The Pornographers
- Released on
- Runtime
- 128 mins
Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
Cast
- Shoichi Ozawa
- Sumiko Sakamoto
- Keiko Sagawa
- Masaomi Kondo
- Haruo Tanaka
- Ganjirō Nakamura II
- Chōchō Miyako
- Kō Nishimura
- Ichirō Sugai
- Shinichi Nakano
- Kazuo Kitamura
- Asao Uchida
- Taiji Tonoyama
- Jun Hamamura
- Kin Sugai
- Sayoko Kinoshita
- Kayako Sono
- Shōzō Fukuyama
- Shuntaro Tamamura
- Hyōe Enoki
- Tokushichi Ogura
- Yasuko Nishioka
Director
- Shōhei Imamura
Producers
- Shōhei Imamura
- Kazuya Yamamoto
- Jirô Tomoda
Screenwriter
- Shōhei Imamura
- Koji Numata