rodrig58 And that's long and dull, only talk for over two hours, but the actors' game is very natural, you have the impression that everything is really happening in front of your eyes. It is also very original and very bold, even for the present time, all the more so for the year 1966. The whole film looks like some slices of life placed one after the other. It could have been much shorter, though.

MauveMouse In The Pornographers, 1966, Shôhei Imamura manages to juggle intelligently with universal taboos (pornography, prostitution, incest, fetishism, orgies) challenging the viewer to think than just to consume the visual product by using minimum of nudity; the provocative situations are discretely suggested and not viscerally exposed, and it works because it is impossible to accuse of cheapness or exploitation such an interesting smart cinematographic approach on the subject of sex in a Japanese society full of contrasts, caught in-between the conservative ways of the past and the effervescence of the corrupt morals of the modern era; sex and money are the spinning wheels of the human convoy routing and sinking it into moral and physical decay; the film abounds in visual oddities, bizarre shooting angles providing its aesthetic a brisk geometry, intriguing spontaneous flashbacks, inspired touches of black comedy, and finds an equilibrate formula to wisely highlight subjects considered dirty and shameful in a very clean, frank, witty and somehow cheerful manner

Michael Neumann A surrogate father and dedicated family man supports himself by selling blue movies, but don't be misled by the blunt title: all the unsavory details of the skin trade are left (almost) entirely to the viewer's imagination. Likewise the film itself unfolds with indirect subtlety, using dramatic wide-screen compositions, strong black and white photography, and more than one oblique narrative trick (flashbacks, startling jump cuts) to suggest the fragile disposition of its protagonist: a decent man struggling to reconcile his almost puritan morality with an overactive libido (to disastrous effect). Under the typically intelligent direction of Shohei Imamura the story becomes intense, unusual, and occasionally powerful, moving gracefully from humor to horror and back again, by way of some striking fantasy dream sequences. The final shot, in particular, goes straight to the core of the hapless title character, last seen adrift and oblivious in his unmoored houseboat, floating away over the distant horizon.

hedricj Saw this film in a wonderful class on Japanese new wave cinema (thanks, Jyotsna). Along with Imamura's "Ballad of Narayama," some of the finest Japanese work I've seen. This film is brilliant in its portrayal of modern voyeurism and its psychological implications. Beyond that though, it stands out as a film preparing us for things to come in the cinema of the 90's. It took pt Anderson's "magnolia" to finally bring full circle some of the innovative qualities of this truly amazing film. Note the merging of the wonderful score and the main character's consciousness at the end of the film. Shocking, sad, and beautiful.