After Pleasures of the Flesh (1965), Violence at Noon (1966) is the second Nagisa Oshima film to based on a work of literature, this time on Tsutomu Tamura's novel which was in turn inspired by actual crimes that took place in a Japanese rural community. The movie adaptation is a strong stylistic departure from many of Oshima's previous (and subsequent) films.
The story itself is very bleak and distressing, but always captivating. It focuses on a few characters with questionable motivations and uncertain fates. Due to being linked with a murdering rapist, their lives take a turn for the worse, casually discussing suicide and pondering on their heavy situation, their philosophy of love seeking no rewards now being put to test. The story is non-linear and characterized by sudden leaps between flashbacks and current time. Despite this, the movie is miraculously easy to follow and never becomes confusing, even if we consider the break-neck editing style which sees over 2000 cuts throughout the duration of the film. It disorients the viewer, but at the same time keeps your attention.
The film is inspired by the French nouvelle vague, as made evident by the film's title card which pops up randomly several times during the intro like it's a Godard film. The music is great and the B&W cinematography is fantastic, always finding new ways to focus on the close-ups of Saeda Kawaguchi's gorgeous face and to justaxpose the characters' worried faces with the grayish environment. All in all, a fantastic movie.
The story itself is very bleak and distressing, but always captivating. It focuses on a few characters with questionable motivations and uncertain fates. Due to being linked with a murdering rapist, their lives take a turn for the worse, casually discussing suicide and pondering on their heavy situation, their philosophy of love seeking no rewards now being put to test. The story is non-linear and characterized by sudden leaps between flashbacks and current time. Despite this, the movie is miraculously easy to follow and never becomes confusing, even if we consider the break-neck editing style which sees over 2000 cuts throughout the duration of the film. It disorients the viewer, but at the same time keeps your attention.
The film is inspired by the French nouvelle vague, as made evident by the film's title card which pops up randomly several times during the intro like it's a Godard film. The music is great and the B&W cinematography is fantastic, always finding new ways to focus on the close-ups of Saeda Kawaguchi's gorgeous face and to justaxpose the characters' worried faces with the grayish environment. All in all, a fantastic movie.