Japan

Nagisa Oshima

39 films · 1959 to 1999
Born 31 March 1932, Okayama, Japan · Died 15 January 2013

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese film director, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and as one of the most important figures of the Japanese New Wave (Nūberu bāgu), alongside Shōhei Imamura. His film style was bold, innovative and provocative. Common themes in his work include youthful rebellion, class and racial discrimination and taboo sexuality. His first major film was his second feature, Cruel Story of Youth (1960), one of the first Japanese New Wave films, a youth-oriented film with an earnest portrayal of the sexual lives and criminal activities of its young protagonists.

Biography adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.

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Nagisa Oshima

Photo: Rita Molnár, CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons.

Defining films

In the Realm of the Senses
In the Realm of the Senses
1976
Taboo
Taboo
1999
100 Years of Japanese Cinema
100 Years of Japanese Cinema
1995
Kyoto, My Mother's Place
Kyoto, My Mother's Place
1991
Max My Love
Max My Love
1986
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
1983

Films by decade

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