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Having been an assistant director to Masahiro Shinoda and Kiriro Urayama for several years, Kohei Oguri would join the ranks of these acclaimed filmmakers with works such as “Sting of Death” and “Muddy River”. The latter especially is noteworthy for several reasons, not only because it was the Japanese Oscar entry of 1981 but also since it won the Silver Prize at Moscow International Film Festival in the same year. Leaving aside the awards it achieved, “Muddy River” is a fascinating and quite captivating debut, which thematically and aesthetically feels like a feature that could have been made in the 1960s. Based on a novel by writer Teru Miyamoto, it is on the surface a story about friendship and family, but if you take a deeper look, it is at the same time an insightful depiction of Japan after the war, the poverty of many people and the perspectives of the younger generation.

Two years after the release of “In the Realm of the Senses”, arguably his most notorious work given the scandal it caused in many countries, Nagisa Oshima made “Empire of Passion”, which was advertised as a spiritual successor to his last work. Based on a novel by Itoko Nakamura “Empire of Passion” shares the idea of a fatal affair, emphasizing the link between devotion, passion and violence, but in the end is quite a different movie, especially due to its horror elements, which caused many to regard it as one of the inspirations for Hideo Nakata’s “Ringu”. You might even go one step further by not just calling it a different, but in many ways also a much more refined and better feature than its predecessor, telling the story of a small community whose deeply-rooted blend of superstition and predilection for gossip make it a very bitter portrayal of Japanese society and politics.

Blu-ray Review

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Directed by: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda

Cast: Jason Robards, Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Takahiro Tamura

Running Time: 2 hr 25 min

Rating: G

Due Out: December 6, 2011

Plot: The story of the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor is told from the point of view of both sides of the conflict.

Who’S It For? War buffs, your Dad, but also any American who wants to know a little more about their country’s history.

Movie:

Though not a financial success at the time of its release, Tora! Tora! Tora! has aged well thanks to the accuracy of the filmmakers. Unlike Pearl Harbor, the filmmakers focus on the actual story of the attack and the events that led up to it, rather than trying to force in a love story or anything else that may detract from what happened. Also, to tell the story from both sides,...

A soldier embarks on an affair with an older married woman.

After the controversial In The Realm Of The Senses, acclaimed director Nagisa Ôshima returned to theatres with this less explicit follow up - a dramatic ghost story.

The year is 1895, in a remote mountain village in Japan, a young soldier Toyiji (Tatsuya Fuji) has an affair with the fortysomething wife of the litter carrier Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki). Toyiji becomes jealous of her husband Gisaburo (Takahiro Tamura) and plots with Seki to kill him. They...

Today sees the hi-def release of two of the most controversial and sexually explicit films of the 1970s, both of which came courtesy of Japanese New Wave auteur Nagisa Oshima – later the director of the more widely seen David Bowie-starring WWII movie Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (incidentally itself coming to Blu-ray next week… we are giving copies away Here).

In two tastefully presented “double play” Blu-ray/DVD sets from StudioCanal come 1976′s In the Realm of the Senses and 1978′s more restrained thematic follow-up Empire of Passion. Both films share the same leading man, Tatsuya Fuji, but whilst the former was either banned or heavily censored upon released due to its many graphic scenes of “unsimulated sex”, the latter (less explicit) work earned Oshima a well deserved Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the Realm of the Senses

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Oshima’s most critically significant text,...

To mark the release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983), In the Realm of the Senses (1976) and Empire of Passion (1978) all from Writer / Director Nagisa Oshima and all of which are all making their way to Blu-ray on 17th October, Studio Canal have given us 5 copies of each movie to give away!

Scroll down for more info on each:

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)

Written by Nagisa Ôshima Starring: David Bowie, Tom Conti and Ryûichi Sakamoto Available in Double Play disc set

In 1942 British soldier Jack Celliers (David Bowie) comes to a Japanese prison camp. The camp is run by Yonoi (Ryûichi Sakamoto), who has a firm belief in discipline, honour and glory. In Yonoi’s view, the allied prisoners are all cowards after choosing to surrender in the war instead of committing suicide. When one of the prisoners, interpreter John Lawrence (Tom Conti), tries to explain the Japanese way of thinking,...