Audience Member
I got it! This is just like that Bugs Bunny cartoon with the hats! You know, the one where the hat truck spills and all the hats go everywhere and Bugs and Elmer take on the characteristics of the various hats that fall on their heads. I wonder if Oshima is a Looney Tunes fan?
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Probably one of the most bizarre films from Oshima in the 60's, "3 Resurrected Drunkards" stars The Folk Parody Gang, has the movie rewind and playback alternately from the beginning, and includes a social issue still relevant in Japan today: What does it mean to be a Korean or a Japanese in Japan?
3 students' uniforms and IDs get stolen by illegal Korean officers, in effect the 3 students are the suspected of being runaway Koreans, and in turn have to make a run for it as no one will believe them, and the Korean officers continue to make sure they tell no one. 40 minutes into the movie, the entire premise starts all over again, but with minor changes throughout. But in the end, not much changes if your destiny is set.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A bizarre film that plays with the real and the imaginary, as well as the sequence of events in a way that reminds me of "Groundhog's Day" if it were done by a strange Japanese art-house director and featured a soundtrack that sounds like it was a Hawaiian song done by Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's really hard to say anything else about this film except for that it makes you question the importance of race and nationality as a human being, even your own cultural identity. Weird, weird film.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
An interesting comedy by Oshima about three young guys whom are mistaken for Koreans, after their clothes are stolen at the beach. The film has Oshima's surreal moments and its an interesting statement about the Korean Japanese racial relations but for the most part its one of Oshima's lesser work for me.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Three goofy young guys stage mock reenactments of the famous Vietnam assassination photo. As karmic retribution, they're mistaken for Korean refugees on the lam. The film follows a madcap, dreamlike logic, with abrupt time jumps and characters coming back from the dead. And at the halfway point, the story starts over from the beginning, only with the boys aware and able to adapt. It's an inventive, audacious commentary on both the Vietnam War and Japanese xenophobia. The overt politics, playful structure and vibrant color scheme are highly reminiscent of Godard. Although the humor didn't really connect with me, I have to applaud Oshima for a unique, daring and completely unpredictable work.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
eric b
At first, "Three Resurrected Drunkards" seems like a Japanese answer to "Help!" or "Head." The action begins with three young guys (a real-life pop group called the Folk Crusaders) clad in matching Beatle-esque haircuts and suits. They're cavorting on an empty beach, cheerily trying to duplicate that famed Eddie Adams photograph of a gun-to-temple Vietcong execution. The soundtrack is an addictive, sped-up ditty that almost defies description. In accordance with the movie's contradictory tone, this goofy music is leavened with a dark lyric about dying in a car accident and going to Heaven where "the booze is good and the girls are pretty."
The three go swimming, but as soon as they're in the water, a mysterious hand emerges from the sand amidst their clothes and swaps two of the outfits. The returning swimmers have no choice but to dress in what's available.
This unlikely swap sets up a plot of mistaken identity. Two Koreans -- a high school student and an Army corporal avoiding Vietnam service -- have illegally snuck into the country, and now two of our beach boys are wearing their identifiable uniforms. It's officially "Crack Down on Stowaways" week, so the townspeople view them as criminals.
The story rambles onward in surreal ways, as the boys encounter the real fugitives, a surly cigarette-seller, a cute Korean pixie and her gruff, one-eyed, one-handed husband. The girl tries to help them, but they are deported and sent to fight at the battlefront. With disastrous results.
But at this halfway point, the film takes an amazing turn. First there's a semi-documentary segment with the lead actors asking city pedestrians whether they are Japanese. The repeated answer: "No, I'm Korean." Why? "Because I am." Then, incredibly, the story repeats. Yes, it just backtracks to the beginning, with the characters again frolicking on the beach. They're even aware of the loop. They use their acquired knowledge and choose different actions the second time, trying to engineer a happier outcome. Will they succeed?
Just as the characters revisit their own story, "Three Resurrected Drunkards" is another Nagisa Oshima film where a second viewing helps fit the pieces together. I just wish the rest of the movie lived up to the opening's zany energy. Instead, the story ends up hammering on the Japanese people's poor treatment of Koreans -- not the most universal of themes. The acting can be amateurish -- multiple times, the actors seem to be smiling out of character, trying not to laugh -- and Oshima's recurring fixation on the Vietcong photo comes off more gimmicky than evocative. Still, the plot twists are so fresh and exciting that the film is a thrill.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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