Zegen
Encyclopedia
is a 1987
Japanese film
by director Shohei Imamura. It was entered into the 1987 Cannes Film Festival
.
is a satire of Japan's 20th century imperialism. By taking the story of Iheiji Muraoka, who built brothels for the Japanese military, Imamura is able to make comments on Japan and its recent past from an unusual perspective. At the time it was thought that the story was a true one but Tomoko Yamazaki's Sandakan brothel No. 8 shows it to be a work of fiction.
1987 in film
-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....
Japanese film
Cinema of Japan
The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...
by director Shohei Imamura. It was entered into the 1987 Cannes Film Festival
1987 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Yves Montand*Danièle Heymann*Elem Klimov*Gérald Calderon*Jeremy Thomas*Jerzy Skolimowski*Nicola Piovani*Norman Mailer*Theo Angelopoulos-Feature film competition:...
.
Plot
This black comedyBlack comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
is a satire of Japan's 20th century imperialism. By taking the story of Iheiji Muraoka, who built brothels for the Japanese military, Imamura is able to make comments on Japan and its recent past from an unusual perspective. At the time it was thought that the story was a true one but Tomoko Yamazaki's Sandakan brothel No. 8 shows it to be a work of fiction.
Cast
- Mitsuko Baisho - Shiho
- Bang-ho Cho - Komashitai
- Yuki Furutachi
- Shino Ikenami - Tome
- Kozo Ishii - Kumai
- Satoko Iwasaki
- Kurenai Kanda - Otsuno
- Choichiro Kawarazaki - Kunikura
- Chun Hsiung Ko - Wang (as Chun-Hsiung Ko)
- Hiroyuki Konishi - Uehara
- Mami Kumagaya - Kino
- Leonard Kuma - Shop owner
- Norihei Miki - Asanaga
- Ken OgataKen OgataKen Ogata was a Japanese actor.Ogata was born in Tokyo, Japan. Ogata is well known for his roles in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book, Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Shohei Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama...
- Iheiji Muraoka - Sanshô Shinsui - Chota
- Tetta Sugimoto - Genkichi
- Minori Terada - Hisamitsu
- Taiji Tonoyama - Shimada
- Fujio Tsuneta - Nishiyama
- Kimiko Yoshimiya - Takeyo
External links
- Sharp, Jasper. Zegen (film review) at midnighteye.com