The Shohei Imamura Masterpiece Collection
This collection brings together eight masterpieces of Japanese cinema from the career of Shohei Imamura in a deluxe box set featuring:
Vengeance is Mine - Based on the true story of Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) and his murderous rampage which sparked a 78-day nationwide manhunt, Shohei Imamura's disturbing gem Vengeance Is Mine won every major award in Japan on the year of its release. Both seducing and repelling with its unusual story and grisly humour, Imamura uncovers a seedy underbelly of civilised Japanese society. (Blu-ray & DVD)
The Ballad of Narayama - A vividly realised inverse image of ''civilised'' society, The Ballad of Narayama presents a bracingly unsentimental rumination on mortality and an engrossing study of a community's struggles against the natural elements. It is one of the legendary director's deepest, richest works (for which he won his first Palme D'or), and ranks among the finest films of its decade. (Blu-ray & DVD)
Profound Desires of the Gods - The culmination of Imamura's extraordinary examinations of the fringes of Japanese society throughout the 1960s, Profound Desires of the Gods was an 18-month super-production which failed to make an impression at the time of its release, but has since risen in stature to become one of the most legendary albeit least seen Japanese films of recent decades. (Blu-ray & DVD)
The Insect Woman - Comparing his heroine, Tome Matsuki (played by Sachiko Hidari, who won the ''Best Actress'' award at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival for the role) to the restlessness and survival instincts of worker insects, the film is an unsparing study of working-class female life. Beginning with Tome's birth in 1918, it follows her through five d
Details by Film
Stolen Desire
Streaming Options
Nishi-Ginza Station
Streaming Options
Pigs and Battleships
Streaming Options
The Insect Woman
Streaming Options
A Man Vanishes
Streaming Options
Profound Desires of the Gods
Streaming Options
Vengeance is Mine
Streaming Options
The Ballad of Narayama
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Introduction for Profound Desire of the Gods by film scholar Tony Rayns
- Original Japanese theatrical trailer for Profound Desire of the Gods
- Audio commentary for Vengeance is Mine by noted critic and filmmaker Tony Rayns
- Video introduction for Vengeance is Mine by film director Alex Cox
- Original Japanese theatrical teaser and trailer for Vengeance is Mine
- A video conversation about The Insect Woman between Shohei Imamura and critic Tadao Sato
- Exclusive video interview with scholar Tony Rayns talking about The Ballad of Narayama
- Teaser trailers for The Ballad of Narayama
- Theatrical trailers for The Ballad of Narayama
- Exclusive 18-minute video introduction for A Man Vanishes by film scholar Tony Rayns
- Original theatrical trailer for A Man Vanishes
- 9-minute video interview with Shohei Imamura by his son, director Daisuke Tengan
- A CD-ROM containing digital booklets including writing on all eight films and rare imagery