Skip over navigation

Refine search

DVD & Blu-Ray (76,402)

LOVEFiLM Instant (2,903)

Games (5,532)

Our Picks

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: 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano,  Yoichi Sai,  Koji Matoba
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano takes the lead in this stylish Samurai drama from director Nagisa Oshima ('In the Realm of the Senses', 'Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence'). Tashiro (Tadanobu Asano) and Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda) are the two newest recruits to the Shinsen-gumi militia, and their development is being ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 63% from 2,099 members
    Sign up
  • Level Five
  • Level Five on DVD (1996)
    Starring: Kinjo Shigeaki,  Catherine Belkhodja,  Kenji Tokitsu
    Director: Chris Marker
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Chris Marker directs this disturbing documentary centering on events during the Battle of Okinawa at the close of WWII. The film employs the story of French computer programmer Laura (Catherine Belkhodja) who has been given the job of constructing a computer programme of events in the battle. As ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 55% from 38 members
    Sign up
  • 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: Unavailable
    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 1,569 member
    Sign up
  • Empire Of Passion
  • Empire Of Passion on DVD (1978)
    Starring: Kazuko Yoshiyuki,  Tatsuya Fuji,  Takahiro Tamura
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Also known as Phantom Love, the French/Japanese co-production L'Empire de la Passion follows famed Japanese director Nagisa Oshima's multinational production, the chilling and erotic In the Realm of the Senses, which was banned in several countries and was disqualified from appearing at the Cannes ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 52% from 379 members
    Sign up
  • 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
    Nagisa Oshima's notorious masterpeice tells the story of the obsessive affair between a young servant girl and her master which ended in 1936, when the girl was discovered wandering the streets with her dead lover's severed penis in her hand. One of the most controversial films of the last 30 years,..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 51% from 4,919 members
    Sign up
  • 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
    Nagisa Oshima's notorious masterpeice tells the story of the obsessive affair between a young servant girl and her master which ended in 1936, when the girl was discovered wandering the streets with her dead lover's severed penis in her hand. One of the most controversial films of the last 30 years,..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 60% from 124 members
    Sign up
  • Pleasures Of The Flesh
  • Pleasures Of The Flesh on DVD (1964)
    Starring: Yumiko Nogawa,  Katsuo Nakamura,  Mariko Kaga
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Acclaimed director Nagisa Oshima's thriller about guilt, obsession and materialism in post-war Japan. Teacher Wakizaka (Katsuo Nakamura) murders the man who has raped Shoko (Mariko Kaga), the student that he secretly loves. He is subsequently blackmailed by a thief who witnessed the murder, and ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 61% from 88 members
    Sign up
  • Naked Youth
  • Naked Youth on DVD (1961)
    Starring: Yusuke Kawazu,  Miyuki Kuwano,  Yoshiko Kuga
    Director: Nagisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Director Oshima's second feature deals with the alienation of youth in post-Hiroshima Japan. Makoto (Miyuki Kuwano), a high school student falls for Kiyoshi (Yusuke Kawazu), a violent hoodlum, who introduces her to a life of extortion and blackmail. A bleak, downbeat view of the disillusionment ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 59% from 129 members
    Sign up
  • Night And Fog In Japan
  • Night And Fog In Japan on DVD (1960)
    Starring: Kei Sato,  Akiko Koyama,  Rokko Toura
    Director: Nigisa Oshima
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Director Nagisa Oshima's reflections on the failure of Japanese left-wing radicalism during the 1950s. Having let go of their activist pasts years before, a group of former revolutionaries are reunited at the wedding of one of their own. Everything passes off quietly until the last arrival begins ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 59% from 89 members
    Sign up

Nagisa Oshima facts

5 most recent films

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

5 highest-rated films

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

5 lowest-rated films

Empire Of Passion - Blu-ray - 2.5 stars
Level Five - 3.0 stars
Max Mon Amour - 2.0 stars
In The Realm Of The Senses - 2.5 stars
Empire Of Passion - 2.5 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Tatsuya Fuji - 7 times - show films
Seiko Matsuda - 4 times - show films
Fumio Watanabe - 3 times - show films
Ryuichi Sakamato - 3 times - show films
Kei Sato - 3 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Nigisa Oshima - 1 times - show films
Chris Marker - 1 times - show films

Want to watch something right now?

Start your FREE trial now

About LOVEFiLM

Follow us

Get more out of LOVEFiLM

International sites

© 2013 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.