Edo Porn (1981)

The famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.

Director:

Kaneto Shindô

Writers:

Kaneto Shindô, Seiichi Yashiro (play)

Stars:

Ken Ogata, Toshiyuki Nishida, Yûko Tanaka

5 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ken Ogata	...	Tetsuzo (Katsushika Hokusai)
Toshiyuki Nishida	...	Sashichi - Kyokutei Bakin
Yûko Tanaka	...	Oei, Tetsuzo's Daughter
Kanako Higuchi	...	Onao
Nobuko Otowa	...	Omomo, Sashichi's Wife
Yoichi Sase	...	Gosuke (The Apprentice Boy)
Furankî Sakai	...	Nakajima Ise
Kazuko Imai	...	Oshina
Hideo Kanze	...	Karino
Taiji Tonoyama	...	Tattooist
Jô Shishido	...	Jyuppensha Ikku (as Joe Shishido)
Kon Ohmura	...	Shikitei Sanba (as Kon Ômura)
Kin'ya Aikawa	...	Utamaro
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bin Moritsuka
Rokkô Toura

Storyline

(Japanese with English subtitles) Widowed woodblock artist Hokusai meets Onao and falls madly in love with her, but she disappears suddenly. One day, his daughter brings home a young girl who looks exactly like Onao. Using the girl as his muse, he reconnects to his youth when he painted his masterpiece, the gigantic octopus and the beauty seduced.

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Plot Keywords:

speculative fiction | nude model | suicide by hanging | suicide | single father | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

July 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

Edo Porn

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hokusai became something of a celebrity after painting the huge poster of a monk called Buddha in 1804. There is a scene in this movie where he does this. He did travel around and repeat the performance in parts of Japan.

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Quotes

Tetsuzo: As a spirit, I'm passing through a field in summer.

User Reviews

Eccentric Portrait of an Eccentric Artist

I first noticed this film amongst the more popular Japanese films on Hulu, but I didn't pay much mind to it, cause I figured I could guess how it got there (being titled "Edo Porn" and all). But when I realized that this was a film by Kaneto Shindô (Onibaba, Kuroneko, The Naked Island), I couldn't pass up a chance to watch another one of his films.

This film is a portrait of the Japanese artist Hokusai, who I knew nothing about going in, but whom this film has piqued my interest in. He created the famous "Great Wave off Kanagawa". Apparently, he also created what could probably be considered the earliest example of tentacle porn. The sequence in the film where he draws that is... amazing.

This film starts off a generally well-made, albeit somewhat odd biopic of an eccentric man. In the last act however... I can understand the criticisms. There's a lot of Hokusai and his friend stumbling around - the actors in unconvincing 90-year-old man makeup doing their best half-crazy half-senile old man impressions. There's a lot of Hokusai talking to himself about death. Things get really strange, but I have to admit, that's kind of what I love about this film.

In a strange way, I think this is a good companion film to Kenji Mizoguchi's "Utamaro and His Five Women". That film is also about a famous Japanese woodblock printmaker of the same era, Utamaro, who is mentioned and briefly appears in "Edo Porn" as something of a rival of Hokusai. Made 35 years earlier, it's a completely different style of film, but, y'know, they're completely different styles of artists.