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<TITLE>RE: ai no corrida, other oshima</TITLE>
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i recently viewed <I>Ai No Corrida</I>. it is very artful, and isn't pornographic in that it certainly explores issues of obsession and sexuality.. however, i was forced to take a break as soon as the sex turned sado-masochistic. i found that Oshima probed so deeply into the depths of psychological obsession, he touched on facets of human sexuality for which i simply was not prepared to deal with. however, although it was erotic, i did not see how it was the "ultimate portrayal of sensuous passion" as proclaimed by the taglines... it seemed more the examination of the frighteningly human characteristic of compulsion...<BR>
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anyway, my question regards other Oshima films. i wonder if <I>Seishun Zankoku Monogatari</I> was banned at its release... although nowhere near as explicit as <I>Ai No Corrida</I> it contained scenes which would have warranted prohibition in the U.S. in 1960. Also, what kind of reception is <I>Gohatta</I> receiving in Japan? Homosexual love is definitely a touchy subject here in the U.S.<BR>
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cheers!<BR>
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-- <BR>
Martin Mudd<BR>
Williams College<BR>
Martin.D.Mudd@williams.edu<BR>
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> From: M Arnold <ma_iku@hotmail.com><BR>
> Reply-To: KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<BR>
> Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 02:43:10 +0000<BR>
> To: KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<BR>
> Subject: Ai no Corrida, etc.<BR>
> <BR>
> Hi everyone.<BR>
> <BR>
> Last weekend I went up to Tokyo and was able to see Shikijitsu and Ai no <BR>
> Corrida. Shikijitsu wasn't as bad as I had heard, but it wasn't great. <BR>
> Anno still seems to be working out the themes he's been wrestling with since <BR>
> Evangelion. There were times that I thought the newer film's <BR>
> pseudo-psychoanalysis bordered on the look of a teenage idol "image" video, <BR>
> though. (The same thing might be said of Love and Pop, but in this case I <BR>
> felt more removed from the girl's problems... probably because the <BR>
> 'director' was filming and narrating most of the time. What do other people <BR>
> think?) The cinematography was pretty good though, and overall I thought <BR>
> the movie was worth watching.<BR>
> <BR>
> Ai no Corrida needs no introduction, of course. It looked wonderful on a <BR>
> movie screen. As far as the censorship goes, there was really hardly any <BR>
> mosaic; just enough to cover 'it' up, which sometimes meant nothing more <BR>
> than one tiny beige dot wiggling back and forth between the characters' <BR>
> legs. In fact it's probably the least-censored "porno" I've seen in Japan, <BR>
> and there were a couple of split-second shots that I thought the censors may <BR>
> have missed. The climax (*snip*) wasn't censored at all, but I don't recall <BR>
> if that scene was edited in the previous Japanese version or not. Anyway, <BR>
> at this point there seems to be hardly any visual difference between <BR>
> censored and not censored. I wonder how long it will be before totally nude <BR>
> bodies become legal.<BR>
> <BR>
> Saturday was Cine Amuse's 5th year anniversary. All movies were only 500 <BR>
> yen! I didn't even have to use my gaijin waribiki. The seats were full and <BR>
> the audience for Corrida was fairly mixed; young men and women, some couples <BR>
> and a number of older men. The theater also had a special "ladies' only" <BR>
> section reserved for women who came without male accompaniment. This being <BR>
> a 'porno' movie in Japan, I'd be fibbing if I said I couldn't imagine a <BR>
> reason for that... but it still struck me as a little strange. Or is this <BR>
> something that Cine Amuse does for all of its films? (We've all heard the <BR>
> stories about trains, but are dark movie theaters dangerous as well?) Do <BR>
> other theaters do anything like this?<BR>
> <BR>
> I visited that wine bar I mentioned here again and spoke with the owner a <BR>
> little about the controversy surrounding Ai no Corrida in the 1970s. He <BR>
> said he never saw the film, but he remembered that people would travel to <BR>
> Europe as well as Guam to see the film unedited. I knew about the trips to <BR>
> Europe, but this was the first time I had heard that Oshima's film was also <BR>
> being shown in Guam at the time.<BR>
> <BR>
> Mike Arnold
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