Pastoral Hide and Seek (1974)
"Den-en ni shisu" (original title)

Director:

Shûji Terayama

Writer:

Shûji Terayama

Stars:

Kantarô Suga, Hiroyuki Takano, Sen Hara

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kantarô Suga	...	Me
Hiroyuki Takano	...	Me, as a boy
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sen Hara	...	Phantom of old woman
Yoshio Harada	...	Arashi
Masumi Harukawa
Isao Kimura	...	Film Critic
Kan Mikami
Keiko Niitaka
Yoko Ran
J.A. Seazer	...	Tengu Kurama
Kaoru Yachigusa

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

doll | train | female nudity | teenage runaway | psychic | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

28 December 1974 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Pastoral Hide and Seek

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Theatre Guild, Jinriki Hikoki Sha, Terayama Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Ore 5.35. tangenziale est (2008)

User Reviews

Terayama's memories and mythologies

Terayama's mastery of the image is inarguable. His compositions - kaleidoscopic, supersaturated, overpowering - are an integral part of his films' unique emotional landscape. He could almost be described as a director of Japanese kink, were his films not so deeply philosophical, cerebral and achingly emotional.

Here, Terayama paints his childhood in broad strokes, then proceeds to shake his head as if disappointed at the results; his images are an embellishment, he concedes, and the rest of the film delves more deeply into the metaphysical as he literally steps foot into his childhood to try to understand it and, if possible, change it, if only to find out what will happen if he does.

The film is charged with budding eroticism, a portrait of an adolescent's confusion juxtaposed with a man's midlife existentialism. Terayama was a fascinating man and he's putting his soul on display in this film, his own poetry woven through it as his memories ring with the surreal and come across more coherently as feelings than as literal moments. The figures of his childhood walk larger than life until, finally, the thin walls of memory come crashing down and the past is forsaken in favour of an urban present.