12 Best Nagisa Ōshima Films: Radical Voice of Japanese Cinema

Nagisa Oshima was a pioneering Japanese filmmaker known for his provocative and controversial works that challenged societal norms and conventions.

He rose to international prominence in the 1960s and 70s with films that explored themes of sexuality, violence, and political power, often through non-linear narratives and experimental techniques.

Here are some of Nagisa Oshima’s best films:

In the Realm of the Senses (1976): This film is Oshima’s most famous work, based on the true story of a passionate and obsessive love affair between a former prostitute and her employer in pre-World War II Japan.

The film is known for its explicit sexual content and was banned in several countries upon its release.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983): This film explores the relationship between a group of British prisoners of war and their Japanese captors during World War II.

It stars David Bowie and Tom Conti, and was a critical and commercial success.

Death by Hanging (1968): This film is a surreal and darkly comic exploration of the death penalty in Japan.

It follows the execution of a Korean man, who miraculously survives and questions the morality of capital punishment.

Boy (1969): This film tells the story of a ten-year-old boy whose father and stepmother force him to fake traffic accidents so the family can extort drivers as they move across Japan.

Based on a real 1966 case, it is one of Oshima’s sharpest films about the family and postwar society.

The Ceremony (1971): This film is a scathing critique of the traditional Japanese family and its role in perpetuating social and political inequality.

It follows Masuo Sakurada and his cousin Ritsuko after a telegram announces a relative’s death, through flashbacks of the clan’s weddings, funerals, and anniversaries.

Best Nagisa Oshima Films

Nagisa Oshima’s films are characterized by their bold and challenging themes, unconventional storytelling techniques, and unflinching portrayal of the darker aspects of human nature.

The full list

1. Empire of Passion (1978)

Empire of Passion is a 1978 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima. The film tells the story of a passionate love affair between a married woman and a young man, and the consequences that ensue from their actions.

The film is set in rural Japan in the late 19th century, and explores themes of love, lust, jealousy, and revenge.

The film is visually stunning, with Oshima’s use of color and composition creating a dreamlike, almost surreal atmosphere that adds to the sense of emotional intensity.

The film’s score, composed by Toru Takemitsu, is haunting and evocative, further adding to the film’s atmospheric quality.

Empire of Passion was controversial upon its release, due to its explicit sexual content and themes of adultery and murder.

However, it was also widely acclaimed, winning the Best Director award at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.

If you like Nagisa Oshima’s work, on our sister site AuteurGraph we have a profile page, a visual film timeline, and a ratings page that gives a tonne of info and data about their career in a visualized form.

Overall, Empire of Passion is a masterful work of filmmaking that explores the darker aspects of human desire and the destructive power of love.

2. Death by Hanging (1968)

Death by Hanging is a Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima and released in 1968. The film is a satirical and politically charged exploration of Japanese society, focusing on the controversial issue of capital punishment.

The story follows the execution of a Korean man, R, who has been convicted of rape and murder. However, the execution fails due to a technicality, and R survives the hanging.

The prison officials then attempt to reenact the events leading up to the crime to prove R’s guilt, but their efforts are complicated by the fact that R has lost his memory.

As the officials struggle to find a way to execute R, the film explores themes of identity, memory, and power.

It also critiques the justice system and the death penalty, exposing the flaws and biases inherent in such institutions.

Death by Hanging is known for its experimental and unconventional style, combining elements of documentary, surrealism, and Brechtian theater.

The film’s bold political statements and unique cinematic language have made it a landmark of Japanese cinema and an influential work in the world of international art film.

3. The Ceremony (1971)

The Ceremony (Gishiki, 1971) is Nagisa Ōshima’s postwar family chronicle—not a Yukio Mishima novel (and not The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea / Gogo no Eiko).

Kenzo Kawarasaki plays Masuo Sakurada, who travels with cousin Ritsuko after a telegram announces another relative’s death. Flashbacks move through Sakurada weddings, funerals, and anniversaries—rituals that mask incest, humiliation, and the elder generation’s grip on lineage, climaxing in an absurdist marriage ceremony to an absent bride.

A scathing, non-linear satire of Japanese tradition and the patriarchal clan, it is one of Ōshima’s key early-’70s political melodramas.

4. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

In the Realm of the Senses is a Japanese erotic drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima and released in 1976.

The film is loosely based on the true story of Sada Abe, a former geisha who became notorious for her affair with and murder of her employer in 1936.

The film tells the story of Sada (played by Eiko Matsuda), a former prostitute who begins working as a maid in a hotel.

She soon meets and begins a passionate and obsessive affair with the hotel’s owner, Kichizo (Tatsuya Fuji), which becomes increasingly violent and dangerous.

As their sexual relationship intensifies, Sada and Kichizo become more and more isolated from the outside world, and their behavior becomes increasingly erratic and destructive.

The film features numerous explicit sex scenes and has been both praised for its exploration of sexual desire and criticized for its graphic content.

The film was controversial upon its release and was banned in several countries. It has since become a cult classic and is regarded as a landmark in Japanese cinema and in the history of erotic films.

5. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a 1983 British-Japanese war film directed by Nagisa Oshima and starring David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Takeshi Kitano.

The film is set in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II and explores the relationships between the prisoners and their Japanese captors.

Bowie plays a British officer who struggles to adapt to the camp’s strict rules and clashes with the camp’s commandant, played by Sakamoto.

Conti plays another British officer who tries to keep the peace between the prisoners and the Japanese guards.

The film was praised for its performances, particularly those of Bowie and Sakamoto, as well as its haunting score, which was also composed by Sakamoto.

It was also noted for its portrayal of the complex and often contradictory relationships between the prisoners and their captors, and for its exploration of themes such as loyalty, honor, and sacrifice.

Overall, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a powerful and thought-provoking film that offers a unique perspective on the experiences of prisoners of war during World War II.

6. Taboo (1999)

Taboo (1999), also known as Gohatto, is Nagisa Oshima’s final feature. Set in Kyoto in 1865, near the end of the Edo period, it follows Kano Sozaburo (Ryuhei Matsuda), a young swordsman admitted to the Shinsengumi, the militia raised to defend the shogunate. His presence draws desire from other recruits and from senior officers, including Hijikata Toshizo (Takeshi Kitano), and that rivalry strains the unit’s code.

Adapted by Oshima from stories by Ryotaro Shiba, the film is about male desire inside a closed military hierarchy. It is much more restrained than In the Realm of the Senses.

Taboo was Oshima’s final film. It received critical acclaim for its subject and is regarded as one of his most significant late works.

7. The Man Who Put His Will on Film (1970)

The Man Who Put His Will on Film (also known as The Man Who Left His Will on Film) is a 1970 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima. The film is a highly experimental work that blurs the line between footage in a camera and the life of the person watching it.

After the late-1960s student protests, Motoki sees a fellow activist filmmaker, Endo, fall to his death while fleeing the police. The camera that remains holds only ordinary Tokyo street scenes, which Motoki takes as Endo’s will. With Endo’s girlfriend Yasuko, he tries to reconstruct what happened, and his sense of what is real begins to slip.

Visually, the film is highly stylized and disorienting, in keeping with Oshima’s most experimental work.

The film’s score, composed by Toru Takemitsu, adds to the film’s unsettling atmosphere.

The Man Who Put His Will on Film is a challenging and provocative work of cinema that pushes the boundaries of what a film can be.

It is a must-see for anyone interested in experimental filmmaking or the work of Nagisa Oshima.

8. Sing a Song of Sex (1967)

Sing a Song of Sex is a Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima and released in 1967. The film is a satirical and provocative exploration of the sexual politics and cultural conflicts of 1960s Japan.

The story follows four high-school seniors who have come to Tokyo to sit their university entrance exams. They become obsessed with a girl they know only by her exam number, then spend a night drinking with their teacher, who sings a bawdy folk song and calls such songs the voice of the oppressed. After he dies, the boys carry the song through a city of political marches they mostly mock.

As the students move through that day, the film offers a critical commentary on Japanese society, including sexual fantasy, political apathy, and the tensions around National Foundation Day.

Sing a Song of Sex is known for its daring and controversial portrayal of sexuality, which was considered highly provocative and taboo-breaking at the time of its release.

The film also features innovative visual techniques and storytelling devices, such as freeze frames, jump cuts, and voice-over narration, which contribute to its experimental and modernist style.

Overall, Sing a Song of Sex is a key work in the oeuvre of Nagisa Oshima, who was a major figure in the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s and 1970s.

The film remains relevant and impactful today for its incisive critique of power and sexuality, as well as its bold artistic vision.

9. Violence at Noon (1966)

Violence at Noon is a 1966 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima. The film is often considered a masterpiece of the Japanese New Wave, a movement that emerged in the 1960s and aimed to challenge traditional Japanese cinema and social norms.

The film follows Eisuke (Kei Sato), a serial rapist and murderer, adapted from a novel by Taijun Takeda. After he attacks the maid Shino and kills her employer, Shino recognizes him from a failed rural community but will not name him to the police. She seeks out his wife, the schoolteacher Matsuko, who has known of his crimes and protected him.

Flashbacks connect both women to Eisuke. Shino later pushes Matsuko to turn him in; after his death sentence, Matsuko draws Shino into a suicide pact and dies, leaving Shino alive again.

Violence at Noon is known for its experimental narrative structure, built from fragmented flashbacks and very rapid editing.

The film also features striking cinematography and editing, which reflect Oshima’s interest in creating a dynamic and challenging visual language.

The film was controversial upon its release, due to its graphic depictions of violence and its unflinching critique of Japanese society.

However, it has since been recognized as a groundbreaking work of cinema and an important contribution to the Japanese New Wave.

10. The Pleasures of the Flesh (1965)

The Pleasures of the Flesh (also known as Etsuraku in Japanese) is a Japanese drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima and released in 1965.

The film explores themes of desire, lust, and power through the story of Atsushi Wakizaka (Katsuo Nakamura), a tutor who kills a man blackmailing the family of his former student Shoko (Mariko Kaga), whom he loves.

A corrupt official who saw the murder forces Atsushi to guard a suitcase of embezzled money until the official leaves prison. After Shoko marries someone else, Atsushi spends the cash on a series of women, knowing that deadline is also a date with his own destruction.

The film is notable for its frank treatment of sex, money, and violence in postwar Japan.

It was controversial upon its release, but has since been regarded as a classic of Japanese cinema and a landmark in the career of Nagisa Oshima.

11. Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (Muri shinjū: Nihon no natsu) is a 1967 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima. It is not Masahiro Shinoda’s 1969 Double Suicide (Shinjū: Ten no Amijima), the later Chikamatsu adaptation starring Kichiemon Nakamura and Shima Iwashita.

Over one night, a sex-obsessed young woman, Nejiko, and a suicidal man, Otoko, are thrown in with gun-obsessed gangsters waiting in a hideout for a shootout at dawn. Oshima uses those figures for an absurdist portrait of a youth culture drawn toward sex and death.

The film is in black and white, and it refuses a conventional crime plot. It is one of the key works Oshima made after leaving Shochiku.

12. Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968)

Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968) is a satirical film directed by Nagisa Oshima that explores themes of identity, nationality, and cultural imperialism.

The film tells the story of three young Japanese men whose clothes are stolen on a beach and replaced with Korean military uniforms. Dressed that way, they are mistaken for Korean stowaways and end up on the run from the authorities.

The story then replays with variations. Oshima uses surreal imagery, including a dream of the men being sent toward the Vietnam War, to show how quickly the people around them assign them a foreign identity.

The film uses fragmented narrative and fourth-wall play to underline how arbitrary that identity is, and how the state enforces it.

Three Resurrected Drunkards is considered one of Oshima’s most politically charged and provocative works, and was highly controversial upon its release for its satire of anti-Korean prejudice.

It has since been recognized as a significant contribution to the Japanese New Wave and a sharp critique of Japanese nationalism.

3 Characteristics of Nagisa Oshima Films

Nagisa Oshima was a highly influential Japanese filmmaker who was known for his innovative approach to cinema. Here are three characteristics that are often present in his films:

Provocative and controversial themes: Oshima’s films often dealt with taboo subjects such as sexuality, violence, and political unrest.

He was known for pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in cinema, and his work was often met with controversy and censorship.

Experimentation with form and style: Oshima was a highly innovative filmmaker who was not afraid to experiment with the form and style of his films. He often used unconventional techniques such as jump cuts, handheld camera work, and non-linear storytelling to create a sense of disorientation and unease.

Political and social commentary: Oshima’s films were often critiques of Japanese society and culture.

He used his work to comment on issues such as class inequality, political corruption, and the effects of World War II on Japanese society. His films were often highly political and sought to provoke thought and discussion about these issues.

3 Reasons Why You Should Watch Nagisa Oshima Films

Nagisa Oshima was a renowned Japanese filmmaker who is considered a major figure in world cinema, particularly in the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s and 1970s. Here are three reasons why you should watch his films:

Social Critique and Political Commentary: Oshima’s films are known for their incisive critique of Japanese society, particularly in its rigid class structures, political tensions, and sexual politics.

His films address issues such as capital punishment, racism, gender inequality, and political corruption.

They offer a frank and often controversial portrayal of these themes, making them essential viewing for anyone interested in social criticism and political commentary.

Innovative and Experimental Style: Oshima’s films are characterized by their innovative and experimental style.

He was known for his use of bold visual techniques and storytelling devices, such as freeze frames, jump cuts, and voice-over narration, which challenged conventional film language and broke new ground in cinematic expression.

His films are often described as avant-garde, and they continue to inspire and influence filmmakers today.

Humanistic and Philosophical Themes: While Oshima’s films are often politically charged, they also contain deep humanistic and philosophical themes.

He explores questions of identity, memory, desire, and morality, creating complex and multifaceted characters who challenge traditional notions of heroism and villainy.

His films offer a nuanced and thought-provoking vision of the human condition, making them essential viewing for anyone interested in the complexities of the human experience.

Overall, Nagisa Oshima’s films are essential viewing for anyone interested in cinema, social critique, political commentary, and innovative storytelling.

They offer a unique and impactful perspective on the world and the human experience, making them timeless and relevant works of art.

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Best Nagisa Oshima Films – Wrapping Up

Nagisa Oshima was a highly influential Japanese filmmaker who was known for his daring and unconventional approach to cinema. Some of his best films include:

In the Realm of the Senses (1976) – a highly controversial film based on the true story of a love affair that ends in tragedy.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) – a drama set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II, which explores themes of cultural conflict and understanding.

Cruel Story of Youth (1960) – a film about two teenagers who rebel against societal norms and become involved in a dangerous relationship.

Boy (1969) – a film about a boy forced to join his family’s fake traffic-accident scams.

Violence at Noon (1966) – a film about a serial rapist and murderer, the wife who protects him, and a former victim who will not name him.

Each of these films reflects Oshima’s unique vision and his willingness to challenge conventions and push boundaries in his filmmaking.

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