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Profound Desires of the Gods

Original title: Kamigami no fukaki yokubô
  • 19681968
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 2h 53m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
Drama
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... Read allAn 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.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.
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Shôhei Imamura
  • Writers
    • Keiji Hasebe
    • Shôhei Imamura
  • Stars
    • Rentarô Mikuni
    • Chôichirô Kawarasaki
    • Hideko Okiyama
  • Director
    • Shôhei Imamura
  • Writers
    • Keiji Hasebe
    • Shôhei Imamura
  • Stars
    • Rentarô Mikuni
    • Chôichirô Kawarasaki
    • Hideko Okiyama
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 7User reviews
    • 19Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 1 nomination

    Photos12

    Kazuo Kitamura and Hideko Okiyama in Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
    Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Rentarô Mikuni
    Rentarô Mikuni
    • Nekichi Futori…
    Chôichirô Kawarasaki
    • Kametaro Futori…
    Hideko Okiyama
    • Toriko Futori…
    Kanjûrô Arashi
    Kanjûrô Arashi
    • Yamamori Futor…
    Yasuko Matsui
    • Uma Futori…
    Yoshi Katô
    Yoshi Katô
    • Ritsugen Ryu
    Izumi Hara
    • Unari Ryu
    Jun Hamamura
    Jun Hamamura
    Kazuo Kitamura
    • Kariya…
    Tatsu Nakamura
    Susumu Mizushima
    Hôsei Komatsu
    Hôsei Komatsu
    Chikako Hosokawa
    Chikako Hosokawa
    Yasuhiko Ishizu
    Kazuhiko Hasegawa
    Taiji Tonoyama
    Taiji Tonoyama
    Chikage Ôgi
    Kiyoshi Tokugawa
    • Director
      • Shôhei Imamura
    • Writers
      • Keiji Hasebe
      • Shôhei Imamura
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Official submission of Japan for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970.
    • Quotes

      Yamamori Futor: He shouldn't take money. The engineer is a god who came from beyond the sea. It will not do to take money for serving that god.

    • Connections
      Featured in Cinéma, de notre temps: Shohei Imamura, le libre penseur (1995)

    User reviews7

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    meandering, centreless piece with hints of genius
    Profound Desires of the Gods, sometimes referred to as Imamura's overlooked epic, is an ambitious undertaking. Running at a daunting 173 minutes, it is ostensibly the tale of one inbred Ryukyu family's (the Futoris) attempts to regain lost social status. They do this by digging a pit to bury a huge boulder, and by seducing a mainland engineer with the feral, sexually-charged wild-child daughter. On another level, the film interrogates issues of modernity versus tradition, religious hypocrisy, and Japan's troubled relations with the outside world.

    The film's successes are its luscious landscape, evocative production design of heathen and pagan rituals and artifacts, and portrayal of suppressed, taboo desires bursting to the fore. The narrative wanders and explores various tangents that can challenge the attention. This is filmmaking for cinema, and the gorgeous golden beaches and turquoise oceans had me longing to see this on the big screen. A murder by masked men at the end is also visually compelling. This film is interesting in bits, and flashes of genius occasionally show themselves, but the lack of coherence, repetition in the storyline, and outright dud moments (the heavenly vision of the departed patriarch), make this a problematic addition to the Imamura oeuvre. It hints at the great film that this project could have become, a realization of the potential of the vision, rather than the vision itself. Sometimes amazing, sometimes disappointing, this is one to watch and argue over.
    helpful•13
    11
    • LunarPoise
    • Dec 24, 2011

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 22, 1970 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • Tanrıların Derin Arzuları
    • Filming locations
      • Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan(Spelling error)
    • Production company
      • Nikkatsu
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours 53 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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