"Gohatto" by Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Oshima is the director who represented the new wave of film-making in 1960s Japan. As excellent film director, he has become one of the world?s most famous film directors."Gohatto" is a cruel story about a cruel time and the cruel living circumstances of Japanese samurai life in the temple. The blurry and dark cinematography contributes to the heaviness of the film. Before you decide to go see it, please bear on mind that this is no bedtime story. This is a pure, sad and dramatically cruel film.

The emphasis in the film is on the actors, and on deep characterization, which explains why there are few visual details in the surrounding space. The details are in the characters, deep and simple, cruel and plain, with no pretty ornaments to seduce viewers. Like a theatre play, the film offers the nakedness of impartiality, of shameless lovers. This is a saga of homosexuals among the prestigious samurai?s police, who had a reputation for rigid discipline and unscrupulous behaviour.

The main character is a pretty young man. Prettiest of all, he becomes the object of many sexual desires, and becomes a calculated linguist, using and manipulating other people?s feelings. His calculating character makes this film plainly cruel and naked, his character underlying the message of this film.