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Night and Fog in Japan: Fifty Years On

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1386/jjkc.1.2.143/1

1756-4913

Isolde Standish,

Japanese History and Culture

In this article I argue that Ōshima Nagisa's 1960 film Night and Fog in Japan was a pivotal film in Japanese cinema history, because it not only marked Ōshima's departure from the Shōchiku Studios and the Japanese studio system of film production, but was also one of a handful of films that marked the beginnings of a political avant-garde cinema movement that reached its apotheosis in the mid to late-1960s and early-1970s. 2010 marks fifty years since the aborted release of the film in Japan and is therefore an appropriate historical juncture to reassess this landmark film and to reconsider the institutional links between the nascent avant-garde movement and the independent distribution (and later production) company Japanese Art Theatre Guild (ATG).