An engineer from Tokyo arrives on a drought-ridden tropical island to drill a well to power a nearby sugar mill. He meets the inbred Futori family, hated by the locals for breaking religious customs.
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Title: Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Rentarô Mikuni | ... | Nekichi Futori / the chained son |
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Chôichirô Kawarasaki | ... | Kametaro Futori / the backward son |
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Hideko Okiyama | ... | Toriko Futori / the retarded daughter |
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Kanjûrô Arashi | ... | Yamamori Futor / the patriarch |
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Yasuko Matsui | ... | Uma Futori / the priestess daughter |
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Yoshi Katô | ... | Ritsugen Ryu |
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Izumi Hara | ... | Unari Ryu |
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Jun Hamamura | ||
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Kazuo Kitamura | ... | Kariya / Engineer |
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Tatsu Nakamura | ||
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Susumu Mizushima | ||
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Hôsei Komatsu | ||
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Chikako Hosokawa | ||
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Yasuhiko Ishizu | ||
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Kazuhiko Hasegawa | ||
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Plot Summary
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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. Written by Will Gilbert
Plot Keywords:
father daughter incest | brother sister incest | fishing | snake | singing |Genres:
DramaParents Guide:
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Details
Country:
JapanLanguage:
JapaneseRelease Date:
22 July 1970 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Deep Desire of Gods See more »Filming Locations:
Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, JapanCompany Credits
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Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1
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Trivia
Official submission of Japan for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970. See more »Frequently Asked Questions
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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.