The Man Who Put His Will on Film (1970)

A metaphysical mystery involving a university student's camera getting stolen, and the thief then committing suicide. Looking back upon the event, the situation comes to be questioned if it happened at all.

Director:

Nagisa Ôshima

Writers:

Nagisa Ôshima (story), Tsutomu Tamura (story)

Stars:

Kazuo Goto, Sukio Fukuoka, Kenichi Fukuda

Cast

Cast overview:
Kazuo Goto	...	Shoichi Motoki
Sukio Fukuoka	...	Tanizawa
Kenichi Fukuda	...	Matsumura
Hiroshi Isogai	...	Sakamoto
Kazuo Hashimoto	...	Takagi
Kazuya Horikoshi	...	Endo
Emiko Iwasaki	...	Yasuko
Tomoyo Oshima	...	Akiko
Naomi Shiraishi
Kenji Yoshino
Kenji Shiiya
Tetsuro Tsuno
Kiyoko Tsuji

Storyline

A metaphysical mystery involving a university student's camera getting stolen, and the thief then committing suicide. Looking back upon the event, the situation comes to be questioned if it happened at all.

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Plot Keywords:

university | student | suicide | camera | japanese new wave | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

27 June 1970 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Man Who Put His Will on Film

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Theatre Guild (ATG), Sozosha

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in La última película (2013)

User Reviews

the man who made a nice little film on will

When I saw this movie, it was called "The Man Who Put His Will on Film". The title sounded interesting and the movie did not disappoint me. First off, this is a movie about movies. It centers around a student who is part of a young filmmakers organization. They are often discussing the value and techniques of film. Most of them are quite Marxist, and there is this proletarian side-theme going on during the movie. But the primary storyline follows the film student mentioned above (I cannot remember his name). One day, he is out filming, and someone grabs his Bolex film camera. He chases after him, trying to get it back, but he turns a corner and sees the person that he was pursuing on the rooftop of a building, holding his camera. He blinks for a second and the person has jumped off of the building, and the police have started to gather around him. The film student grabs his camera from next to the dead thief and starts to run away from the police. They capture him, beat him and he wakes up at his friends' house wondering where the camera is. He tries to describe what happened to one of his closest friends, who says that his story could not have happened because she was with him the whole day. In any case they somehow acquire the film that was shot by the person who committed suicide and the movie is about understanding this person's last film, which is said to be his "last will and testament". There are some parts that are pretty funny in the movie, too. There is the radical Marxist in the group who is always accusing the others of funny things, there are the funny intellectual film student debates about abstract concepts, and there is this strange relationship between the two main characters (the primary film student and his friend), which I would not call a love affair, but it figures into the story somehow. The movie deals with alternate realities and "captured life vs. real life" and all sort of art-arguments like that. I liked this movie.