Funeral Parade of Roses.

Funeral
Parade
of Roses.
A
a film by
Toshio
Matsumoto
of avant-garde aesthetics and grindhouse shocks (not
mention a direct influence on Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange),
Funeral Parade of Roses takes us on an electrifying joumey into the nether­
regions of the 1ate-'60s Tokyo underwor1d. In Matsumoto's controversial debut
feature, seemingly nothing is taboo: neither the incorporation of visual flourishes
straight from the worids of contemporary graphic design, painting,
ic-books ,
and animation; nor the unflinching depiction of nudity, sex, drug-use, and public­
toilets. But of all the "transgressions" here on display, perhaps one in particular
stands out the most: the film's groundbreaking and unapoiogetic portrayal of
feverish collision
to
com
Japanese gay subcu ure.
Cross-dressing dub-kid Eddie (played by real-life transvestite entertainer
extraordinaire Peter, famed for his role as Kyoami the Fool in Akira Kurosawa's
Ran) vies with a rival drag-queen (Osamu Ogasawara) for the favours of drug­
dealing cabaret-manager Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya, himself a Kurosawa player
Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and High and
Low). Passions escalate and blood begins to flow - before all tensions are
released in a jolting dimax.
who appeared in such films as
With
its mixture of purely narrative sequences and documentary footage,
Funeral
Parade of Roses comes to us from a moment when cinema set itself to test
- and even eradicate - the boundaries between tiction and reality, desire and
experience. Matsumoto achieves a zig-zag modulation between pathos and
hilarity that makes his picture utterly unique: a filmic how1 in the face of social,
moral, and artistic convention. T he Naslen olllllema Series is proud to present
Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses for the first time outside
of Japan
on any home video format.
SPECIAL
•
FEATURES
New director-approved transfer from the director's personal print
•
Full length audio commentary by the director Toshio Matsumoto
•
VIdeo interview with director Toshio Matsumoto (23 minutes)
•
Promotional material gallery and original Japanese trailer
•
4O-pege book with new essays by Jim O'Rourke
& Roland Domenig
FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES. Directed by Toshio MATSUMOTO
1969 • Japan. 105 minutes. 1.33: 1 original aspect ratio. DVD9 • R2
Original iapanese soundlrack wilh oplional English sublitles on Ihe fealure and all extras
WARNING Contams strobe lighting effects
1111 1 1 1111 1 11111111111111111
5 060000
402261
I eneed from ToIIo International Co., ltd. C 1969 Matlwmolo"'lduII
U.K. and Ireland on . For private home use on . Anyc her use ilnc:ludin. COII!iIICt
Offieial
www.eurekavjdeo.co.uklmoc
III I DOLlY I
DIGITAL
mID
Suitable only for persons
over the age of eighteen.
WARNING: Contains
strobe lighting effects.
Guild ot Japan Co., ltd. ThIS DVD and paeka!In! C 1006 Eurella. For Slie in till
performance in public, in whole or In part, IS expresslyprohlblled byapplk:lblllaws.
. -
." ' .
£KA482Z6
·e·
.
I,
.
"
,
1'_1
TO.
"allen 01 Onema ,,,..
#34
Funeral
Parade
of Roses.
© 1969 Toshio Matsumoto
ATG / Toho Co. Ltd., Japan
OVOCREOITS
MoC ProducerlDesignor
Nick Wrigley
Booklet Production
Andrew Utterson
Authoring
theGarden @ IBF. London
Hilary Ashby
Andrew Hyde
Chaz Morgan
Anita O'Donnell
Bradley Richards
Commentary & Interview
SPO Inc., Japan
All writing © the respective authors.
www.eurekavideo.co.uklmoc
www.mastersofcinema.org
For sale in U.K. and Ireland only. This product is licensed for
private home use only. Any other use including copying. re­
production or performance in public, in whole or in part, is
expressly prohibited by applicable laws.
This DVD edition © Eureka 2006. Package design © Eureka 2006.
for MoC
Jan Bielawski
Doug Cummings
Craig Keller
Trond S. Trondsen
Special Thanks
Ron Benson
Nick Des Barres Roland Domenig Jonathan M. Hall Yukio Kotaki/Toho Toshio Matsumoto Jim O'Rourke Tony Rayns Aki TakabatakelSPO Inc.
Charlie Trax
F I LM
CREDITS
Funeral
Parade
of Roses.
Bara no s6retsu
DIRECTOR
MATSUMOTO Toshio
SCREENPLAY
MATSUMOT O Toshio
PRODUCER
CINEMATOGRAPHY
MUSIC
EDITING
STARRING
YEAR OF RELEASE
KUDO Mitsuru
SUZUKI Tatsuo
YUASA Joj i
IWASA Toshie
Peter, OGASAWARA Osamu, TSUCHIYA Yoshio, etc
1969
BOOKLET
CONTENTS
4
Timeline for a
Timeless Story
by Jim O'Rourke
22
The Art Theatre Guild
by Roland Domenig
a group formed in 1951 dedicated to new ideas in
interdisciplinary art. Among its members were painters,
Timeline for a
Timeless Story
photographers, multimedia artist Yamaguchi Katsuhiro,
composers Takemitsu Toru and Yuasa Joji, and, freshly
graduated from the art department of Tokyo University,
a young Matsumoto. It was here that he worked on his
first film, the promotional short
Bicycle (Ginrin,
1955),
a bold hybrid made in collaboration with Takemitsu and
by Jim O'Rourke
Yamaguchi. But how did a young cinephile such as
Matsumoto navigate through these different methods of
filmmaking and the rapidly changing social and political
Musician, producer, and filmmaker
Funeral Parade of Roses within a
Jim O'Rourke
places
cultural lineage of intense
creativity and political ferment.
landscape of a post-World War II Japan to arrive at
Funeral Parade of Roses? T his is the backstory to
Matsumoto's film, a condensed timeline for a timeless
story.
From the beginning, Japanese major film studios held a
"I am the wound and the knife!
I am the lash and the cheek ... "
- from Charles Baudelaire's "L'Heautontimoroumenos"
( collected
in
Les Fleurs du mal, 1857).'
strong grip on production and distribution, usually owning
the theatres as well. By the early 1920s some directors
had started their own production companies, such as
Kinugasa Teinosuke, who made his still famous A
of Madness (Kurutta ippejl) in
Page
1926. While Kinugasa may
have set out on his own for artistic reasons, financial
Funeral Parade of Roses is a dense and complex
testament to the alignment of the historical machinations,
filmic, political, and personal, that reached a fever point
in the Summer of 1968. It is the child of a rich moment
in history where all of the art forms commingled in an
incredibly free playing field. It initially reflects the unique
mix of aesthetics drawn from Matsumoto Toshio's
considerations were also a concern. Popular actors also
formed their own companies to hold more control over
material and receive a larger percentage of the profits.
This is not to imply there were cracks forrning in the
foundation of the studio system, as it was still necessary
for independents to licence films to them for distribution
purposes.
early work with Jikken-Kobo (Experimental Workshop),
Standing further outside were films financed by the
4
5
burgeoning socialist and communist movements in
Japan. These studios, best known under the name
"Proletarian Film League," were primarily interested in
advocating their concerns in union and labour struggles.
The rise of communist sympathies in Japan would play
an important part in encouraging the Japanese New
Wave cinema of the 1960s.
By the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905,
which accelerated the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II and
the Bolshevik Revolution, Japan had secured a foothold
in Korea and Taiwan. The peace treaty between the two,
negotiated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, was
seen by many in Japan as an insult. It granted them less
land rights and little if any of the monetary reparations
expected. This perceived slight was only magnified after
Japan's collaboration with Allied forces during World
War I. By the end of the war, American policy towards
Japan had become increasingly combative, making
an effort to influence the British Government, who
had a long history of collaboration with the Japanese
Navy, to follow suit. This increasing slight from Western
powers, who had, relatively speaking, only recently
been accepted into Japan, laid the groundwork for the
continuation of Japan's territorial ambitions. By 1932 a
puppet government was established in Japan-occupied
Manchuria (Manchukuo), and in 1937 troops moved into
China proper, starting a war which would last into World
War II.
2
In 1934, communism was outlawed by the Japanese
government, effectively bringing an end to the
6
independent production companies such as the PFL,
grew to such an extent that, for example, military forces
casting out or even imprisoning many filmmakers,
had to be called in to assist, as in the Toho strike of 1949.
writers, teachers and others sympathetic with the left.
T he larger film companies also found themselves
hampered by mandatory submission to a censor board
regulated by the Army and Navy Ministries, which strictly
promoted the ideals of the traditional family and the value
of sacrifice for the country. The influence of imported
films with their ideas of individualism and the continuing
prevalence of what were called "modern girls" (moga, the
Japanese equivalent of flappers) were to be suppressed.
Imports of American films were severely curtailed and
with the passage of the "Film Law" in 1939, everyone
who worked in the film industry, from entry-level
assistants to leading actors and actresses, was required
to be tested for competency and licenced. By the early
1940s they were required by the law to consolidate under
an umbrella of major film companies which included
Shochiku, Toho, and Daiei.
By the end of the 1940s the Allied forces refocused
their energies on the growing power of Russia and
China. Leftist sympathisers, who were only recently
seen as emancipated political prisoners, were again
under duress. Conflicts with the labour unions, growing
problems with the Zengakuren (the umbrella organisation
for college student government groups) as well as the
American government's own shifting priorities resulted in
a sweeping anti-communist purge in all levels of society.
In the film industry, technicians, composers, writers
and directors lost their jobs, forcing many of them to
look towards other means in order to continue working.
Many of these films were funded in part by labour unions
or even the Communist Party itself, and had to be
independently distributed, sometimes by Hokusei Eiga,
which was primarily a distributor for films from the Soviet
Union. Some of these films could still find their way into
The effect of the Occupation at the end of World War
II fills volumes of books, and while it is difficult to
even scratch the surface here, it is important to note
the profound effect it had on Matsumoto's generation
of filmmakers. The changes required by the peace
settlement pulled the roots out from under innumerable
layers of society. Religious and political persecution
during the previous era was rescinded and communists,
Christians, Marxists and others flooded back into the
population. The major studios, already financially
strapped, now had conflicts with the newly emboldened
unions with strong leftist sympathies. These conflicts
8
mainstream cinemas, as many major studios, still under
the pressure of union strife, could not keep up the rate of
production needed to fill their screens. Assistant directors
were promoted to help speed production, setting the
stage for what is generally now called Japan's New
Wave. At Nikkatsu, Suzuki Seijun and Imamura Shohei
were given their start, and at Shochiku, Oshima Nagisa,
Shinoda Masahiro, and Yoshida Yoshishige began
with great promise. But by the mid-1960s all three had
left Shochiku under acrimonious circumstances, most
famously when Oshima's Night and Fog in Japan (Nihon
no yoru to kiri, 1960), a drama that investigated the
9
moral and political differences between two generations
of leftists, was withdrawn from distribution after only
a few days. Although the three organised their own
production companies, they still relied on the studios
for distribution. It was purportedly a time of sweeping
change, but the traces of the recent past would prove
to be indelible. This uneasy balancing act of the past
and present is personified in the conflicting character
of Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke, who had a long and
controversial career in politics. During World War II, Kishi
was Minister of Commerce and Industry under Prime
Minister Tojo Hideki, and fully involved in the activities
in Manchuria. At the end of the war, Kishi was tried and
convicted as a war criminal, resulting in his barring from
public service as accorded by the Allied forces. In 1952,
this restriction was lifted and Kishi began the second
wave of his political career in the Democratic Party, a
forerunner of the Liberal Democratic Party. It was this
changing political and artistic landscape that would
make Matsumoto question his own nascent work as a
documentary filmmaker.
In an interview with Aaron Gerow, Matsumoto said: "Even
literature and art were wrapped around the little finger
of the state during the war. Well, the people who made
national propaganda films collaborating with the war
effort made an about-face when America arrived after the
war and in a blink of the eye began making democratic
movies. That was strange because filmmakers did that
without going through a stage of internal conflict, without
exposing their own responsibility for the war. Both
during and after the war, they made films according to
10
\
I
-'
the dominant trends in society or government without
two together: "Both were extremely fascinating to me,
thoroughly investigating their own position within this. In
but that's where problems arose. Although I found the
the film world in particular, people didn't independently
freedom of avant-garde's uninhibited, imaginative world
pursue their own wartime responsibility. The kind of
extremely attractive, it had the tendency to get stuck in
character that's able to immediately make democratic
a closed world. Documentaries, on the other hand, while
movies while feigning ignorance about the past is what
intensely related to reality, would not really thoroughly
ruined postwar Japanese cinema. That's why, even in
address internal mental states and were so dependent
terms of the problem of realism, there was no difference
upon their temporal contexts they would look old­
between the realism of militarist films fanning war
fashioned if their temporal context changed. I wondered
sentiment and the realism of postwar democratic motion
whether the point of collision between the limitations and
pictures. Only the topic or subject changed."
3
strong points of the two forms could not pose a new set
of topics for cinema."
5
Matsumoto initially made documentary films for
Shin Riken Cinema, one of many studios dedicated
His early work with Jikken-Kobo would prove to be
to the form. He soon started an organisation called
influential, as Matsumoto collaborated again with
the "Association of Documentary Filmmakers" and
Takemitsu on his documentary The Song of Stones
published the highly polemical magazine Documentary
(lshi no uta,
Film (Kiroku-eiga). Producers such as Shin Riken and
Shikoku, was a radical shift in Matsumoto's documentary
This film, about stone cutters in
Iwanami Productions would prove to be auspicious
work, closer to a tone poem than to straightforward
places for this new generation of filmmakers to begin
documentation. The synergy between music, space,
their careers. Matsumoto worked through all levels of
movement and stillness was a subtle but radical
production, a relatively liberal education that encouraged
synthesis of Matsumoto's stylistic and aesthetic
him to reconcile his own concerns through documentary
experiences. Soon, the influence of the world pounding
films.
4
In his student days, Matsumoto had been inspired by the
12
1963).
on art's walls would prove to be unavoidable.
In
1960,
with the impending renegotiation of US
revelations of Italian neorealist and avant-garde films and
occupation (the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and
he searched for a way to fuse his seemingly disparate
Security, better known by its Japanese shorthand
interests. This contrast, and his thoughts on their ability
name "ANPO") protest grew to a feverish pitch. The
to coexist is especially enlightening in the context of the
Zengakuren sieged Haneda airport to prevent Prime
form of Funeral Parade of Roses. In his interview with
Minister Kishi from flying to the US, and while it did not
Gerow, Matsumoto spoke of his attempts to bring the
prevent the flight, the press coverage was considerable.
13
By this time the group had nearly severed ranks with the
socialist democratic and communist parties, disagreeing
bitterly over the worth of political versus direct action.
In June of 1960, the Zengakuren opted to attack the
Diet Building in an assault that would result in the
death of student Kanba Michiko, who would stand as
a martyr-symbol for years to come. A further protest at
Narita made a blunder of White House press secretary
James Haggerty's trip to prepare for President Dwight
Eisenhower's forthcoming visit. Although Prime Minister
Kishi was forced to delay Eisenhower's already highly
contentious visit, the treaty was renewed in 1960.
With the rise of the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966,
passions were further inflamed on campuses throughout
Japan. During the next few years, the Zengakuren
fractured and split into factions with varying degrees of
allegiance to the Communist Party. What had previously
been a face of unity dispersed into various concerns
such as the American bases in Okinawa. Their possible
use as a base of operations for American expansion
into Vietnam implicitly involved Japan in military action,
something it had been forbidden from under the terms
of the peace treaty. Student-government organisations
continued physical confrontations with university officials
at Tokyo's Keio and Waseda Universities, amongst many
others, as well as recruitment for the growing resistance
to the expansion of Narita Airport, infringing on the land
rights of farmers. At first they received overwhelming
support from the general public for their physical
confrontations with construction workers, but by 1968,
the time of the filming of Funeral Parade of Roses, US
14
nuclear aircraft carriers were docking in Okinawa and
attacked by contemporary art criticism, Zero Jigen
involvement at the student protests even included high
did find itself regularly chronicled in newspapers and
school children. By this time the early public support for
magazines, usually under racy headlines likening them
these actions had begun to wane, as continuing violence
to "orgies" or "porn parties." Unlike this inflammatory
both on campus and in urban areas had begun to wear
rhetoric, Zero Jigen created situations that were more in
out their welcome with many who were now just wanting
sympathy to the "ritualistic" concerns of many artists of
to move on with their lives. In Funeral Parade of Roses
the time, replacing overt political or literary references
the interviewed student protester seems almost like an
with a series of interchangeable movements, props, and
outlaw, on the run from a society that just does not want
heavy use of repetition.
to hear from students anymore.
Experimental film, which reaches back to the roots of
16
Theatre groups also began to make a break from their
Matsumoto's early fascinations, and the new generation
past traditions. Many took their productions to alternative
which was embracing the then-new video medium, is
locations, such as Kara Juro's "Situation T heatre," which
personified in "Guevera," a critical hybrid of the many
used its red tent to move from place to place (This
different movements that formed the underground. T hese
group, as well as its tent, are featured prominently in
activities were led in Japan by such filmmaker/artists as
Oshima's Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku dorobo
limura Takahiko and Katsuhiro and coalesced in events
nikki, 1968)). Legendary playwright Terayama Shuji
such as the important "Tokyo-New York Video Express"
would also explore similar confrontational methods with
of 1974, which brought together many interdisciplinary
his Sajiki Tenjo group, many times treating the audience
artists such as Paik Nam June, Kubota Shigeko, Woody
as trapped victims. T his street-theatre also overlapped
and Steina Vasulka, Michael Snow, Kosugi Takehisa,
with the growing movement of Fluxus related artists
and even Allen Ginsberg. T he electronic manipulation
such as Genpei Akasegawa (Hi-Red Centre) and the
of television in Guevera's film invokes the work of Paik,
Zero Jigen (Zero Dimension) group, whose discordant
Yamaguchi, and Matsumoto himself, and the statement
"happenings" can be seen scattered throughout Funeral
"But you must feel something with your body" makes
Parade of Roses. T he group was started in Nagoya by
an allusion to the growth of "system" or "structuralist"
Kato Yoshihiro and Iwata Shinichi who soon became
films that were concurrent to the rise of video/television
infamous for their "ceremonies," as they chose to call
art. Snow's Wavelength (1967) and Tony Conrad's The
them. Moving to Tokyo, their performances were noted
Flicker (1966) were two of the most internationally known
for their nudity and unabashed confrontation with
films that explored the actual physical effect of time, light,
shoppers in the major neighbourhoods of Shinjuku,
and space on the viewer's sense of consciousness, and
Ginza, and Shibuya. While generally ignored or even
was readily co-opted by many as an accessory to "mind-
17
expansion." Matsumoto himself would later make several
films using his footage from
Funeral Parade of Roses'
"experimental film." In the background of these scenes
you can also see the requisite poster for Terayama
and Sajiki's
Rope (Jun) designed by Yokoo Tadanori.
Just these scenes alone demonstrate the incredible
commingling of the rebirth of all of the arts, and their
cohabitation.
Another element of "underground culture"
(angura)
is referenced through Eddie's participation in a
pomographic film shoot, which not only heightens
the complex "reality / fiction" structure of the film, but
also makes a contemporary reference to the rise of
underground pornography. The director in this scene
is Matsumoto, who despite not making such films
himself, was related in spirit to many of the new wave
of pornographic, or "pink", filmmakers. Directors found
increasingly creative ways to skirt the censor, and due
to its incredible revolving door production schedule and
high demand for product, pornography was one of the
easiest ways for a young filmmaker to get his hands on
a camera. This open door policy allowed filmmakers
with political and avant-garde interests (such as Adachi
Masao); beefs with authority (such as Wakamatsu Koji);
and highly analytical and theoretical writers (such as
Yamatoya Atsushi) the latitude to create films, albeit
on incredibly small budgets, in an environrnent that
was previously closed to them. These three filmmakers
are of special interest in the context of
of Roses,
Funeral Parade
as they also worked with ATG (Art Theatre
Guild), who would fund and release Matsumoto's film,
18
and become a nexus for the zeitgeist of the late 1960s.
of all that was outside the lines. The intermingling of all
Adachi (also involved with Hi-Red Centre) and Yamatoya
the arts was not only an aesthetic choice, but the reality
(maybe best known in the West as the author of Suzuki's
of everyone being drawn to one small area, filled with
Branded to Kill (Koroshi no rakuin, 1967)) represented
old style coffee shops (kissaten), hippies, galleries, bars
the talent that was coming from "film study groups" at
(both gay and otherwise), protesters, expatriates of every
various universities, and they, like Matsumoto, were
stripe, musicians, filmmakers, writers, philosophers,
filmmakers who had their fingers on the increasing
pulse of unrest in Japan. There was collusion with other
1
and of course police. It was the most contaminated of
petri dishes, and that means culture. It was here that the
directors like Oshima (Adachi for example co-wrote Diary
ATG was born. I will concede here to the accompanying
of a Shinjuku Thief and participated in the first ATG film,
text by Roland Domenig to more fully expand on the
Oshima's brilliant farce Death by Hanging (Koshikei,
importance of the ATG, and how it was not only a child
1968)). Wakamatsu and Adachi's masterpiece Ecstasy
of the history above, but the new beginning of one of
of the Angels (Tenshi no kokotsu, 1972, also for ATG)
Japan's most brilliant eras of film.
is another film, like Funeral Parade of Roses which
timelessly manifested this moment of critical mass.
REFERENCES
Doubtless, most pink film production was for the purpose
of profit, and these efforts would become accepted into
the mainstream as part of Nikkatsu's "pink film" (pinku
eiga) and the "pinky violence" films that were released
primarily by the Toei studio. One popular Toei series
1 T he original
2
I Je
Even today, what to call this war, or even to call it such, is a
continuing source of tension between China and Japan.
3
Matsumoto Toshio (1996) interviewed by Aaron Gerow in
Documentary Box 9 (December 31).
4 Also
was the "sukeban" films. A "sukeban" is the leader of
working at Iwanami was Suzuki Tatsuo, who would later
serve as cinematographer on Funeral Parade of Roses. It was
common at Iwanami to use a tripod-mounted camera, in part for
a girl gang (dropouts, ne'er do wells, etc), and Funeral
aesthetic reasons, and also because handheld cameras at that
time were still cumbersome and noisy. Suzuki, however, became
Parade of Roses features such a gang, sent out to rough
well known for his incredibly reliable and elegant hand-held
up Eddie. The sequence both mimics and satirises their
camerawork and mastery of telescopic lenses. In his earlier
feature films, such as Yoshida's
mannerisms, and while it would be a bit much to say that
A
Story Written with Water ( Mizu
de kakareta monogatari, 1965) and Kuroki Kazuo's Silence Has
No Wings
Matsumoto made the first "sukeban" short, he seems to
have been a few years ahead of the curve!
French reads: "Je suis la plaie et Ie couteau!
suis Ie soufflet et la joue .....
( Tobenai chinmoku,
1966), Suzuki's handling of the
similar themes explored in Matsumoto's film are enlightening.
5
Matsumoto Toshio (1996).
It becomes apparent that all of these disparate
movements seemed to share a central hub, and
©2006 by Jim O'Rourke
geographically that was East Shinjuku, a convergence
20
21
The
Art Theatre
Guild
by Roland Domenig
In this extract from a longer article on independent Japanese cinema
(published in a special issue of
www.aaj.at).
Roland Domenig
Minikomi,
available for purchase at
(a lecturer in Japanese Studies at
the University of Vienna, Austria) places
Funeral Parade of Roses
in the context of the Art Theatre Guild, a company dedicated to the
exhibition and production of experimental film, including Matsumoto's
groundbreaking debut.
Kurosawa Akira's Rashomon winning the Golden Lion
at the Venice film festival in 1951 gave the Japanese
movie industry a first glimpse of the international market.
The subsequent success of other Japanese films at
European festivals impressively demonstrated the
strength of the Japanese film industry. Still, film exports
could in no way compare to film imports. Foreign movies
had always been popular in Japan, but after WW2 their
number was limited because of currency regulations, and
importers were allocated quotas by the government. As
domestic film production in the 1950s increased at the
22
expense of foreign imports, distributors were less willing
to take risks. They preferred films that could guarantee
commercial success and largely ignored ambitious
and "difficult" films. There were several initiatives that
attempted to adjust this imbalance. One was instigated
by the group Cinema 57 which had been founded in
1957 by the young directors Teshigahara Hiroshi, Hani
Susumu, Matsuyama Zenzo and Kawazu Yoshiro, the
critics Ogi Masahiro and Kusakabe Kyushiro, Maruo
Sadamu (later director of the National Film Centre), the
editor of the journal
Geijutsu Shincho Sakisaka
Ryuichiro
and Mushanokoji Kanzaburo. Their first project was the
film
Tokyo
58, which was shown at the first festival of
experimental film in Brussels in 1958. Another project
was the formation of the Association of the Japanese Art
Theatre Movement (Nihon ato shiata undo no kai), which
aimed at setting up special cinemas for the showing
of non-commercial art movies. This Association was
joined by the critic Togawa Naoki, the director Horikawa
Hiromichi and Kawakita Kashiko, vice-president of
Towa, who became a driving force of the Japanese Art
Theatre Movement. Before the war, Kawakita, together
with her husband Kawakita Nagamasa, had imported
many important European films to Japan. After the war
the Kawakitas were still committed to the ambitious
European art cinema. In the mid-1950s Kashiko spent
two years in Europe, getting acquainted with the art
) )I))�))))
t
..
.-1
theatre movement, which became international in
" .
1955, as the International Association of European Art
Theatres, or CICAE (Confederation Internationale des
Cinemas d'Art et d'Essai), was founded. On returning
to Japan she worked towards the establishment of a
24
,
\
"
film library, of an institution similar to the Cinematheque
Fran9aise and the British Film Institute, and a movie
art theatre like the National Film T heatre in london,
which had opened in 1957 with Kurosawa's Throne of
Blood (Kumonosu-j6, 1957 [Kumonosu-j6Iiterally means
and OS Kogyo joined in with ¥1 ,000,000 respectively
and four cinemas (the Sotetsu Bunka in Yokohama, the
Korakuen Art T heatre in Tokyo, the Kyoto Asahi Kaikan
in Kyoto and the Sky Cinema in Kobe). Thus, ATG had at
their disposal ten cinemas in the whole of Japan.
"Spiderweb Castle"]).
In April 1962, ATG started their programme with Mother
Kawakita Kashiko and the Japanese Art T heatre
Movement were supported by Mori Iwao, then
vice-president of Toho and a close associate of the
Kawakitas. Mori had started out as a film journalist
and had written the first comprehensive study of the
American movie business in Japanese. T hen he started
to write screenplays, became a producer and, in the late
1920s, initiated the "Association for the Recommendation
of Good Films" (Yoi eiga
0
susumeru kai). Mori talked
Iseki Taneo, the president of Sanwa Kogyo, into
supporting them and on November 15, 1961 the Art
T heatre Guild of Japan (Nihon ato shiata girudo) was
launched. Iseki became its first president. In the 1920s,
he had edited the programmes of the Musashinokan,
one of Tokyo's most prestigious first-run cinemas. later
Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna ad aniol6w, 1961)
by Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz (available on
DVD in the UK from Second Run). The repertoire was
chosen by a programming committee mainly consisting
of film critics. At the time of its founding these were
lijima Tadashi, lida Shinbi, Izawa Jun, Uekusa Jin'ichi,
Shimizu Chiyota, Togawa, Nanbu Keinosuke and
Futaba Juzaburo. Most of them had published in the
programmes of the Musashinokan and knew Iseki from
that time. Further members of the committee were Ogi,
Hani, Matsuyama, Sakisaka, Kusakabe, Maruo and
Kawakita Kashiko from the Association of the Japanese
Art Theatre Movement. Teshigahara was not included as
he had already started work on Pitfall (Otoshiana, 1962),
which was later distributed by ATG.
he had worked for Shochiku and PCl (a predecessor of Toho), and in 1946 he had gone into business for himself. He founded the cinema chain Sanwa Kogyo
and become an exhibitor. Sanwa Kogyo brought
¥1,000,000 and a cinema, the Shinjuku Bunka, into
the new undertaking. Toho contributed ¥5,000,000 and
five cinemas (the Nichigeki Bunka in Tokyo, the Meiho
Bunka in Nagoya, the Kitano Cinema in Osaka, the Toho
Meigaza in Fukuoka, and the Koraku Bunka in Sapporo).
T he cinema operators Eto Rakutenchi, Teatoru Kogyo
26
Setting up an independent committee was a radically
new approach. As most of its members were film critics
the films were chosen with artistic instead of commercial
considerations in mind. At first, the films distributed
by ATG were predominantly European productions,
mostly contemporary, but also some classics that had
never been shown in Japan such as the films of Sergei
Eisenstein and Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). Apart
from masterpieces by Ingmar Bergman, Jean Cocteau,
27
Michelangelo Antonioni, Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini,
Alain Resnais and other established directors, ATG
introduced several less famous names such as young
Polish directors (Kawalerowicz, Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej
Munk), the French Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard,
Franyois Truffaut, also Agnes Varda and Bertrand Blier),
Soviet filmmakers (Mikhail Kalatozov, Mikhail Shvejtser,
losif Kheifits, Sergei Parajanov), young rebels like
John Cassavetes and Tony Richardson, and, not to be
forgotten, Satyajit Ray and Glauber Rocha. ATG thus
played a vital role in the creation of a new consciousness
of film history in Japan. Apart from foreign movies,
ATG also acted as distributor for several independently
produced Japanese films such as Teshigahara's Pitfall
as well as films by Shindo Kaneto, Hani, Kuroki Kazuo,
Yoshida Yoshishige, Oshima Nagisa and Jissoji Akio, all
of whose subsequent films ATG also produced.
Not only the method of selecting the films was new, the
way in which they were presented was novel, too. One
of ATG's basic rules was to show each film for at least
a month, irrespective of attendance. In the 1960s, the
repertoire was usually changed weekly, and a four-week
run was exceptional even for box-office hits. ATG's
flagship was the Art T heatre Shinjuku Bunka in Tokyo,
which was managed by Kuzui Kinshiro who remained
pivotal until the mid-1970s. T he Shinjuku Bunka had
been built in 1937 as a contract cinema for Toho. Kuzui
readapted it according to his own plans and created a
completely new type of cinema. T he whole cinema was
painted dark grey, bills and posters and any other kind
of flashy advertising were banished, there were only
28
afternoon shows (most cinemas opened in the morning),
the seats were spacious and comfortable, there was
enough space between the rows so nobody had to get
up to let someone pass, and the audience could not
simply come and go during a performance like they did in
the other cinemas, but were asked to wait until the next
screening started. T he foyer acted as a gallery where
well-known painters and illustrators exhibited their work.
ATG posters were often designed by famous artists and
were utterly different from traditional movie bills.
In the evenings, after the movies were over, Kuzui,
who was also interested in modern theatre, started to
organise theatrical performances. He benefited from
the fact that several new troupes had split off from
established ensembles in the early 1960s and were now
looking for suitable venues. T he first stage performance
in the Shinjuku Bunka was the Japanese premiere of
Edward Albee's The Zoo Story on June 1, 1963, followed
by more plays by Albee, Tennessee Williams, Samuel
Beckett, Harold Pinter, LeRoi Jones, Tankred Dorst,
Jean Genet, Edward Bond, Barbara Garson, and other
contemporary foreign dramatists. Many of these were
Japanese debuts. Apart from these, the Shinjuku Bunka
also put on plays by leading Japanese writers such as
Terayama Shuji, Kara Juro, Betsuyaku Minoru, Shimizu
Kunio and Mishima Yukio. Thus the Shinjuku Bunka
was not only one of the most important cinemas in
T his page, and page
from
33,
contain actual frame enlargements
Funeral Parade of Roses.
All other images in this
booklet are production stills, provided courtesy of the
director Matsumoto Toshio, and Toho Co. Ltd.
Japan but also (despite the tiny stage) one of the major
venues for contemporary drama. Kuzui envisaged an
expansion of the Shinjuku Bunka into a comprehensive
art theatre. Together with ATG productions and in
31
special programmes he presented experimental short
films, among them works by limura Takahiko, Tomita
Katsuhiko, Donald Richie, Obayashi Nobuhiko (whose
films were shown publicly for the first time), Itami Juzo
(who designed the ATG logo) and Adachi Masao's Sain
(1963), which was shown as the first "Night Road Show"
in 1965. T he Shinjuku Bunka was the first cinema in
Japan that had regular shows later than 9pm, a practice
that was later adopted by many small theatres.
In order to present even Smm and 16mm films in the
best possible quality (the screen of the Shinjuku Bunka
was too big for these formats), Kuzui had a small theatre
built in the basement of the Shinjuku Bunka for film and
theatrical performances, concerts, and other events.
T he Sasori-za was inaugurated on June 10, 1967 with
a performance by the flamenco dancer Komatsubara
Yoko. The first film that was shown there in August
1967 was Adachi's Galaxy (Gingakei, 1967). It was
Mishima who was responsible for the name Sasori-za
(Theatre Scorpio), a tribute to Kenneth Anger's film
Scorpio Rising (1964) that had been shown at the
Shinjuku Bunka before. T he Sasori-za was the first
underground theatre in Japan, others soon followed. It
was a centre of experimental drama and experimental
film (beside Teshigahara's Sogetsu Art Centre) as
well as a popular meeting place for all kinds of artists.
There were movie and theatre performances, concerts
and recitals, happenings, and dance performances by
Hijikata Tatsumi, the founder of buto dance. T he Sasori­
za was one of the major centres of the Japanese avant­
garde and set an example for many other underground
theatres.
32
Five days after the opening of the Sasori-za, ATG
released Imamura Shohei's controversial documentary
A Man Vanishes (Ningen johatsu, 1967). This was the
first film that ATG also co-produced. The idea of not
only distributing, but actually producing films had taken
shape in
1965
with Mishima's
Death (Yukoku),
The Rites of Love and
the only film he directed, which was
screened with great success at the Shinjuku Bunka.
As the film is merely
28
minutes long, it was shown
as a double feature together with Bunuel's
Diary of a
Chambermaid (Le Joumal d'une femme de chambre,
1966).
A little later, Oshima's
no nikki, 1965) was similarly
Yunbogi's Diary (Yunbogi
successful. These triumphs
provided the encouragement for ATG to start producing
films. Calculating the profits of their previous films, ATG
decided that with a budget of approximately
(then less than
$28,000)
¥1 0,000,000
they should be able to cover the
production costs. What eventually facilitated the decision
to expand into production was the liberalisation of the
import market. In
1964,
the ofticial limit for importing
foreign movies was abolished. So was the allocation
of quotas that had determined the number of films
per distributor. One result of this liberalisation was a
rise in distribution costs so that it became increasingly
uneconomical to import foreign films. ATG decided that it
would be more profitable to produce its own movies.
In the case of Imamura's A
Man Vanishes ATG
had
not been involved in the planning stage but had only
helped out in the final phase of production. The first
film planned and produced by ATG was Oshima's
Death by Hanging (Koshikef),
34
which was released in
February 1968. Production costs were split between
At the same time, ATG gave several experimental
ATG and Oshima's production company Sozosha. Later
directors the chance to realise their extremely individual
productions followed the same pattern. The films were
fantasies, most importantly Matsumoto Toshio and
financed by ATG and the director's company in equal
Terayama whose first feature films Funeral Parade of
share. Compared to those of the studios, feature film
Roses and Pandemonium (Shura, 1971) respectively,
budgets were quite modest. Even though the estimated
and Terayama's Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the
¥10,000,000 were hardly ever enough, ATG's films were
Streets (Sho wo sute yo, machi e de yo, 1971) and
referred to as "¥10,000,000 movies" (issenman-en-eiga).
Pastoral: To Die in the Country (Den 'en ni shisu, 1974)
were made possible by ATG. Terayama's last film, Projects were again chosen by an independent planning
Farewell to the Ark (Saraba hakobune, 1984), was committee of film critics. In the beginning, the directors
again co-produced by AT G. Jissoji and Kuroki were of the Japanese New Wave were at the centre of ATG's
also experimental in their approach; in the 1970s they
production activities. Many of their major works were
became ATG's leading directors. Jissoji had started out
made in collaboration with ATG: Death by Hanging,
in television and had only directed one short film, When
Boy (Shonen, 1969), The Man Who Left His Will on
Twilight Draws Near (Yoiyami semareba, 1969), which
Film (Tokyo senso sengo hiwa, 1969), The Ceremony
ATG had distributed and shown as a double feature
(Gishiki, 1971), and Little Summer Sister (Natsu no
together with Oshima's Diary of a Shinjuku Thief. This
imoto, 1973) by Oshima; Heroic Purgatory (Rengoku
Transient Life (Mujo, 1970) was the first of four films that
eroica, 1970) and Coup d'Etat (Kaigenrei, 1973)
Jissoji realised with ATG. The story of the incestuous
by Yoshida Yoshishige; Double Suicide (ShinjO-ten
relationship of two siblings became ATG's biggest hit and
Amijima,1969 [literally "Amijima Effaced to Heaven
received international recognition by winning the Grand
by Lovers' Suicide"]) and Himiko (1974) by Shinoda
Prix at the Locarno Film Festival in 1970. Together with
Masahiro, as well as The Infemo of First Love (Hatsukoi
Mishima's The Rites of Love and Death, the film was the
jigoku-hen, 1968) by Hani. Furthermore, ATG distributed
most controversial of those discussed at the FIPRESCI
Oshima's Manual of Ninja Martial Arts (Ninja bugeicho,
conference on "Eroticism and Violence in Cinema" held
1967) and Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku dorobo
in Milan in October 1970. However, like so many other
nikki, 1968) as well as Yoshida Yoshishige's Farewell
films of this period it soon fell into oblivion and is still
to the Summer Light (Saraba natsu no hikari, 1968),
waiting to be rediscovered as one of the masterpieces of
Eros Plus Massacre (Eros
36
+
gyakusatsu, 1970) and
Japanese cinema. This can also be said of Kuroki's films
Confessions among Actresses (Kokuhakuteki joyuron,
from this period. ATG distributed his early masterpiece
1971). ATG's importance for the Japanese New Wave
Silence Has No Wings (Tobenai chinmoku) in 1966 and
can hardly be overestimated.
produced his following feature films Evil Spirits of Japan
37
(Nihon no akuryo, 1970), The Assassination of Ryoma
After 1972, political topics faded into the background.
(Ryoma ansatsu, 1974), Preparation for the Festival
It is possible to identify two strands of escapism in
(Matsuri no junbi, 1975) and Lost Love (Genshiryoku
ATG's films: an escape from urban life to more rural
senso, 1978).
settings and an escape into the past. Symptomatic of
this development are Saito Koichi's Tsugaru Folk Song
Other directors, many of whom worked for a studio, got
(Tsugarujongara-bushi, 1973) and Ichikawa Kon's T he
the chance to finally realise their dream projects which
Wand
they could not do within the structure of the studios:
by studio directors, which indicates a development .
rers
(Matatabi, 1973). Both films were directed
Okamoto Kihachi made Human Ballet (Nikudan, 1968)
toward
and Battle Cry (Tokkan, 1975); Nakahira Ko Hensokyoku
contlnu d to co-operate with experimental directors such
Increasingly orthodox films. ATG, admittedly,
(1976); Kumai Kei Apart from Life (Chi no mure, 1970);
as'-; k b yashi Yoichi and, later, Obayashi, but the films
Masumura Yasuzo Music (Ongaku, 1972) and Double
m
Suicide of Sonezaki (Sonezaki shinju, 1978); Nakajima
film . Th
d
fter 1973 were much less radical than the earlier
main reason, apart from the general spirit of
Sadao Aesthetics of a Bullet (Teppodama no bigaku,
th
g , was the closing of the Shinjuku Bunka in 1975.
1973); and Nakagawa Nobuo's swansong T he Living
A
tt1U
Koheiji (Kaidan: Ikiteiru Koheiji, 1982 [literally: "A Ghost
AT
Story: Living Koheiji"]). ATG also produced several films
w r
Imply not big enough, neither were the people in
ufficiently farsighted. The last film to be shown at
by Shindo, the veteran of Japanese independent film,
111nJuku Bunka before it was closed was Terayama's
among them A Paean (Sanka, 1972) and Love Betrayed
(Kokoro, 1973 [literally: "The Heart"]).
lost one of its most important assets. Most of
ther cinemas had already bailed out. The profits
P(I, I
Cln
I
I: To Die in the Country. When in 1978 the Kitano
"'c
in Osaka also closed down, the Nichigeki Bunka
The early films of ATG were determined by the explosive
III Yur, kucho was the last of the original ten cinemas
political climate of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The
dlr(
highlight of their political films is Wakamatsu Koji's
Hunk
tty run by ATG. With the closing of the Shinjuku
nded the heyday of the Art Theatre Guild.
Ecstasy of the Angels (Tenshi no kokotsu, 1971),
which, in 1971, was closer to the events of the day than
any other film. Ecstasy of the Angels is based on a
©2003 by Roland Domenig, reprinted with permission
screenplay by Adachi, who two years later defected to Lebanon and became a member of the Japanese Red Army. The film anticipated the terrorism of the left-wing
END.
guerrilla in an almost prophetic manner and thus made
for one of the biggest scandals in the history of ATG.
38
39