A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs (aka Sing a Song of Sex)

April 19, 2016
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Film past event

Nagisa Oshima uses pop singer Ichiro Araki to depict the "obscenity" of underclass desire. Four male and three female students from a provincial city accompany their teacher to Tokyo to take university entrance exams. The teacher dies and one of the boys may be the culprit. But the film is less a narrative than a collage of scenes about power imbalance: between city and country, young and old, rich and poor, Japan and Korea. Taking a hint from Twilight Saloon, Oshima uses song to mark out different social positions, from wartime naval trainees and university radicals to ethnic minorities and resentful adolescents. The question is who gets to sing, and what.

1967, 103 min., 35mm, color. In Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. With Ichiro Araki, Akiko Koyama, Kazuyoshi Kushida, Hiroshi Sato, Kazuko Tajima.

Tickets: $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors & students


Part of the 2016 Globus Film Series Japan Sings! The Japanese Musical Film.

Box Office Policy

A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs aka (Sing a Song of Sex) is co-presented with The Japan Foundation.
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  • Tuesday, April 19, 2016
  • 7:00 pm