Realizing large-scale screening of “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (4K restored version) and “Corrida of Love” (restored version) Interview with director Arata Oshima of Nagisa Oshima Production [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol.16]

Artistic qualities seen in Nagisa Oshima's debut work

Q: It is said that "the first work has everything about the author." When I watched director Oshima's debut film, `` The City of Love and Hope '' (59), I thought, ``Humans basically cannot understand each other.However, they struggle to understand each other somehow.'' I think Director Oshima has been portraying that image for a long time.

``The City of Love and Hope'' is a story about the interaction and disconnection between a girl from a wealthy family and a boy from a poor family, but in ``Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,'' the men who are enemies generally cannot understand each other. But amidst this, they struggle to build relationships. In Corrida of Love, I felt that Sada and Yoshizo had no choice but to continue having sex because they couldn't understand each other. How is it?

Oshima: I see. Her debut work, ``The City of Love and Hope,'' is surprisingly orthodox, but it seems that my mother, Akiko Koyama, likes Oshima's work the most. Perhaps it's because it's a lot neater and easier to understand than Oshima's later films.

Oshima Nagisa Productions Director Arata Oshima

Q: I feel for director Oshima in the way he shoots the pigeon at the end, but Shochiku at the time was mainly doing home dramas, so I'm sure people would have disliked that ending.

Oshima: The first title was ``The Boy Who Sells Pigeons,'' right? But they told me that wasn't enough, so I moved on to ``City of Anger''. When that was rejected, we had no choice but to come up with an alternative idea called ``The City of Love and Anger''. Just when I thought I had finally reached a compromise, the title of the script was printed as ``The City of Love and Hope.'' It's a terrible story, though. I guess there's no love or hope (lol)

Nagisa Oshima was a home dad! ?

Q: Mr. Arata wrote about his memories of director Nagisa Oshima as his father in the book he co-authored with his brother Takeshi , ``Why don't you guys get angry? 50 words with my father, Nagisa Oshima'' (Nihon Keizai Shimbun Publishing). Masu. When I read it, I was shocked to learn that Director Oshima was a surprisingly conservative home-dad at home (lol).

Oshima: He's a really strange person, isn't he? Her face is completely different from the one she shows outside. That's why, at my father and mother's wedding, my senior director, Hideo Oba, apparently told me, ``Oshima-kun, you may be a Nouvelle Vague when it comes to movies, but your home life is like Ofuna (Shochiku melodramas).'' There were times when he said this on the ground.

I was also overprotective of my children. They said on TV, ``The academic society is disgraceful,'' but we wanted them to ``get into a good university'' and ``join a good company.'' I think they wanted me to get promoted at Fuji TV as well.

Q: Arata-san seems to be following a similar path to Director Oshima. Even after joining Fuji Television, I wanted to continue making documentaries, so I went freelance and started my own company.

Oshima: Yes, they are surprisingly similar. Also, because I work in film, I am sometimes compared to my father as a filmmaker. But for me, when it comes to Nagisa Oshima, I think she's on a different level, and I don't think about comparing myself to my father at all.

Documentary nature of Nagisa Oshima's works