Nagisa Ōshima

Taboo (1999)

Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozabu ...

100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1995)

The story of the first century of Japanese cinema from the point of view of the controversial Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Ōshima. ...

Kyoto, My Mother's Place (1991)

Story of Kyoto: its history, culture, as well as the role it has played in the director's life and the life of his mother. ...

Max My Love (1986)

The wife of a British diplomat in Paris takes a chimpanzee as her lover. ...

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Island of Java, 1942, during World War II. British Major Jack Celliers arrives at a Japanese prison camp, run by the strict Captain Yonoi. Colonel John Lawrence, who has a profound knowledge of Japanese culture, and Sergeant Hara, brutal and simpleton, wil ...

Empire of Passion (1978)

In a small Japanese village at the end of the 19th century, a rickshaw driver's wife takes on a much younger lover and the two conspire to murder him. ...

In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship. ...

A Life of Mao (1976)

Rahman: Father of Bengal (1973)

Documentary about the politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. ...

The Journey of the Blind Musicians (1972)

"Goze" drawn by painter Shinichi Saito. One of the few remaining blind women in the snowy Niigata region, a traveling entertainer who played the shamisen and sang, visited villages and left a record of living on the mercy of others. ...

Dear Summer Sister (1972)

14-year-old Sunaoko travels from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa, with her father's young fiancée Momoko in search of her half-brother whom she has never met. Their guide, a beer-guzzling ex-soldier, takes them to the locale's tourist attractions, quickly delving ...

The Giants (1972)

The program investigates the secrets behind the success of Japan's most famous baseball team, the Tokyo Yomiuri Kyojin-gun, affectionately known as the Giants. An interview with Kawakami, the coach at the time, retraces the glorious history of this team, w ...

The Ceremony (1971)

Oshima's magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades. ...

The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970)

When a man chases down his stolen movie camera, the thief commits suicide by jumping off a building. But after the police take the camera as evidence, it becomes unclear if there was ever a thief in the first place. ...

Boy (1969)

A family of four lives off of scams in which they pretend to be injured by automobiles. ...

Mao Tse-Tung and the Cultural Revolution (1969)

Nagisa Oshima's documentary details the rise of Chairman Mao during the revolution and shows the Communist Party's struggle and cultural upheaval. Made in 1969 for NTV station, this TV documentary also questions Mao's dictator tendency during the cultural ...

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969)

In Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the lives of a young man prone to theft, a young woman he meets at a bookstore, and a kabuki actor intersect. ...

When Twilight Draws Near (1969)

Bored by the emptiness of everyday life, four students gather to play dangerous games in an apartment. ...

Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968)

Three students spend their holidays at the seaside where they are mistaken for Koreans, a minority which is looked down on in Japan. The action develops into a crime story. ...

Death by Hanging (1968)

A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next. ...

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967)

A sex-obsessed woman, a suicidal man she meets on the street, and a gun-crazy wannabe gangster become trapped in an underground hideaway. ...

Sing a Song of Sex (1967)

Four sexually hungry high school students preparing for their university entrance exams meet up with an inebriated teacher singing bawdy drinking songs. This encounter sets them on a less than academic path. ...

Band of Ninja (1967)

The son of an assassinated feudal lord, in the Muromachi period, attempts to avenge his father's death and meets Kagemaru, a renegade ninja helping peasants and farmers rebel against Oda Nobunaga's regime, all depicted through an experimental form of filmi ...

Violence at Noon (1966)

Two young women must come to terms with the fact that a man they're deeply linked to is a murdering rapist. ...

Diary of Yunbogi (1965)

Constructed as an experimental montage of still photographs, "Diary of Yunbogi" reflects on poverty and historical responsibility through the imagined diary of a six-year-old Korean boy living in a South Korean slum. Drawing on photographs taken during Ōs ...

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965)

After committing murder, businessman Atsushi is blackmailed into keeping a suitcase of embezzled money. What follows is a descent into lustful, reckless actions and regret. ...

A Rebel's Fortress (1964)

A chronicle of the eight-year battle against the construction of the Matsubara dam at Ogunimachi Shimouke, Asogun, district of Kumamoto. Tomoyuki Murahara constructs the "beehive fortress," the point of reference for the protest movement opposing the decis ...

Watashi-wa beretto (1964)

A promotional film for the automobile manufacturer Isuzu Jidosha directed by Nagisa Ôshima - an anthology of three stories. ...

The Forgotten Imperial Army (1963)

This documentary examines the plight of Korean veterans who were conscripted into the Japanese imperial army during World War II and later left destitute in postwar Japan. Many, disabled by their service, are denied compensation because of their Korean nat ...

The Christian Revolt (1962)

In Tokugawa-era (1637) Shimabara, oppressed peasant Christians revolt against the shogunate with the aid of charismatic Christian rebel leader Shiro Amakusa. ...

The Catch (1961)

Towards the end of WWII, a black American pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions as to how to proceed with their 'catch'. ...

Night and Fog in Japan (1960)

Long takes and a highly theatrical visual approach combine to form a tense and confrontational look at the decline of a socialist student activists' movement in Japan. ...

The Sun's Burial (1960)

In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood. ...

Cruel Story of Youth (1960)

A harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitchhiking to rob middle-class men. ...

Street of Love and Hope (1959)

The lives of a teenager, his impoverished family, a wealthy young woman who buys a pigeon from him, and his caring teacher converge and consequently become more complicated. ...

Donto ikōze (1959)

Comedy about the trials and tribulations of youth. ...

Tomorrow's Sun (1959)

Shochiku's up-and-coming stars take the stage in a series of short skits parodying popular films of the time. ...

The Oshima Gang (2010)

What's a Director? (2006)

Works commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Japan mapping Supervision Association ...

Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions (2002)

Devotion investigates the extremely complex and heirarchical relationships among a committed group of Japanese filmmakers who dedicated up to 30 years of their lives making films for one man-Ogawa Shinsuke. Members of Ogawa Pro filmed the student movement ...

Scenes by the Sea: Takeshi Kitano (2000)

First major English-language documentary profile of the cult Japanese actor/director, Takeshi Kitano. Featuring interviews with many of his regular contributors and colleagues, the film explores Kitano's rise from working-class poverty to superstar of Japa ...

Level Five (1997)

Laura, a French programmer, inherits the task of creating a game about the World War II Battle of Okinawa. Her research and interviews with Japanese experts and witnesses prompt her to reflect on life, humanity, and the lasting influence of history and mem ...

100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1995)

The story of the first century of Japanese cinema from the point of view of the controversial Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Ōshima. ...

Akira Kurosawa: My Life in Cinema (1993)

Nagisa Oshima interviews Akira Kurosawa, leading him to share his thoughts about filmmaking, his life and works, and numerous anecdotes relating to his films and his various film activities. ...

Kyoto, My Mother's Place (1991)

Story of Kyoto: its history, culture, as well as the role it has played in the director's life and the life of his mother. ...

ΦIDEA (1988)

Documentary featuring Nagisa Ōshima and Masuaki Kiyota, a Uri Geller-esque psychic medium ...

The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima (1985)

A BBC television documentary on the life of Yukio Mishima that highlights the many known major aspects of his life and personality. ...

De droomproducenten (1984)

Documentary exploring why Belgian television doesn't invest more money in Belgian cinema as is the case in e.g. the netherlands. ...

The Oshima Gang (1983)

Documentary about the making of Nagisa Oshima's 1983 film MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE. ...

The Man Who Left His Soul on Film (1983)

Documentary about Nagisa Oshima. ...

A Visit to Ogawa Productions (1981)

A Visit to Ogawa Productions offers a rare insight into the social and cinematic philosophy of one of Japan's best-known documentary film collectives. As the film reveals, Ogawa Productions' in-depth portraits of Japanese society - whether of protest movem ...

Cinématon (1978)

Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 ...

Yakuza Graveyard (1976)

A police investigator cracks down on yakuza business, but once he realizes the police are in negotiations with certain factions, he sides with his own syndicate of choice. ...

A Life of Mao (1976)

Rahman: Father of Bengal (1973)

Documentary about the politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. ...

Death by Hanging (1968)

A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next. ...