The work of Kiju Yoshida is one of Japanese cinema's obscure pleasures. A contemporary of Nagisa Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses) and Masahiro Shinoda (Pale Flower, Assassination), Yoshida started out as an assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita before making his directorial debut at age 27. In the decades that followed he produced more than 20 features and documentaries, yet each and every one has proven difficult to see in the English-speaking world.
This collection brings together three works from the late sixties and early seventies, a loose trilogy united by their radical politics and an even more radical shooting style. Eros + Massacre (1969), presented here in both its 169-minute theatrical version and the full-length 220-minute director's cut, tells the parallel stories of the early 20th-century anarchist (and free love advocate) Sakae Osugi and a pair of student activists. Their stories interact and intertwine, resulting in a complex, rewarding work that is arguably Yoshida's masterpiece
Heroic Purgatory (1970) pushes the dazzling cinematic language of Eros + Massacre even further, presenting a bleak but dreamlike investigation into the political discourses taking place in early seventies Japan. Coup d'état (1973) returns to the past for a biopic of Ikki Kita, the right-wing extremist who sought to overthrow the government in 1936. Yoshida considered the film to be the culmination of his work, promptly retiring from feature filmmaking following its completion

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Cataloging source: AU@

Characteristic: videorecording

Credits note: Director, Yoshida Kijū (all 3 films) ; producers, Yoshida Kijū (Eros + massacre, Heroic purgatory), Soshizaki Shinji (Eros + massacre), Okumura Sei (Heroic purgatory), Okada Mariko, Ueno Kōshi, Kuzui Kinshirō (Coup d'état) ; screenwriters, Yamada Masahiro, Yoshida Kijū (Eros + massacre, Heroic purgatory), Betsuyaku Minoru (Coup d'état) ; director of photography, Hasegawa Motokichi (all 3 films) ; editors, Yasuoka Hiroyuki (Eros + massacre, Heroic purgatory), Oka Yoshiki (Coup d'état)

Dewey number: 791.4375

Intended audience: Rating: 15

Language note: In Japanese with English subtitles

LC call number: PN1997

LC item number: .K568 2015 DVD

PerformerNote

Erosugyakusatsu = Eros + massacre: Okada Mariko, Hosokawa Toshiyuki, Kusunoki Yūko, Ii Toshiko, Harada Daijirō
Rengoku eroika = Heroic purgatory: Mariko Okada, Kamoda Kaizō, Kimura Naho, Makita Yoshiaki, Iwasaki Kaneko
Kaigenrei = Coup d'état: Mikumi Rentarō, Matsumura Yasuyo, Miyake Yasuo, Kurano Akiko, Kanno Tadahiko

Runtime: http://bibfra.me/vocab/marc/unknown

Target audience: specialized

Technique: live action

Context

Context of Kijû Yoshida : love + anarchism = Yoshida Kijū : ai + anākizumu

Context

Work of