Adachi crafted a beautiful and affectionate piece on the troubled subjectivity of a subject who choose to escape, erasing his name from the societal field, to avoid capture.
Category: Political
Revolution +1 (2022) Review
Masao Adachi delivers an important political statement that, by offering an evocative sketch of Tetsuya Yamagami’s tragic trajectory, invites the Japanese spectator to question his own passivity towards the political Other.
Shinobi no Mono 2: Revenge (1963) review
Satsuo Yamamoto reveals the frailty and replaceability of the capitalistic father in an engaging way.
Kubi (2023) review [Japan Cuts 2024]
One of best period dramas in recent years.
Terrifying Girls’ High School: Delinquent Convulsion Group (1973) review
“A film that does not give the male spectator the chance to satisfy his gaze but shockingly confronts him with violence that is born from the corrupted phallic game and supported by intoxicating phallic fantasies.”
School In The Crosshairs (1981) review
A heart-warming sci-fi flick that dazzles the spectator with its expressive and colourful effects.
Ninja Girl (2021) review [22nd Nippon connection]
“A political satire that will not fail to please audiences, but lacks the thematical punch to make a statement that will long linger in the spectator’s mind.”
Yamabuki (2022) review [IFFR 2022]
“A beautiful socially-engaged narrative that explores the very fact that, by being grasped within the societal network of relations, one cannot but influence the other and become influenced by the other’s speech and acts.”
Short Movie Time: Go Seppukku Yourselves (2021) review [Japan Cuts 2021]
“An enthralling audiovisual experience and a powerful critique of the Japanese political system.”
Hit Me Anyone One More Time (2019) review [Nippon connection Online]
“A pleasant lighthearted narrative that expresses a (vain?) hope for a more thoughtful form of Japanese politics.”
Cruel story of Youth (1960) review
Oshima succeeds in dissecting in a very precise way how the Other, an Other marked by patriarchy and capitalism, is able to empty the youthful subject of his ideals and dreams as well as how the rebellious protest of certain youthful subjects is, in many cases, an affirmation of the very dynamic that underpins the functioning of the Other.
Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute (1971) review
“Not only does Adachi frame the societal Other as the cause of the lost state of youth and the youth’s suicidal response, but Adachi also formulates, in a truly confronting way, his hope for this lost youth to find desire in creating a different Other for tomorrow.”
Day of destruction (2020) review [Camera Japan Festival 2020]
“A truly pleasing audiovisual experience but also a powerful poetic exploration of the ills of Japanese society and the need to change it for the better.”
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