The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 39 – Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties [Part 1]

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to discuss Pleasures of the Flesh and Violence at Noon, the first two films in Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties.

About the films:

Often called the Godard of the East, Japanese director Nagisa Oshima was one of the most provocative film artists of the twentieth century, and his works challenged and shocked the cinematic world for decades. Following his rise to prominence at Shochiku, Oshima struck out to form his own production company, Sozo-sha, in the early sixties. That move ushered in the prolific period of his career that gave birth to the five films collected here. Unsurprisingly, this studio renegade was fascinated by stories of outsiders—serial killers, rabid hedonists, and stowaway misfits are just some of the social castoffs you’ll meet in these audacious, cerebral entries in the New Wave surge that made Japan a hub of truly daredevil moviemaking.

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Episode Links

Nagisa Oshima

• Criterion Explore page


• Wikipedia


• Biography – Lenin Imports


• Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima 1956-1978


• “You Have to Tell the Truth about your Country, no Matter what it is” – The Japan Times by Roger Pulvers


• Great Director profile – Senses of Cinema by Nelson Kim


• “A Samurai Among Farmers” – Film Comment by Tony Rayns


• Nagisa Oshima and the Struggle for a Radical Cinema – Harvard Cinema Archive


• Capsule reviews of select Oshima films – Strictly Film School by acquarello


• Obituary – The Guardian (January 2013)

Box Set Reviews

• Criterion Cast review by Joshua Brunsting


• Slant review by Fernando F. Croce


• A.V. Club review by Scott Tobias


• New York Times review by Dave Kehr


• Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich


• Film.com review by Jen Yamato


• DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson


• Twitch review by Rodney Perkins


• seanax.com review by Sean Axmaker

Pleasures of the Flesh

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review


• J-Film PowWow review by Eric Evans


• dcpfilm review


• Review by Dennis Grunes


• PopOptic review by Brian Welk

Violence at Noon

• David’s (and Aaron’s) Journey Through the Eclipse Series review


• David’s Criterion Reflections review


• Electric Sheep review by John Berra


• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwartz


• Strictly Film School review by acquarello


• Program Notes from Austin Film Society by Chale Nafus

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties [Part Two] 

Contact us

• Twitter


• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com


• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )


• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )


• Aaron West ( Twitter / Website )