A very unique Oshima film in which the filmmaker goes full force with comedy and satire. The third film of Oshima’s Korean trilogy, Oshima manages to bring his political views of Japan’s treatment towards Koreans and the Vietnam War. Definitely a worthy film as part of the Eclipse Series “Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties”.
Image courtesy of © 1968 Shochiku Co. © 2010 All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Three Resurrected Drunkards (as part of the Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties – Eclipse Series #21)
DURATION: 80 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural, Japanese with English subtitles
COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: May 18, 2010
Directed by Nagisa Oshima
Written by Masao Adachi, Nagisa Oshima, Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura
Produced by Masayuki Nakajima
Music by Hikaru Hayashi
Cinematography by Yasuhiro Yoshioka
Edited by Keiichi Uraoka
Production Design by Yoshi Toda
Art Direction by Jusho Toda
Starring:
Kazuhiko Kato – Onoppo “The Big One”
Osamu Kitayama – Chu-noppo “The Small One”
Norihiko Hashida – Chibi “The Smallest One”
Kei Sato – Y Chong – Iru
Cha Dei-dang – Kim Fhua
Fumio Watanabe – Dokumushi
Mako Midori – Nechan
Often called the Godard of the East, Japanese director Nagisa Oshima was one of the most provocative film artists of the twentieth century, and his works challenged and shocked the cinematic world for decades. Following his rise to prominence at Shochiku, Oshima struck out to form his own production company, Sozo-sha, in the early sixties. That move ushered in the prolific period of his career that gave birth to the five films collected here. Unsurprisingly, this studio renegade was fascinated by stories of outsiders—serial killers, rabid hedonists, and stowaway misfits are just some of the social castoffs you’ll meet in these audacious, cerebral entries in the New Wave surge that made Japan a hub of truly daredevil moviemaking.
A trio of bumbling young men frolic at the beach. While they swim, their clothes are stolen and replaced with new outfits. Donning these, they are mistaken for undocumented Koreans and end up on the run from comically outraged authorities. A cutting commentary on Japan’s treatment of its Korean immigrants, this is Nagisa Oshima at both his most politically engaged and madcap.
Nagisa Oshima, one of Japan’s most controversial filmmakers and one of the founders of the Japanese New Wave, Oshima was known for taking on Japanese taboos and creating films against the status quo, the filmmaker has been doing his style of films since 1959 and working for the studio Shochiku in order to fulfill the studio’s desire of creating edgier material for the youth market. Oshima would go on to create three films which were known as “The Youth Trilogy” (“Cruel Story of Youth”, “The Sun’s Burial”, “Night and Fog in Japan”).
After politics played a part in Oshima leaving Shochiku, the filmmaker would go on to create his own company known as Sozo-sha (Creation Company) and in celebration of his work from his new studio and many fans bombarding Criterion for more Oshima, The Criterion Collection has chosen Nagisa Oshima’s mid-to-late ’60s films to be part of the latest Eclipse Series Collection known as “Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties”. The DVD box set would include the following films: “Pleasures of the Flesh” (1965), “Violence at Noon” (1966), “Sing a Song of Sex” (1967), “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide” (1967) and “Three Resurrected Drunkards” (1968).
In 1968, Oshima created “Three Resurrected Drunkards (“Kaette Kita Yopparai”), the third film in his Korea trilogy and also a film that would criticize Korean’s treatment by Japanese, Oshima’s attitude towards Japanese youth and also references to the Vietnam War. But unlike previous films from Oshima, “Three Resurrected Drunkards” can be seen as a film that can be seen more as a surreal comedy or satire meets “The Twilight Zone”.
The film would star pop star Kazuhiko Kato as O-Noppo (the tall one), Osamu Kitayama as Chu-noppo (the middle one) and Norihiko Hashida as chibi (the small one) and would star Kei Sato (who appeared in Oshima films “Vengeance at Noon” and “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide”).
The film revolves around three students from Tokyo who are spending their vacation in a seaside village and having fun. While at the beach, the three head towards the shore to have some fun in the water but while their clothes are left behind in the sand, we see a hand pop up and suddenly we see the clothes of the students being pulled down and replaced with someone else’s clothes.
When the three come back to get their clothes, they realize that their clothes have been stolen and left behind is a Korean military outfit, Japanese school uniform and about five bucks (500 yen) in money. Chu-oppo (middle size) has no choice but to wear the Korean military outfit and Chibi has to sport the student outfit. But as they head to the village, immediately the shopkeeper is suspicious of them and calls the police. It appears that Korean stowaways have been trying to live in Japan.
While the village and police seem quite serious about the situation, the three young men are complacent and see no big deal. Especially when the village are thinking that they are Koreans.
Meanwhile, a Korean woman named Nechan (played by Mako Midori) tries to help them by giving them clothes to disguise themselves because she is also secretly a Korean living in Japan.
As for the three students, they come in contact with the actual two Korean soldiers (which includes Kei Sato as the General) who have deserted to Japan in order to avoid in fighting in Vietnam. The General has his situation planned out as the students will pose as Koreans and live as them and if they don’t, he will shoot them.
The three manage to escape the General and his Korean friend but in the process end up being caught and thought of as Koreans and then used by the US military to fight in the front lines of the Vietnam War where they all end up getting shot down.
But all of a sudden, the three students are taken back to when they were at the beach and repeating the exact day and moments while keeping their memories. This time, knowing what will happen and reliving the day once again, despite the ability to change the situation they are in, have decided to have fun and pretend they are actual Koreans. But with this decision, where will their new action lead them to?
VIDEO:
“Three Resurrected Drunkards” is presented in color (2:35:1 Aspect Ratio). And once again, The Criterion Collection delivers by showing us a film that looks absolutely great for a film that is 42-years-old. There are some issues with the film’s lighting at times but mainly it’s due to the sun and the overcast clouds at times changing the actual beach scenes from light to dark. But for the most part, the video quality for “Three Resurrected Drunkards” is quite good on DVD.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Three Resurrected Drunkards” is presented in Japanese monaural with English subtitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Eclipse Series releases do not come with special features but included in the insert is a background on Oshima and the information about the film.
At first glance, the first half of “Three Resurrected Drunkards” would seem like a farcical comedy in which the acting and storyline would be on par of a tokusatsu-style (think Ultraman or Godzilla) films or TV series. In fact, the three main characters seem almost like they are parodying The Monkeys in their bumbling mannerisms and facial expressions.
You watch this film and because of its unusual comedic elements, you wonder if “Three Resurrected Drunkards” is an actual Nagisa Oshima film? Especially as the film starts off with a pop tune sped up (ala the Chipmunks) of a song by the Japanese group Folk Parody, you have a sense that this film is not going to be overly twisted. Especially when you see these three young men running towards the beach and watch their odd behavior.
But once the film reaches its second arc and we see this “Twilight Zone” spin as the characters get a chance to relive their lives once again, you can’ t help but be amused of where Oshima is going to take you. Will it become more serious, dark, or continue on with the parody and comedy?
We know how passionate Oshima began towards creating films showcasing the Korean’s treatment by Japanese in Japan and where the filmmaker really drives the point in the second film “Death by Hanging” for his Korea trilogy, it feels as if the creation of “Three Resurrected Drunkards” and his agreement of Shochiku handling distribution for this film, that there would be some expectancy of better distribution. Especially as the film does have a slight commercial edge in which Oshima’s political views are hidden within the film’s comedy and satire.
In “Three Resurrected Drunkards” we see how soldiers would go as far as desert the Korean military and avoid being sent to the Vietnam War (note: between 1965 and 1973, over 300,000 South Korean soldiers fought in Vietnam against the North Vietnamese Army who were assisted by the North Korean military who helped North Vietnam from 1966-1968).
We see how Japan has created a sense of fear by posting signs of people to report to police of any suspicious people (stowaways) and similar to Oshima’s “Sing a Song of Sex”, the male students are portrayed as amoral and people who just wanted to have fun and seem non-interested in the politics. If anything, the characters are quite farcical but the things they are joking about can be quite controversial.
For example, while the three students are at the beach, they try to re-enact the famous Eddie Adams photo of Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting Vietcong operative Nguyen Van Lem point-blank in the head. They do it once again when the Korean general holds a gun towards them and a third time when they steal the general’s gun and ask him to make the face of the infamous photo.
Needless to say, with such actions, the film would no doubt be controversial despite the film being a comedy but unfortunately, the film never had a chance. Especially as Shochiku chose to glare over any reference to Korea and Vietnam when it came to this film and which would eventually lead to Oshima annulling the distribution agreement he had with Shochiku.
In some way, this is one of those films that some may feel is to comedic for anyone to take seriously. While some may feel that Oshima is a true genius for taking the complexities of the Japanese feelings towards Koreans and the Vietnam War and hide it within this comedy. In many ways, some may find this film to be experimental and multi-faceted but personally, I found “Three Resurrected Drunkards” to be quite enjoyable.
Overall, I enjoyed “Three Resurrected Drunkards”. We got to see a little taste of that comedy with “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide” and also “Sing a Song of Sex” but this time around, Oshima went full force and if you appreciate his works, more than likely you will find something unique about the film because I surely did.
As the final fifth film in this Eclipse Series set, “Three Resurrected Drunkards” is an excellent addition to “Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties”.