Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
"Kamigami no fukaki yokubo" (original title)

The Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island to drill a well to provide water for the sugar mill. He is assisted on the island by Kametaro, from the inbred Futori family... See full summary »

Director:

Shôhei Imamura

Writers:

Keiji Hasebe, Shôhei Imamura

Stars:

Rentarô Mikuni, Chôichirô Kawarazaki, Kazuo Kitamura

5 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Rentarô Mikuni	...	Nekichi Futori, the chained son
Chôichirô Kawarazaki	...	Kametaro Futori, the backward son
Kazuo Kitamura	...	Engineer Kariya
Hideko Okiyama	...	Toriko Futori, the retarded daughter
Yoshi Katô	...	Ritsugen Ryu
Yasuko Matsui	...	Uma Futori, the priestess daughter
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kanjûrô Arashi	...	Yamamori Futori, the patriarch
Jun Hamamura
Sen Hara	...	Unari Ryu
Chikako Hosokawa
Yasuhiko Ishizu
Hôsei Komatsu
Chikage Ogi
Taiji Tonoyama

Storyline

The Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island to drill a well to provide water for the sugar mill. He is assisted on the island by Kametaro, from the inbred Futori family. Nekichi Futori is chained in a pit that he has to dig, in order to appease the gods for breaking island customs. Nekichi is in love with his sister Uma, who is a shaman priestess at the sacred shrine, that contains the only good water close to the mill. She is also the mistress of Ryu, the manager of the mill. The patriarch of the Futori family tries to get the engineer to marry his retarded daughter Toriko.

---

Plot Keywords:

island | construction | family relationships | japanese | human nature | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

GP

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

22 July 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Profound Desires of the Gods

Filming Locations:

Ishigagi-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nikkatsu

Technical Specs

Runtime:

173 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Cinéma, de notre temps: Shohei Imamura - Le libre penseur (1995)

User Reviews

deftly captures the alchemy of the natural world.

Trying to acknowledge the enigma of Japanese Cinema, outside the paddock of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) and Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story), is a daunting yet arousing act. With Profound Desires of the Gods (1968), Shõhei Imamura redefined the rigorous notions of 'Japaneseness'. Because the Futori family retain the traditional belief that their island of Kurage was created through the sexual union of a brother god and sister goddess, the other more progressive islanders vilify them. When a Tokyo engineer arrives to supervise the creation of a new well, he unearths the mystifying extremism of the Noro (shaman). With Profound Desires, Imamura examines the dogma of Japanese mythology and investigates the disparaging effect of modernity and the ruinous consequence of Coca-Cola. It is a sizzling masterwork filled with Buñuelian surrealism, which deftly captures the alchemy of the natural world.