Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
Direction
Imamura's anthropological gaze—loving his subjects while exposing their rot
Writing
The carp husband as Greek chorus—absurd, mournful, perfect
Acting
Sakamoto's Haru: vulgar, wounded, defiantly alive
Director
Shōhei Imamura
Shoichi Ozawa
Yoshimoto 'Subu' Ogata
Masaomi Kondo
Koichi Matsuda
Haruo Tanaka
Banteki
Ganjirō Nakamura II
Elderly Executive
Chōchō Miyako
Brothel Madame
Kō Nishimura
Detective Sanada
Ichirō Sugai
Shinun Ogata
Kazuo Kitamura
Doctor
Asao Uchida
Furukawa
Taiji Tonoyama
Father
Jun Hamamura
Company Manager
Kin Sugai
Teacher Oda
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of the Japanese New Wave that rejected Ozu's refined domesticity for the messy, grotesque underbelly Imamura called 'the true Japan.'
The carp was reportedly difficult to direct; Imamura later joked it gave the film's most naturalistic performance.
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