Masumura's Red Angel

"My goal is to create an exaggerated depiction featuring only the ideas and passions of living human beings....In Japanese society, which is essentially regimented, freedom and the individual do not exist. The theme of the Japanese film is the emotions of the Japanese people, who have no choice but to live according to the norms of that society. The cinema has had no alternative but to continue to depict the attitudes and inner struggles of the people who are faced with and oppressed by complex social relationships and the defeat of human freedom....[But] after experiencing Europe for two years, I wanted to portray the type of beautifully vital, strong people I came to know there, even if, in Japan, this would be nothing more than an idea."
- Masumora from a 1958 essay

Although the subject of several film fests, Masumora's films have not been available in the US until fantoma reissued four dvds around 2001 of his work: Afraid to Die, Blind Beast, Manji, and Giants & Toys. In mid-September, they will reissue Red Angel, a mid-60's work about a nurse who is working on the front lines of war. Her relationships with a soldier amputee and a drug addicted surgeon test her spirit, her sense of mission as a nurse, and her will to survive a horrible environment. He slightly predated the "New Wave" of Japanese films of the 60's, led by Oshima, but his movies are unique for their time, depicting gangsters (Afraid to Die), forbidden love triangle between two women and a man (Manji), ruthless business practices of corporations, and their dehumanizing means to make a buck (Giants & Toys), and the relationship between artist and model (Blind Beast). His films all contain clean, vivid photography, developing toward surreal in the later 60's (as seen in his horror masterpiece, Blind Beast, with the artist's studio made into a huge sculpture of human body parts). Japanese movies regarding modern war are ususally engaging, often harrowing (see The Human Condition trilogy, about Japan's occupation of Manchuria), so I will look forward to this release when it comes out.