One of the most celebrated Japanese films of its time and released into Japanese cinemas in 1970, on the surface Eros + Massacre is a somewhat unconventional biography of anarchist Sakae Ōsugi. The film mixes the last days of Ōsugi and his lover, feminist Noe Ito, leading up to their assassination by the military in 1923 with scenes from the contemporary lives of two young radicals in 1960s Japan. In doing so, it explores the implications of, and potential challenges to, patriarchal power within Japanese society through what can only be described as intoxicating images.
The Harvard Film Archive described it as, “one of the great late works of the Japanese New Wave, Yoshida’s enduring masterpiece offers an epic and extraordinary vision of unconventional desire as a potent yet ultimately untenable mode of political resistance.”
We will be screening the 170 min theatrical version of the film.
Screening as part of Japan 2020: Over 100 years of Japanese Cinema, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.