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