The Pornographers

Shohei Imamura's 1966 film is a provocative, visually striking dark comedy about sex--both as a primary human drive and as a commodity. The central character is Ogata (Shoichi Ozawa), a bedraggled fellow who makes 8mm porno movies and pimps on the side while posing as a medical instruments salesman. Ogata has long lived with the widowed (and ill) Haru (Sumiko Sakamoto), who refuses to marry him because that would violate the respect due her late husband, whom she believes has been reincarnated as the carp she keeps in a bedroom aquarium. Ogata is also attracted to Haru's young daughter Keiko (shades of Lolita!), while the widow herself seems entirely too familiar with her demanding son Koichi. As if these family complexities weren't burden enough, Ogata must also deal with the vagaries of his businesses while avoiding arrest and resisting the efforts of gangsters to muscle in on his trade. In a surrealistic twist at the end, he seeks to escape the limitations of real relationships by creating a perfect mechanical woman--a strangely funny episode that ends with an even more bizarre flourish. Imamura's study of obsession, perversion, repression and voyeurism is a weird masterpiece, at once outrageous (though not graphic), sad, and gruesomely hilarious. As usual, the Criterion black-and-white anamorphic transfer is wonderfully crisp, but there are (surprisingly) no extras beyond the theatrical trailer. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)