in safety valves when incest, loathing and degradation turn from dark to jet black. That's when some characters break out in honest laughter over their extended family's antics. In any case, it's a fine and foreboding warmup for Oshima's legendary topper, "In the Realm of the Senses."