Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima, 1956-1978

NAGISA OSHIMA edited and with an introduction by Annette Michelson translated by Dawn Latvson

An OCTOBER Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 by ANNETTE MICHELSON

Perspectives on the Japanese Film 6

I Creation and Destruction of the Japanese Cinema (1956-1963)

To Critics, Mainly—From Future Artists 21

Is It a Breakthrough? (The Modernists of Japanese Film) 26 A Review of "Sleeping Lion: Shochiku Ofuna" 36 Authorial Asthenia 42 Beyond Endless Self-Negation: The Attitude of the New Filmmakers 47 What Is a Shot? 49 The Laws of Self-Negation 52 In Protest against the Massacre of Night and Fog in Japan 54 First Interlude: In Korea and Vietnam (1963-1965) Korea as I Saw It 61 With Heavy Heart, I Speak of Korea 64 Are the Stars and Stripes a Guardian Deity? 68 vi Contents

The People of "The Forgotten Imperial Army" 71

Vietnam: Land of the Interminable Decisive Battle 74 Defending the Cruelty Depicted in "War Chronicle of a Marine Troop in Vietnam" 86

The Road to Freedom 92

II The Demon of Expression and the Logic of Organized Struggle (1965-1970)

The Concept of Demons and the Concept of a Movement 107 The Wounds of Those with Shame 114 To the Friends and Collaborators on A Study of Japanese Bawdy Songs 123 Today's Youth and A Study of Japanese Bawdy Songs 125 To the Friends and Collaborators on Japanese Summer: Double Suicide 128 On the Attitude of Film Theorists 133 The Error of Mere Theorization of Technique 144 Insensitivity Is a Crime 159 About Death by Hanging 166 Notes on Boy 170

Starting from Scratch 183 How to Die in the 1970s 187 Requiem 190 Second Interlude: Some Fragments of My Life (1969-1974) My Adolescence Began with Defeat 195 My Father's Nonexistence: A Determining Factor in My Existence 201 There Is No Youth without Adventure 203 Banishing Green 208 From My Diary 212 Contents vii

III Discover)' of a Contemporary Author

Mishima Yukio: The Road to Defeat of One Lacking in Political Sense 223

IV On Trial for Obscenity (1970-1978)

Between Custom and Crime: Sex as Mediator 233

Sexual Poverty 240 Sex, Cinema, and The Four-and-a-Half Mat Room 249 Theory of Experimental Pornographic Film 251 Text of Plea 265 Regarding the Proper Attitude when Seeing a Film 287

Filmography 289 Index 295