Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Shohei Imamura
With his declared interest in "the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure", director Shohei Imamura offered a lusty and seemingly impolite response to the films of Ozu (whom he served as an assistant), Mizoguchi and Naruse that had come to represent Japanese cinema. Along with Nagisa Oshima and Yoshishige Yoshida, Imamura's cinema pushed the boundaries of both form and content, creating a body of work that spans more than 40 years.
The ICA is proud to present a selected overview of his career, and thanks Alastair Cameron at the Bristol Arnolfini and The Japan Foundation for making it possible.
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Pigs and Battleships
23 October 2009
Carefully controlled but with a manic energy and breakneck pace, this early Imamura drama depicts the power struggles between small-time gangsters.
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Black Rain
24 October 2009 - 26 October 2009
Cutting back and forth between the past and present, Imamura confronts the horror of the Hiroshima bombing in forthright, unblinking fashion.
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Intentions of Murder
25 October 2009
Another of Imamura's remarkable portraits of female strength and awakening. A housewife falls prey to an intruder, and the encounter sets her off on an unexpected path.
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The Insect Woman
27 October 2009
Imamura charts the crucial points in 20th century Japanese history through the experiences of a young woman who survives a harsh rural upbringing to become a prostitute in Tokyo.
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The Eel
28 October 2009 - 31 October 2009
A just-released killer becomes a barber, befriends an eel, saves a suicidal woman and attempts to come to terms with his past. Winner of the 1997 Palme D’Or at Cannes.
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The Profound Desire of the Gods
29 October 2009
A wild and at times deliberately bewildering tale set on a Okinawan island where an inbred family confront an engineer sent from Tokyo to convert sugarcane.