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Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Oshima was the originator and most famous director of the Japanese New Wave. His controversial films are frequently difficult, highly intellectual, and darkly funny; they revolutionized Japanese cinema by infusing it with sex and with biting social and political commentary. Born on March 31, 1932, in Kyoto, Oshima was the son of a civil servant of samurai descent. After his father died when he was six, he retreated into a lonely childhood spent devouring his father's library, including a large number of books on Socialism and Communism. In 1950, Oshima was admitted to the law faculty of Kyoto University and quickly became president of the Kyoto Prefecture Student Alliance. In 1953, he led a mass demonstration in which 70 people ended up injured. Oshima entered his senior year dispirited and was branded a Red Student, which impeded his search for a job. Though he knew nothing about filmmaking, he took the entrance exam at Shochiku Ofuna Studio out of desperation, and he received the highest possible score.



What members say | Filmography

Nagisa Oshima - what members say


  • Gohatto
  • Gohatto review by from brighton
    Rated - 5.0 stars Kendo for experts 14 July 2004
    ...Nagisa Oshima's film about life in a 19th century samurai militia barracks is a compelling whodunnit that leaves you stunned. The film is beautifully crafted, with fantasti...   Read customer review
  • Naked Youth
  • Naked Youth review by TBomb from London
    Rated - 4.0 stars Actually a revolutionary and little known film 1 August 2008
    ...lm at all, but an American film of the same name released in 1961. This film by Nagisa Oshima was in fact made in 1960, and is both an enjoyable and historically important w...   Read customer review

Nagisa Oshima - filmography


  • Gohatto
  • Gohatto on DVD (2000)
    Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda,  Shinji Takeda,  Tadanobu Asano
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Widely regarded as the greatest living Japanese director as well as one of the film world's foremost hierophants of transgression, Nagisa Oshima returns from a long hiatus with a film worthy of his reputation. Set in 1865 during the waning days of the Tokugawa shogunate, it focuses on an exotic ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 63% from 1,995 member
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  • Level Five
  • Level Five on DVD (1996)
    Starring: Catherine Belkhodja,  Kenji Tokitsu,  Nagisa Oshima
    Director: Chris Marker
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    From visionary director Chris Marker comes Level Five the story of Laura, a computer game designer. Whilst working on a new World War II game following the epic battle of Okinawa, Japan she searches the internet for background information and finds harrowing eye witness accounts, disturbing ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 51% from 18 members
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  • Max Mon Amour
  • Max Mon Amour on DVD (1986)
    Starring: Charlotte Rampling,  Anthony Higgins,  Victoria Abril
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    A suspicious husband discovers that the object of his wife's infidelity is none other than a chimpanzee named Max. Not wanting to appear old-fashioned, he invites the simian lover to move in. In his obssession to discover the reason for his wife's attraction to a beast, the husband loses sight of ..read more »
    2 stars out of 5 41% from 163 members
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  • Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
  • Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence on DVD (1982)
    Starring: David Bowie,  Tom Conti,  Ryuichi Sakamato
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant. Subscribe.
    Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence was the first English-language project of Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses). In tune with his previous filmic essays on racism and brutality, Merry Christmas concentrates on a war of wills between rebellious POW David Bowie ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 1,406 member
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  • Empire Of Passion
  • Empire Of Passion on DVD (1978)
    Starring: Tatsuya Fuji,  Kazuko Yoshiyuki,  Takahiro Tamura
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    In feudal Japan a young soldier begins an intense affair with an older married woman. Driven by passion, obsession and jealousy they decide to violently murder her husband and dispose of the body in a nearby well. Claiming her husband is working away from home the couple carry on their affair in ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 51% from 350 members
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  • In The Realm Of The Senses - Blu-ray
  • In The Realm Of The Senses - Blu-ray (1976)
    Starring: Tatsuya Fuji,  Seiko Matsuda
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    In 1936, in the midst of rising Japanese militarism, a former prostitute, Sada, goes to work as a maid in a brothel. The house's handsome owner, Kichizo, soon begins to court her, and Sada eagerly returns his attentions. Their subsequent affair and constant lovemaking grow more and more intense, ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 55% from 54 members
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  • In The Realm Of The Senses
  • In The Realm Of The Senses on DVD (1976)
    Starring: Tatsuya Fuji,  Seiko Matsuda
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    In 1936, in the midst of rising Japanese militarism, a former prostitute, Sada, goes to work as a maid in a brothel. The house's handsome owner, Kichizo, soon begins to court her, and Sada eagerly returns his attentions. Their subsequent affair and constant lovemaking grow more and more intense, ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 51% from 4,694 members
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  • Violence At High Noon
  • Violence At High Noon on DVD (1966)
    Starring: Hideo Kanze,  Hideko Kawaguchi,  Saeda Kawaguchi
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    One of Oshima's most powerful and controversial films. Telling the brutal story of real-life rapist and serial murderer Eisuke (Kei Sato), and his relationship with his protective schoolteacher wife Matsuko (Akiko Koyama), and his only surviving victim Shino (Saeda Kawagushi) Oshima takes the ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 58% from 91 members
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  • Pleasures Of The Flesh
  • Pleasures Of The Flesh on DVD (1964)
    Starring: Katsuo Nakamura,  Mariko Kaga,  Yumiko Nogawa
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Katsuo Nakamura stars as a man blackmailed by a thief, who makes him hold on to some stolen loot while the thief serves a jail sentence. Nakamura is led into temptation by all that money sitting around, so he decides to spend it on wild partying and sex before killing himself to avoid retribution.
    3 stars out of 5 60% from 72 members
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  • The Sun's Burial
  • The Sun's Burial on DVD (1960)
    Starring: Masahiko Tsugawa,  Kayoko Honoo,  Isao Sasaki
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Set in the post-war slums of Osaka, The Sun's Burial follows the lives and fates of the denizens of this hellish ghetto. Pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts, vagrants, hustlers and gangsters struggle to survive amidst the poverty and decay of 1950's Japan.
    3 stars out of 5 61% from 121 members
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Nagisa Oshima facts

5 most recent films

Gohatto - 3.0 stars
Level Five - 2.5 stars
Max Mon Amour - 2.0 stars
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - 3.5 stars
Gohatto - 3.0 stars
The Sun's Burial - 3.0 stars
Pleasures Of The Flesh - 3.0 stars
Naked Youth - 3.0 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Empire Of Passion - Blu-ray - 2.5 stars
Level Five - 2.5 stars
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
Max Mon Amour - 2.0 stars
In The Realm Of The Senses - 2.5 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Tatsuya Fuji - 4 times - show films
David Bowie - 3 times - show films
Ryuichi Sakamato - 3 times - show films
Tom Conti - 3 times - show films
Kei Sato - 2 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Chris Marker - 1 times - show films

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