Profound Desires of the Gods

In the organizer's words:

Director Imamura's first color film combines epic, melodrama, documentary and philosophical treatise.

The action takes place on a fictitious island in the Ryûkyû Islands, where the inhabitants lead a simple life. After a violent storm, a huge boulder is thrown ashore and lands in Nekichi's rice field. The village headman sees it as the work of the devil to punish Nekichi for his incestuous relationship with his sister Uma. He puts Nekichi in chains and orders him to dig a deep hole to sink the rock. He himself makes Uma his lover.

A short time later, an engineer from a sugar factory in Tokyo arrives on the island to explore the water resources. His stay marks the beginning of a fundamental change that will have far-reaching consequences for the islanders.

Film series
In search of criminals and new images - Japanese films from the 1960s

In the 1960s and 1970s, Japan was in a phase of economic, political and social upheaval, which also had a serious impact on the country's film industry. As a counter-movement to the films of the previously established master directors, works emerged that were in part radically new in their themes and aesthetics and moved beyond the existing pigeonholes.

With seven films made between 1958 and 1968, the series provides an insight into the cinema of the 1960s and presents works by five directors who were among the most important representatives of their time: Imamura Shôhei (1926-2006), Nomura Yoshitarô (1919-2005), Shindô Kaneto (1912-2012), Shinoda Masahiro (*1931) and Suzuki Seijun (1923-2017).

Three Nikkatsu action films by Suzuki Seijun, who is considered an experimental visionary in Japanese film history, can be seen. In his first color film, Imamura Shôhei dissects the archaic relationships of a village community marked by incest. Shindô Kaneto is represented with his impressive global success about the adversities of life. Finally, the crime film by Nomura Yoshitarô shows the dramatic chase after a murderer and with his film noir, Shinoda Masahiro has left a lasting mark on the yakuza thriller genre.

Price information:

Admission free