The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 39 – Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties [Part 1]

David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to begin a two-part dissection of Nagisa Oshima's earliest independent films.

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to discuss Pleasures of the Flesh and Violence at Noon, the first two films in Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties.

About the films:

Often called the Godard of the East, Japanese director Nagisa Oshima was one of the most provocative film artists of the twentieth century, and his works challenged and shocked the cinematic world for decades. Following his rise to prominence at Shochiku, Oshima struck out to form his own production company, Sozo-sha, in the early sixties. That move ushered in the prolific period of his career that gave birth to the five films collected here. Unsurprisingly, this studio renegade was fascinated by stories of outsiders—serial killers, rabid hedonists, and stowaway misfits are just some of the social castoffs you’ll meet in these audacious, cerebral entries in the New Wave surge that made Japan a hub of truly daredevil moviemaking.

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Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Criterion Explore page
Wikipedia
Biography – Lenin Imports
Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima 1956-1978
“You Have to Tell the Truth about your Country, no Matter what it is” – The Japan Times by Roger Pulvers
Great Director profile – Senses of Cinema by Nelson Kim
“A Samurai Among Farmers” – Film Comment by Tony Rayns
Nagisa Oshima and the Struggle for a Radical Cinema – Harvard Cinema Archive
Capsule reviews of select Oshima films – Strictly Film School by acquarello
Obituary – The Guardian (January 2013)

Box Set Reviews

Criterion Cast review by Joshua Brunsting
Slant review by Fernando F. Croce
A.V. Club review by Scott Tobias
New York Times review by Dave Kehr
Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich
Film.com review by Jen Yamato
DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson
Twitch review by Rodney Perkins
seanax.com review by Sean Axmaker

Pleasures of the Flesh

David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
J-Film PowWow review by Eric Evans
dcpfilm review
Review by Dennis Grunes
PopOptic review by Brian Welk

Violence at Noon

David’s (and Aaron’s) Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
David’s Criterion Reflections review
Electric Sheep review by John Berra
Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwartz
Strictly Film School review by acquarello
Program Notes from Austin Film Society by Chale Nafus

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties [Part Two] 

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Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
Aaron West ( Twitter / Website )