These early films were rebellious in almost every way. Compared with the previous generation, a golden era populated by such giants as Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Akira Kurosawa, Oshima was a ready and willing protester of the old ways of making films. That reflected his days as a student activist. And yet it was Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), which dealt with a Kyoto law professor's trials at the hands of the repressive pre-war government, that helped influence Oshima's choice of school. In 1950, he was admitted to the law school of Kyoto University, becoming president of the Kyoto Prefecture Student Alliance. In 1953, he led a demonstration in which 70 people were injured. Dispirited, he entered his senior year branded a "Red Student" (no doubt his lonely childhood spent devouring his late father's collection of Communist and Socialist texts contributed to this charge), and with limited job prospects.
Although Oshima had no experience in filmmaking, he took the entrance exam at Shochiku, out of sheer desperation — and achieved the highest possible score. Yet after Night and Fog in Japan was shelved, he found himself with no choice but to ride the crest of the Japanese New Wave straight out of Shochiku and into independent production, forming his own company, Sozosha. Liberated from the mirage of freedom that Shochiku had offered, his controversial filmmaking grew more inventive; his narratives fragmented, taking off in bold new directions while remaining as intellectually — and sexually — charged as ever. An added irony? Shochiku would choose to distribute many of Sozosha's features.
Cruel Story of Youth revealed a probing fascination not only with criminal activities but also with the less visible, oppressed members of society that have remained a constant throughout his films. For every theft, there's a rape. For every act of blackmail, there's a murder. Oshima's interests lay with those marginalized members of society — frequently women, delinquents, and members of Japan's oppressed Korean-Japanese minority.
DEATH BY HANGING (1968; December 20 at 9 pm) provokes on many fronts. Using an actual incident that he had been trying to work into a film for the better part of a decade, and drawing from emotions that had been growing for four years after a trip to South Korea (his first ever trip abroad), Oshima reimagines a famous murder trial (fodder also for many other stories and at least one novel) in order to confront issues including the shameful, ingrained hostility toward Korean-born Japanese, the ineptitude of the police force, and capital punishment while shedding the hyper-realism that marked his earlier works and moving toward a more expressionistic reality. A TREATISE ON JAPANESE BAWDY SONGS (1967; December 15 at 9:15 pm) is a coolly detached film that follows four male students in their quest for sexual — and violent — gratification. It culminates in a scene that offers not only sex and violence but also a biting speech by actress Akiko Koyama (Oshima's wife of 47 years) tracing the roots of the Japanese race back to Korea.
