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IMDbPro

Ecstasy of the Angels

Original title: Tenshi no kôkotsu
  • 1972
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
1.1K
YOUR RATING
Ecstasy of the Angels (1972)
ActionDramaMysteryRomance

A revolutionary faction steals some hand bombs. While escaping, several soldiers are killed. The movement's highest authority deems October unfit and sends the leader of another faction to t... Read allA revolutionary faction steals some hand bombs. While escaping, several soldiers are killed. The movement's highest authority deems October unfit and sends the leader of another faction to take the remaining bombs.A revolutionary faction steals some hand bombs. While escaping, several soldiers are killed. The movement's highest authority deems October unfit and sends the leader of another faction to take the remaining bombs.

  • Director
    • Kôji Wakamatsu
  • Writer
    • Masao Adachi
  • Stars
    • Ken Yoshizawa
    • Rie Yokoyama
    • Yuki Aresa
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    1.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Kôji Wakamatsu
    • Writer
      • Masao Adachi
    • Stars
      • Ken Yoshizawa
      • Rie Yokoyama
      • Yuki Aresa
    • 13User reviews
    • 17Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos18

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    Top cast26

    Edit
    Ken Yoshizawa
    • October
    Rie Yokoyama
    Rie Yokoyama
    • Friday
    Yuki Aresa
    • Autumn
    Tatsuhiko Honda
    • Monday
    Tomoo Oh'izumi
    • Tuesday
    Hiroyuki Saegusa
    • Wednesday
    Shôichi Oyamada
    • Thursday
    Kôzaburô Onogawa
    • Saturday
    Shinsuke Wajima
    • Sunday
    Kiyoshi Yoshida
    • Winter
    Susumu Iwabuchi
    • February
    Shin'ichi Matsushima
    • September
    Hidekatsu Shibata
    • November
    Masao Adachi
    • The February Army #1
    Tetsurô Nunokawa
    • The February Army #2
    Tsuguto Watanabe
    • The February Army #3
    Gorô Kobata
    • The February Army #4
    Gina Jinno
    • Girl
    • Director
      • Kôji Wakamatsu
    • Writer
      • Masao Adachi
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    6.21.1K
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    Featured reviews

    10MAdams15023

    Too Cool For Words!

    Do you like hot chicks? Do you like it when they take their clothes off? Do you like it when they speak a language you don't understand? I DO! This is my new favorite movie. It also has a PLOT. I give it a 4 out of 10!
    7christopher-underwood

    this, almost Godard like, movie so full of vitality......

    I found I liked this a little less than I did when first seen on video a few years ago. Perhaps it just shows what effect 9/11 and subsequent worldwide terrorist activities have had on our psyche. This remains a well put together, exciting and amusing tale of confused young fighters (for they know not what) on the streets of Tokyo late 60's. The pace and style of Wakamatsu's film making is infectious but the pain of events and concerns for safety have made it much more difficult to be sympathetic to lost youth taking it out on innocent people. It's a shame because this, almost Godard like, movie so full of vitality, could inspire many to take up the making of movies but instead one is now frightened that the vulnerable might be encouraged in their cowardliness to take out others for a bit of glory. A sad reflection of the times we find ourselves in. Good film though!
    5Jurguens

    A pseudo philosophical porn terrorist comedy

    A bunch of young Japanese terrorists named after weekdays follow the orders of a terrorist named after a month: October. They steal some boxes of bombs from a US Army warehouse (the sign in the movie actually says: weapon wearhouse). They are found by two US soldiers. There's a shooting. A bomb explodes in October's face. He is blinded but alive. That is the opening scene of the movie, after that the plot is quite thin for the rest the "story".

    The style of the movie is similar to Jean Luc Godard's early films but Koji Wakamatsu makes a film that has the actors reciting political slogans all throughout with random scenes of sex and violence. I am actually not sure if it was meant to be a serious film, but I actually found it quite funny and I enjoyed it as a Z grade pseudo philosophical porn terrorist comedy.

    Ecstasy of the Angels is definitely not a great film but it was interesting and funny.
    10rev-johndoe

    A work of true art

    This is an excellent film, flawed in the sense that certain aspects of the fictional revolutionary group appear quite caricatured at times but viewed in relation with director Koji Wakamatsu's newest film "United Red Army" it can be seen to draw a surprisingly accurate picture of the revolutionary nihilism of the Japanese student activists of the time. Other reviewers have compared the film to Godard's early work such as La Chinoise and admittedly the artistic style is quite similar though less refined, and far from being less politically aware than Godard, Wakamatsu was actually much more realistically cynical in his portrait of armed student activist cells whereas Godard's revolutionary themed films displayed a certain hopeful naiveté in the potential of a largely dogmatic and authoritarian movement which was strongly criticized by his contemporaries in the Situationist International. The writer of this film Masao Adachi was certainly not a pretentious intellectual out to exploit sex and revolutionary pop aesthetic as some critics have inferred here; a closer look at his personal history shows that shortly after writing the screenplay he actually moved to Lebanon to join the real life armed revolutionary group the Japanese Red Army where he remained a committed activist for 28 years up until his arrest in the year 2000. As such the film can be a unique and telling account of his own mentality and the personal motivations which led to joining the JRA, as well as his prior knowledge of the less-than-ideal dynamics of the lifestyle he would be choosing. One must keep in mind that at the time Wakamatsu was expected by producers to be making films in the 'pink' genre which would explain the gratuitous sex scenes that could be seen as offensive or pointless to some but the unique beauty of the film far outweigh it's occasional rough edges. Highly recommended, though not for casual viewers of film "for entertainment's sake" alone.
    1BA_Harrison

    Lesson learnt: read up on a film before watching it.

    As I write, no one on IMDb has provided a synopsis for Ecstasy of the Angels, and the few reviews here are rather bereft of plot details; could that be because no-one who has watched it has got a clue what was going on thanks to the stupefyingly dull direction, the coma-inducing performances, and the fact that it is virtually impossible to tell one character from another? I reckon so.

    Before I gave up trying to follow the story and began praying for the film to just finish and thereby end my misery (I'm obsessive about watching a film in its entirety, no matter how bad), here's what I garnered about the plot: The Four Seasons revolutionary group is split into factions that go by the names of— surprise surprise—the Four Seasons. Fall organises a raid on a US army base and makes off with some high explosives (stored in what looks like Bilbo Baggins' hobbit hole), but with members of her team killed and injured during the job, the way is left wide open for the other factions to help themselves to the spoils of her venture. Cue much arguing amongst angry freedom fighter types, and lots of strangely unemotional sex scenes between the uniformly hot female members of the group and the seemingly unappreciative blokes.

    If I had known what I was in for, I would have passed on this film, but for some reason I had got it into my mind that this was a sleazy Cat III effort from Hong Kong; not only did I get the country of origin wrong—this is a Japanese flick—but I also was also severely misguided when it came to the kind of film this was. Rather than a trashy piece of Asian filth, Ecstasy of the Angels is a pompous, pretentious, and extremely dull avant-garde art-house film that could only possibly appeal to the bearded chin-stroker contingent; whilst they might enjoy waxing lyrical about the intent of the piece, the film's political message or the pointless techniques employed by the director (B&W to colour to B&W to colour, ad nauseum), anyone else will simply be bored rigid. Hell, I was practically catatonic by the end of the film's opening scene in which several of the characters sit around a table in a night-club while a singer drones on endlessly in the background.

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    Related interests

    Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988)
    Action
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This film was released in a time of violent social turmoil for Japan. ATG, the film's distributor, got cold feet when a rash of Christmas tree bombing, similar to the one in the movie, started to plague the streets of Tokyo. The film was quickly withdrawn from distribution and briefly re-released in the art theater circuit.
    • Goofs
      While the revolutionaries enter the base, a sign reading "weapon wearhouse" instead of "weapon warehouse" is clearly visible for several seconds.
    • Connections
      Edited into Gli ultimi giorni dell'umanità (2022)
    • Soundtracks
      Koko wa Quiet Front Line
      Music by Michio Akiyama

      Lyrics by Masao Adachi

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    FAQ14

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 1997 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • Angelic Orgasm
    • Production companies
      • Art Theatre Guild (ATG)
      • Wakamatsu Production
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $585
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 29m(89 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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