dave s
Anyone who watches Shohei Imamura's The Pornographers based on the title alone will probably be frustrated and disappointed. Subu Ogata (Shoichi Ozawa) caters to the suppressed needs of Japanese society, making low-budget porn films to satisfy the demand. The film has an Ozu-like feel to it, with the vast majority of the shots being stationary. The shots are also primarily medium-long, which makes it difficult at times to clearly identify the character(s) and, as a result, can make it challenging to follow the plot. While the movie is visually interesting and the themes are compelling, one can't help but think that The Pornographers is one of those films that actually improves with additional viewings, allowing the viewer the chance to better understand its intricacies.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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scott s
As shocking as it was when it was first released in the 1960s (and some are still shocking today), it does not hold up well today and seems sluggish and bland.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
An eclectic movie; a significant chapter in the Japanese New Wave cinema of the late 1950s to the 70s.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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Audience Member
The Pornographers is as it says in the title a movie about the porn industry of Japan. More specifically it is about how one man makes porn to support his lover and two kids. The film touches upon taboos of incest and issues of morality. And to me it suggests that the existence of porn helps quell the animalistic natures of humans by providing a way to experience their own sexual fantasies. While also contrasting what is seen as the inherent immorality of the industry and its exploitive nature. Overall I feel like it was a very interesting study of characters on the cusps of society( like all Imamura films so far I have seen) , I just wish it focused a little less on the family and explored the pornography industry a bit more, as it is a subject that is rarely discussed in serious film, yet is such a major part of many societies that it deserves to be talked about more in a serious manner.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
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eric b
Shohei Imamura's "The Pornographers" is frustrating -- the director's arty, remote style fails to properly accent what should have been a droll black comedy. A livelier musical score would help, and Imamura has an odd pattern of distantly shooting interiors through windows. It's difficult to emotionally connect with characters -- much less laugh at them -- when we're not even in the room.
Subu Ogata lives as a boarder with widowed Haru, her precocious daughter Keiko and her Oedipal son Koichi. He supports this makeshift family via producing low-budget pornographic films. A convenient romance is brewing with Haru, but her late husband's memory haunts her. She has promised to stay true to him and, in the film's strangest touch, she believes her pet carp is his vigilant reincarnation. "Whenever something bad happens, the carp jumps," she says. This motivates multiple insertions of the fish's "reaction" to events, plus some peculiar shots where the tank's undulating water acts as a filter between the camera and characters.
Ogata also eyes the teasing Keiko, endures Koichi's competitive intrusions and has problems with a local crime syndicate who wants a piece of his action. And while "The Pornographers" has no nudity or explicit sex (sorry), we do see some of the troubles Ogata has while shooting his films. In the most twisted scene, he struggles to direct a mentally disabled girl who's capable of little beyond mechanically chomping lollipops. Ouch.
The cast's faces are unfamiliar to most Western audiences, and can be confusing to distinguish. But Imamura makes his presence known with abrupt uses of freeze-frame (it's hard to tell what narrative purpose this serves) and an occasional dash of surrealism.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Made by the same director who would remake The Ballad of Narayama (1983), the film stands as a proof that Shouhei Imamura isn't the kind of filmmaker who only knows how to render into rolling images the depiction of society and its people, all back-to-back. Here, Imamura twists the reality which we often spontaneously recognize, rebuild its structure to construct a full-time parody and suddenly crush it to make entirely something new, although still familiar to our realm. It is filled with poker-face people and decadent character of society, serious enough to make us laugh. The surprise is that not only it works as a collective representation of the society, it also scrutinizes our truest character as an individual, as a man or woman, as a human being. The doll at the climax was a hit; it symbolizes the enigma of Ogata, his passion, that is, to recall past memories of Haru and recreates life. On the other side, it also plays as a way to runaway from his pain of loss and agony. It's quite funny how the absurdity of man can be the simplest way to recognize the purpose of our existence. If you like sex, then you're normal. That is, probably, what we always try to cover up and distract ourselves from, but eventually fail and got busted.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
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