Pigs and Battleships – 1961 Imamura

The earliest Imamura film I could get my hands on for the study but already his fifth feature and it’s revelatory—a very strong film and cinematic voice
Starts with a bang- a great backwards tracking shot during the opening credits of sailors stumbling around a crowded and lit-up Vegas-like Yokosuka strip
Like all of Imamura’s work it’s about the seedy underbelly of society, lower class or outcasts—there’s swearing, hitting, spitting and prostitution in the first 5 minutes- haha
I couldn’t find anything official but Imamura worked under Ozu— and most cinephiles like to note how different they are in their content—and that’s true. However, Imamura clearly is heavily influenced by Ozu stylistically—very apparent—he’s a gifted stylist
Loaded mise-en-scenes… bottles like Ozu in the foreground. Later a fan
Drapes covering top 1/4 of a frame- inventive framing work
Uses the entire screen- he’s a depth of field master, von Sternberg

A film about the Yakuza
The protagonist throws father out of doorway and we have a great “The Searchers” doorway shot
10+ individual wall-art shots like the saxophone player shot

It’s political—there’s a child reading from a textbook about how great Japan is while there are adults fighting in his living room—anti-American sentiment for sure from WW2 fallout. Raw talk about pimping and whoring in 1961 opened my eyes a little
During the rape scene Imamura brilliantly cuts to an overhead angle of the room—then he spins the frame very rapidly 360 degrees as a transition to the aftermath

Stylistic ingenuity—great depth of field in a car chase- the entire end is awesome—it’s like Ozu directing action scenes with such care and attention given to the beauty of the individual shot and the framing—we have the glittery billboard in the backdrop— it’s chaos—it gets slapsticky—pigs taking over like cattle in Red River. Rows of trucks