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Absolutely Fantastic

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

There is no freedom in the world, only freedom from the world (or at least from the hegemony of American imperialism). Perhaps those with the best chances of achieving a bit of such freedom are, ironically, those who seem most commodified by imperialism- in this case women in post-war Japan, deciding to leave behind the world of desire. The scenes with the pigs are really cool.

Rampaging yakuza of the juvenile type, bad losers at mahjong, lots of screaming, running about and overacting. Sound familiar? I'm afraid so and it was only about halfway through I realised this was probably intended as a comedy. To be fair to director Shohei Imamura this is a 1961 film and was at the forefront of the Japanese 'New Wave'. Prior to this, running and jumping about film, most of Japanese cinema had been much more mannered, serene and dedicated to promoting the beauty and art of the Japanese way of life. Here at least an angry man is putting his foot down and having a go at the US occupation forces and their parasitic brethren, the aforementioned, yakuza. Not an easy watch, not least because everyone (excepting one) is horrible, and the comedic moments are just not funny any more, even if they seemed so to a far eastern cinemagoer almost 60 years ago.

This movie takes place in post-war Japan which is under American occupation and essentially focuses on a young man named "Kinta" (Hiroyuki Nagato) who essentially does what he can to make ends meet. One day he decides to join an extortion racket and is put in charge of feeding hogs that belong to the local gang. Although she truly loves him, his girlfriend, "Haruko" (Jitsuko Yoshimura) not only disapproves of his decision but is also one month pregnant by him as well. Knowing that Kinta isn't quite ready to settle down and support a family she decides to have an abortion which Kinta helps pay for. Meanwhile, the gang Kinta has joined gets involved in murder and soon things become quite complicated for all involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a complex film for which I may have missed a few nuances here and there. For example, the manner in which the American military was depicted certainly wasn't favorable--but then the depiction of the Japanese gangsters wasn't very good either. That said, it seemed to me that the overall message of the story pertained equally to deplorable members from both Japanese and American society and subsequently upon their negative effect on the culture of Japan as a whole. At least, that is how it seemed to me. In any case, I found this to be an interesting film and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Because I am now currently working on an essay concerning Japanese New Wave cinema, I have been delving into a number of films directed by the likes of Oshima Nagisa, Wakamatsu Koji, and Masumura Yasuzo as well as films by the French directors Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Melville whose own films in France's New Wave movement paralleled that of the Japanese movement resulting in influences crossing between the filmic world of the two countries. Oshima is normally the standard bearer for the Japanese New Wave movement after the release of his debut film Streets of Love and Hope (1959) and his work throughout the sixties would have a powerful intellectual leftist bent confronting such issues as discrimination, poverty, and disgust with Stalinist influenced violence. On the other end of the spectrum Wakamatsu Koji would be written off by many critics because of his primary involvement in pink films, including such disturbing works as The Embryo Hunts in Secret (1968) and Go Go Second Time Virgin (1969). Masumura's works would often straddle between intellectual leftist cinema and pink films, but such films as Kisses (1957) would open the doors for new directors trying to escape from the filmic ideals of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Kobayashi.Amongst these New Wave directors was the figure of Imamura Shohei. Comparing himself to Oshima Nagisa it is reported that Imamura said, "I'm a country farmer; Oshima Nagisa is a samurai." While this quote can be read on many different levels, one way it can be interpreted is that Imamura's films tend to be more earthy than Oshima's and while still threaded throughout with intelligence they are not quite as highbrow as some of Oshima's films, i.e. Death By Hanging (1968), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968), and The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970). Supporting this earthly quality of his films, Imamura has stated that his films generally deal with the lower extremities of the body rather than the upper extremities.Hogs and Warships concerns the daily life of Kinta, a smalltime gangster in Yokosuka who spends most of his time hustling American sailors and taking them to the local brothels. In fact, the world of Kinta and those around him are completely linked with the naval base, because the American sailors are who bring the money into the squalid town. When not acting as a gopher for his superiors, Kinta spends his time lounging around or seeing his eighteen-year old girlfriend Haruko. Haruko, much more practical minded than her boyfriend, wants Kinta to give up his life as a gangster and become a factory worker with her uncle in Kawasaki. However, Kinta is completely against the idea because he does not want to end up like a wage-slave like his father who was dumped by his company after he got sick. Therefore, he wants to make money instead through being a band leader or a pimp instead of living a complete hand-to-mouth existence as a factory worker.Kinta believes that he has received a good opportunity to improve his and Haruko's standard in life when his boss appoints him as chief of a piggery. However, there are several complications because of the difficulties receiving scraps to feed the pigs and this leads to a number of problems for Kinta and Haruko.While on first glance, Hogs and Warships might seem to be typical yakuza film fare, it is fact laced with a strong social commentary on Japan's reliance on America and its "support" of America's further military actions within Asia, especially the Korean War. While there are indeed some quite comic moments in the film, there are also some brutal ones as well such as when a drunken Haruko has her run in with three sailors. While not always a pleasant viewing, Hogs and Warships is a must for those who are interested in the films of Imamura Shohei or Japanese New Wave cinema as a whole.