Taboo (1999) Gohatto (original title)

Director:

Nagisa Ôshima

Writers:

Nagisa Ôshima (writer)
Ryotaro Shiba (novellas "Maegami No Sozaburo" and "Sanjogawara Ranjin from Shinsengumi Keppuroku")

Release Date:

18 December 1999 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | History | Thriller

Plot:

Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting...

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Japan | Crime Of Passion | Homosexual Sex | Beheading

Awards:

10 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Takeshi Kitano	...	Captain Toshizo Hijikata (as 'Beat' Takeshi)
Ryûhei Matsuda	...	Samurai Sozaburo Kano
Shinji Takeda	...	Lieutenant Soji Okita
Tadanobu Asano	...	Samurai Hyozo Tashiro
Yôichi Sai	...	Commander Isami Kondo
Jiro Sakagami	...	Lieutenant Genzaburo Inoue
Kôji Matoba	...	Samurai Heibei Sugano
Masa Tommies	...	Inspector Jo Yamazaki
Masatô Ibu	...	Officer Koshitaro Ito
Zakoba Katsura	...	Wachigaiya
Tomorowo Taguchi	...	Samurai Tojiro Yuzawa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chikako Aoyama
Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Daisuke Iijima
Yoichi Iijima
Yoshiaki Inagaki
Yôzaburô Itô
Iwawo
Uno Kanda	...	The Geisha Nishikigi-Dayû
Toujirô Kinoshita
Seiji Kurasaki
Emiko Michii
Kumotarô Mukai
Takuya Muramatsu
Mami Nakamura
Hirofumi Nakase
Yô Obara
Takashi Odashima
Kazuhiko Okuno
Yoshiyuki Omori
Kei Satô	...	Narrator (voice)
Kasumi Sawanoi
Shun Sugata
Shougo Tajika
Sanji Takei
Yôji Tanaka	...	Samurai executed by Kanô
Susumu Terajima	...	Spy
Sayami Toda
Makoto Togashi
Yoshiaki Umegaki
Kenichi Urata
Masanosuke Yamaguchi
Yukiharu Yamaguchi
Shûji Yamazaki
Kazuko Yoshiyuki	...	The Servant Omatsu
Usaburô Ôshima
Tôru Ôtomo

Directed by
Nagisa Ôshima

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ryotaro Shiba		novellas "Maegami No Sozaburo" and "Sanjogawara Ranjin from Shinsengumi Keppuroku"
Nagisa Ôshima		writer

Produced by
Jean Labadie	....	executive producer
Masayuki Motomochi	....	assistant producer
Shigehiro Nakagawa	....	producer
Shigeki Nishimura	....	assistant producer
Eiko Oshima	....	producer
Kazuo Shimizu	....	producer
Jeremy Thomas	....	executive producer
Ichirô Yamamoto	....	line producer assistant
Nobuyoshi Ôtani	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Ryûichi Sakamoto

Cinematography by
Toyomichi Kurita

Film Editing by
Tomoyo Oshima

Production Design by
Yoshinobu Nishioka

Art Direction by
Yoshinobu Nishioka

Set Decoration by
Shoichi Yasuda

Costume Design by
Emi Wada

Makeup Department
Kiyomi Hirose	....	hairdresser
Yuriko Nishikawa	....	hairdresser
Tsuneo Soga	....	hair designer
Mitsuyo Takasaki	....	makeup artist
Ihoko Uchiyama	....	additional makeup
Kunio Yamazaki	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Shinji Harada	....	first assistant director
Kazuhiro Hayashikawa	....	assistant director
Satoshi Ito	....	assistant director
Takehiko Nakajima	....	first assistant director
Yusuke Narita	....	director help
Tomohiko Yamashita	....	assistant director

Art Department
Toshio Fukuda	....	art department production assistant
Keita Gohara	....	assistant set decorator
Nami Hoshizaki	....	assistant set decorator
Kazuo Kajitani	....	construction supervisor
Tomoko Kurata	....	assistant production designer
Kazutoshi Marui	....	assistant production designer
Atsushi Shimamura	....	assistant set decorator
Yosakichi Shimizu	....	assistant set decorator
Eri Yamamoto	....	assistant production designer
Kyoichi Yanase	....	construction supervisor

Sound Department
Hiroshi Abe	....	assistant sound recordist
Kunio Ando	....	sound recordist
Hiroshi Ishigai	....	assistant sound recordist
Takako Kawamoto	....	sound effects (as Keiko Kawamoto)
Osamu Matsumoto	....	assistant to sound recordist
Shinsuke Nagashima	....	assistant to sound recordist
Kenji Shibazaki	....	sound effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Yoichi Chiashi	....	assistant camera
Ryuji Fujii	....	electrician
Tatsuya Fujikawa	....	electrician
Koji Idera	....	electrician
Yasushi Jitsuhara	....	grip
Hajime Kanda	....	assistant camera
So Kanda	....	camera operator
Shinya Kimura	....	assistant camera
Kazuaki Kiriya	....	electrician (as Kazuhiro Iwashita)
Kazuaki Kiriya	....	still photographer (as Kazuhiro Iwashita)
Kazushi Maruyama	....	electrician
Hiroshi Matsuda	....	grip
Isao Nishimura	....	grip
Akira Sakoh	....	Steadicam operator
Tetsuji Sato	....	grip
Hiroshi Takehisa	....	chief lighting technician
Haruhiko Yamaguchi	....	electrician
Yoshiaki Yamamoto	....	assistant camera
Hiro'o Yanagida	....	operator:
Norikazu Yasuda	....	electrician

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Misako Kajimoto	....	wardrobe assistant
Yukiko Kamazawa	....	wardrobe assistant
Fumio Kida	....	wardrobe
Kazuo Matsuda	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Chie Aoki	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Fernando Aponte	....	score mixer
Fernando Aponte	....	score recordist

Other crew
Hikozo Akamatsu	....	title design
Hidenobu Togo	....	swordplay instructor
Thierry Valletoux	....	reportage

Production Companies

• Oshima Productions
• Shôchiku Eiga
• Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co.
• Imagica Corp.
• BS Asahi
• Eisei Gekijo
• Bac Films (co-production)
• Canal+ (co-production)
• Recorded Picture Company (RPC) (co-production)

Distributors

• Shôchiku Eiga (1999) (Japan) (theatrical)
• BIM Distribuzione (2001) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2001) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Golden Scene (2000) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• Kulturföreningen Kedjan (2001) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• New Yorker Films (2000) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Triangelfilm (2001) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• United King Films (????) (Israel) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2002) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Momentum Pictures (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• New Yorker Films (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2001) (Canada) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Aoi Studio  post-production sound services
• Imagica  film processing
• Kodak Japan  film stock supplied by
• NAC Image Technology  camera equipment supplied by

Also Known As:

"Gohatto" - Japan (original title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Japan | France | UK

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Canada:A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Kyoto, Japan

Company:

Oshima Productions

Trivia:

This was Nagisa Oshima's first and, to date (2010), last film since his 1996 stroke.

beauty spreads like a disease

"Gohatto" ("Taboo") is a fascinating film about the danger of beauty : to sum it up, a young "ephebe"'s ethereal beauty spreads like a plague, infecting a whole company of iron hard men in the process. As you must know by now, Oshima tackles in this film the forbidden subject of homosexuality among Samurais.

The movie's premise -and this is a bit of an understatement...- unleashed controversies and protests, in some Japanese traditional quarters : "taboo" indeed (-What about American cowboys, too ? Officially all white heterosexuals ? Yeeeah, right...) But I would argue that, somehow, the "homosexual act" itself is not the film's core subject : its characters discuss it quite openly; we are nowhere near the sniggering comedies of the West, the politically correct heavy handed lessons of Hollywood, or the louche coded homoerotic European art films. This ...is a Japanese movie : about beauty vs. discipline; self-denial and ideals; internal conflict and tragic resolution. Homosexuality here does not equate limp wristed / camp / victimised diffidence and other suchlike cliches -from the start, we are shown that Kano is a ruthless killer, and a master swordsman.

What disturbs, and gradually destroys, the supremely rigid order of the Samurai militia is Kano's personal aura, his -apparent !- frailty, this unnerves these iron hard warriors, the story of which is cleverly presented in a two-pronged attack by Nagisa Oshima.

On one hand, the master director plays it seriously, insisting on very static set pieces (where seated, immobile, Samurais discuss sex and murder without flinching); on the other, Oshima introduces elements of pure comedy....The name Shakespeare crops up (more about that later).

Firstly, this is a very formal film : static, slow, constructed, well-defined, about structures to be respected upon penalty of death, codes of honour (such as sexual : official initiation by geishas; or ethical : no betrayal of the group), hierarchical ("Which school do you belong to ?" they ask of each other), etc.. In a weird way, Takeshi's own facial half-paralysis serves the purpose of the film. Not to mention Kano's immaculate white attire, as opposed to the black armours all around.

But on the other hand, there are elements of comedy. The old unassuming guy who Kano meets turns out to be an officer ...and also a clumsy swordsman (joke fight scene), the colossus assigned to take the youth to a brothel sends the wrong signal ("-Er... don't !" he reminds himself), and so on. After a while, the story almost turns into a "whoddunit", except this time it's physical attraction we're talking about : which one of these hard men, beneath the surface, has not secretly fallen for Kano ?

I mentioned Shakespeare earlier : I saw this film with some Japanese young ladies, who confessed afterwards that , without the subtitles, they wouldn't have understood the language : old Japanese. But I am also thinking of the juxtaposition of levels : comedy and drama, love and ethics, saucy overtones, ...and the ineluctability of tragedy to unfold. It's pretty clear that the alleged lover, Tashiro, is not in fact, and that he will serve the hand of fate : sublime last scenes.

Finally, for all lovers of Japanese cinema, it's fun to spot Takeshi's mates, who usually feature in his trademark ultra-violent, Zen nihilistic, gangster movies : they're all here, under various fabulous wigs.

If you liked this film, you'll love Claire Denis's "Beau Travail", that was the best film of 2000.