Heroic Purgatory (1970)
"Rengoku eroica" (original title)

Director:

Yoshishige Yoshida

Writer:

Masahiro Yamada

Stars:

Mariko Okada, Kaizo Kamoda, Naho Kimura

Cast

Cast overview:
Mariko Okada	...	Nanako
Kaizo Kamoda
Naho Kimura	...	Jyoko
Yoshiaki Makita	...	Shu
Kaneko Iwasaki	...	Atsuko
Toru Takeuchi	...	Kiyoshi
Kazumi Tsutsui	...	Ayu

Storyline

---

Plot Keywords:

incest | japan

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

26 September 1970 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Heroic Purgatory

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Theatre Guild, Gendai Eigasha

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min 118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

User Reviews

Artsy and experimental movie

This is a movie that was made in the late '60s, early '70s period of Japan when Japan influenced by the Hippie culture was experimenting with their own brand of Avant Garde culture that was sometimes called "Angura". This is shortened Japanese pronunciation for "Underground". As the word suggests, these were experimental non-mainstream production that explored much about free sex, and anti establishment view of the world. Rengoku Eroica was made during the period of such social movement. The director of this movie, Yoshishige Yoshida (Sometimes pronounced Kijyu Yoshida) always had Avant Garde taste to his movies. He was one of the directors that were part of movement called Nuberu bagu ( from the French nouvelle vague) or Japanese New Wave. This can be seen in movie such as Amai Yoru No Hate (1961) starring Masahiko Tsugawa. So this movie was a perfect match for the director. The movie also stars his wife Mariko Okada as the mother of the young rebellious daughter.

The core story of this movie is bit like cheap science fiction. There's would be rocket scientist, guerrillas trying to kidnap an ambassador, wife, daughter that plays disjointed story segments that takes sudden detours in topics that keeps things away from from reality.

It was escapism that had intellectual pride at its core. Youth then were running away from responsibility, but were justifying it in many philosophical smoke and mirror. If you watch this movie, you can see this clearly, as you can't pin down who's responsible for what, and everything is just a play without any reality.

This type of movie rapidly lost favor with the public after the late '60s, and Yoshida himself had to move away from making movies to making TV documentaries. What a drastic swing from non-reality to pure reality. Other directors who were part of Japanese New Wave such as Nagisa Ooshima had to go to France to continue his movie making.

Experimental, and artsy, but the movie has no substance. It's interesting to watch, but don't expect to get anything deep from this movie.