Security Treaty 1960

[Jonathan M Hall]

I think N&F is absolutely brilliant and in great need of reviewing/  
revisiting.   So why not push it!

But, if a prescreening results in a downturned thumb, then perhaps  
the other major political allegory by Oshima that year? Cruel Stories  
of Youth.
Each political pothole is represented through an almost  
hermeneutically-inspired diorama: three generations for three modes  
of postwar poltics (Father, Older Sister, + Makoto/Kiyoshi), three  
different modalities of anti-US street politics (Humanist Left Japan  
+ Zengakuren + Korea), the refusal of ideology in favor of the body  
as truth-- all these critiques of the Established Left.  And it's an  
absolutely fresh film to watch in terms of style.  I can still hear  
the hammering of high-growth economics--and feel Makoto's concrete- 
mixing twisting womb.

Jonathan M Hall
UC Irvine



On 16 Jun 2009, at 04:18, Mark Nornes wrote:

> A friend wants to show a film in connection to a symposium on the  
> political events of 1960. The obvious choice is Night and Fog in  
> Japan, but that film is pretty rough on today's audiences.
>
> What would _you_ show?
>
> Markus
>