The Pornographers

Saw this film in a wonderful class on Japanese new wave cinema (thanks, Jyotsna). Along with Imamura's "Ballad of Narayama," some of the finest Japanese work I've seen. This film is brilliant in its portrayal of modern voyeurism and its psychological implications. Beyond that though, it stands out as a film preparing us for things to come in the cinema of the 90's. It took pt Anderson's "magnolia" to finally bring full circle some of the innovative qualities of this truly amazing film. Note the merging of the wonderful score and the main character's consciousness at the end of the film. Shocking, sad, and beautiful.

In The Pornographers, 1966, Shôhei Imamura manages to juggle intelligently with universal taboos (pornography, prostitution, incest, fetishism, orgies) challenging the viewer to think than just to consume the visual product by using minimum of nudity; the provocative situations are discretely suggested and not viscerally exposed, and it works because it is impossible to accuse of cheapness or exploitation such an interesting smart cinematographic approach on the subject of sex in a Japanese society full of contrasts, caught in-between the conservative ways of the past and the effervescence of the corrupt morals of the modern era; sex and money are the spinning wheels of the human convoy routing and sinking it into moral and physical decay; the film abounds in visual oddities, bizarre shooting angles providing its aesthetic a brisk geometry, intriguing spontaneous flashbacks, inspired touches of black comedy, and finds an equilibrate formula to wisely highlight subjects considered dirty and shameful in a very clean, frank, witty and somehow cheerful manner

Imamura is younger, and less well known, than those Japanese directors who came to international attention in the 1950's. He was for a while a trainee of Ozu's, though there are few stylistic indicators of that in "The Pornographer". This is quite clearly a new-wave film with hints of Godard and Fellini. Freeze frames, fantasy and a habit of framing scenes through windows means that this looks unlike the earlier classic Japanese films. Subu the eponymous pornographer initially believes that he is a public servant, providing for the less salubrious needs of his customers - photos, films and potions. He has a bizarre home life with a widowed hairdresser and her two children. Both the making of pornography and his odd home life provide some moments of rich black comedy. Other elements, such as the interaction with local gangsters, appear less central to the film and don't always fit in easily. This is not the sort of film where acting is of great importance, here it varies from good to acceptable. The main fault of the film is the length. 127 minutes is not necessarily long, it's just that it feels too long here by about 30 minutes (around midway there are some tedious patches). To sum up an interesting film by a director still little known, if it does not reach the heights of Kurosawa, Ozu, Kobayashi or Ichikawa at their peaks, the truth is that no post 1960's Japanese film has. It is certainly better than the three films by Oshima (the only other Japanese new-wave director with any international reputation - possibly more for the "pornograhic" nature of his films than any real quality) I have seen.

There is so much filth, moral corruption and decay in this movie that one will need a bath after he/she watched it. And i don't even mean what the leading character is doing for living (pimping young girls and shooting porn movies, among other things), this is is just a small part of movie's depravity. I didn't expect something like that from a 1966 movie.

Of course there are many great movies dealing with such things. THE PORNOGRAPHERS is a good (not great) movie which could have been much better if it was shorter : It drags in the middle, i would cut 10 minutes at least. Still, this is a film which most cinephiles will appreciate, at least. It's dealing with filth, that doesn't mean it adopts it. The leading character seems a well-intentioned person at first. He takes care of his partner and her two kids, he is a good stepfather, he provides for his family. As the movie unfolds though, he does things worse and worse, sinking into lust, greed and depravity, while facing a lot of problems. For some of the, he's not to blame.

This is the second movie of Shohei Imamura that i have watched, after THE EEL. THE PORNOGRAPHERS is much better. A bleak drama which is also a black comedy. It's tough to watch and unbearably cynical at times, but also poetic, dream-like and profound. There are many brilliant scenes but overall it's uneven, it could have been great being shorter, better edited and less messy. Yet, it is a very interesting movie, surely ahead of its time, well acted and directed and thankfully, far less graphic than it sounds.