Unknown to most audiences, MASUMURA Yasuzo’s role in the
development of post-war Japanese cinema cannot be
understated. A prolific director with 58 films, Masumura
catalysed the 1960s Japanese “New Wave” by directly
inspiring OSHIMA Nagisa and IMAMURA Shohei. Up till today
Masumura’s work remains provocative and fresh, finding
echoes in the work of contemporary shock directors like MIIKE Takashi and TSUKAMOTO Shinya (A SNAKE OF JUNE).

Masumura was the first Japanese to study at Italy’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti. After he returned to Japan in 1953. Masumura worked as assistant director to MIZOGUCHI Kenji and ICHIKAWA Kon. Beginning with KISSES (KUCHIZUKE) in 1957 - a neo-realist romance - Masumura would direct a diverse canon incorporating eroticism, horror, satire, capitalism and gender politics over the following three decades.

“My goal”, Masumura wrote in a 1958 essay, “is to create an exaggerated depiction featuring only the ideas and passions of living human beings.... In Japanese society, which is essentially regimented, freedom and the individual do not exist. The theme of the Japanese film is the emotions of the Japanese people, who have no choice but to live according to the norms of that society. The cinema has had no alternative but to continue to depict the attitudes and inner struggles of the people who are faced with and oppressed by complex social relationships and the defeat of human freedom...(But) after experiencing Europe for two years, I wanted to portray the type of beautifully vital, strong people I came to know there, even if, in Japan, this would be nothing more than an idea.”

For Masumura, in a highly regulated society that places collective good above everything else, sex becomes a vital expression of individual revolt. He made films where unorthodox desire becomes an irresistible force for rebellion against the strictures of conventional society. This year’s festival presents two such works:

In MANJI, a housewife trapped in a passionless marriage begins a torrid affair with a female art student. When she finds out the student has a male lover, she, the student, her husband and the male lover become embroiled in deceit, desire and spiralling obsession.

THE BLIND BEAST (MÔJU), based on an Edogawa Rampo short story, is a warped exploration into the psyche of a blind sculptor who kidnaps a model to convince her to help him create the perfect female form. The sculptor is convinced tactile sensation should be afforded the same priority as sight, and Masumura pursues this otherwise harmless, plausible thesis to a shocking end.

DIRECTOR-IN-FOCUS



MASUMURA YASUZO
(1924 August 25 - 1986 November 23)

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