The provocateur filmmaker constantly challenged censors with his confrontational work winning him not just a loyal fanbase in his homeland but respected worldwide. It was his dark and fanatical In The Realm of Senses about obsessive love affair which has unsimulated sex scenes that brought him attention worldwide but to many in Japan scandal and embarrassment.If you are unfamiliar with his work Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983) gained him some more mainstream recognition starring David Bowie,Takeshi Kitano and Ryuichi Sakamoto a POW film which was shot entirely with Oshima not letting the cast see the outcome until the film was complete.
Oshima was a former law student left his hometown of Kyoto for the Shochiku production house near Toyko in 1954. This was the production company that could boast the likes of Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and in 1959 he made his directorial debut with Cruel Story of Youth, before going on to make The Sun's Burial and the politically intense Night and Fog in Japan before leaving to star his own company.After the In the realm of The Sense (1976) he won accolades at Cannes in 1978 with The Empire Of Passion.
In 1986 he made Max, Mon Armour which starred Charlotte Rampling with a chimpanzee but after a stroke and a bout of ill healt Oshima returned to directing in 1999 for what was his last film Taboo. The man regarded as Japan's Jean Luc Godard due to his left social political beliefs would go onto suffer ill health right upto his final days.
source:The Playlist
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