Towards the end of WWII, a black American pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions as to how to proceed with their 'catch'.
Direction
Ōshima weaponizes silence and group framing.
Acting
Hugh Hurd's contained rage against village complicity.
Director
Nagisa Ōshima
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of the Japanese New Wave's postwar reckoning, Ōshima deliberately cast a Black American actor to complicate pure victim/villain binaries.
The novel's author Kenzaburō Ōe later disowned this adaptation, reportedly furious at Ōshima's structural changes to the ending.
JP
