mark s
If you enjoy two+ hour movies that are a continually moving feast of rape, incest, child abuse, lying, cheating, scamming, backstabbing, more incest, and a healthy dose of verbal and physical abuse, this might be the pic for you. And if that's the point the director was trying to make, he most certainly succeeded.
The great Japanese directors (Kurosawa, Shindo, Ozu, etc) understood that in all successful films, regardless of content, there needs to be at least brief moments of humor and compassion infused in the script. This was ignored here, and as a result, I felt as if someone took a cheese grater to my skin. And my soul.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Always, always watch masters' great films again and again....until they hit you. You have to be humble in the presence of greatness, as if a student in a masterclass. You won't be telling the teacher he's bad at his job. He'll be telling you to improve as a student. You won't regret it. That's a guarentee. This is one such film that made me think Alan Clarke from Japan. Times ten. Incredible in-the-moment epic covering 45 years of a poor woman's life where existence is cruel and men are (mostly) savage. Bit harsh, (said Satan in bed reading about himself in the Bible), but truthful all the same. Please don't settle for shallow mainstream shite. Blow your brains out on genius.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Audience Member
Japanese director Shohei Imamura (who continued making movies into the 2000s) famously said that his films were "messy" and it's true. Although afterwards it is possible to trace a narrative line and to consider the point and purpose of events, during the film itself things can be quite unpredictable and sometimes strange. The Insect Woman follows Tome from her fatherless birth in the countryside in 1918 through WWII where she was forced to work for the landlord (and sleep with the landlord's son) on to the 50s where she was, in succession, a factory worker and union leader, a maid, a prostitute, a pimp, and a cleaning lady. Imamura sees her as a pragmatic survivor, much like an ant or a beetle, scurrying about protecting her self-interest and occasionally working for others when it suits her ends. Her daughter (also born out of wedlock, like the two generations of women in her family before her) seems to have similar characteristics, also managing to use her wiles to achieve her own goals: this time, she deceives her sugar daddy (the same business man who "kept" her mother) in order to get money to start a collective farm. In the end, we see Tome scurrying about in the dirt, like an insect, hitting home the entomological theme. As sociological commentary, Imamura's film is intriguing but a bit unclear - is this a feminist film, showing the spirit of women to overcome obstacles, even those put in front of them by the patriarchy? If so, Tome's willingness to exploit other women (and to do so in a mean-spirited way) flies in the face of that, unless it is to say that this horrible social system corrupts all those who try to achieve some measure of equity and even comfort. Perhaps that's it.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Maybe I need to watch it again.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
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Audience Member
Sprawling, melodramatic film works well thanks to director Imamura's unusual camera techniques.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A fictional account of a WWI era girl raised in a backwater rural farm, and the lack of true morality (hers & society's) as she goes through life in 20th century Japan. Part of the 1960's "New Wave" cinema.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
Full Review
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