Sting of Death, The Japan
1990, 115min.
Prod.: Seiya Araki, Script/Dir.: Kohei Oguri (based on the novel of Toshio Shimao), Dir. of Phot.: Shohei Ando, Compos.: Toshio Hosokawa, Prod. Design: Yoshinaga Yokoo, Sound: Hideo Nishizaki, Edit.: Nobuo Ogawa.
Cast: Keiko Matsuzaka, Ittoku Kishibe, Takenori Matsumura,Yuri Chikamori.
The film is set during the high economic growth period that Japan experienced in the 1950s and 1960s. Through the downfall and recovery of a married couple, it poses stirring questions for modern Japanese society. It examines the very source of the couple and the family as a form of social intercourse, and graphically depicts the character of the Japanese people in the post-war era using the “shi” of the Shishosetsu (an “I” novel similar to the Ich-Roman and a unique genre in Japanese literature). A film whose poetic imagery gushes forth with emotion and of striking beauty, The Sting of Death is definitely a masterpiece of Japanese cinema.
Awards
Grand Prize of the Jury, FIPRESCI Prize, (Cannes IFF, 1990); Best Actress (Keiko Matsuzaka, Nikkan Sports Film Award, 1990); Best Actress (Keiko Matsuzaka, Hochi Film Awards, 1990); Best Actor (Ittoku Kishibe), Best Actress (Keiko Matsuzaka), Best Cinematography (Shohei Ando), Best Lighting (Hiroshi Matsui), Best Sound (Hideo Nishizaki) (Awards of the Japanese Academy, 1991); Best Actress (Keiko Matsuzaka, Blue Ribbon Award, 1991); Best Actor (Ittoku Kishibe), Best Actress (Keiko Matsuzaka) (Kinema Junpo Awards, 1991); Best Actress (Keiko Matsuzaka), Best Sound Recording (Hideo Nishizaki) (Mainichi Film Concours, 1991).
Production Company
Shochiku, Schochiku Daiichi Kogyo
| Oguri, Kohei (born 1945, Maebashi, Japan)
Graduated from the Waseda University drama Department. He made his directing debut in 1981 with Muddy River, which was voted number one in Kinema Jumpo's best ten list, received the Blue Ribbon Prize, as well as Best Director award at the Mainichi Competition. The film won also the Moscow IFF Silver Prize and was nominated for the American Academy Prize (Foreign Films Section).In 1984 came For Kayako written by Lee Hwe-Song, which won the George Sadule Prize, a first for a Japanese director. In 1990,The Sting of Death won both the Cannes IFF Grand Prize of the Jury and the FIPRESCI. All three of these films were set in the 1950s, and dealt with “post-war life” and “the Japanese and I” themes. In 1996 Sleeping Man became the first film to be both written and directed by Oguri, and it drew much attention for being produced and set in his native Gunma prefecture. Nine years later, in 2005 Oguri's latest endeavor, The Buried Forest come out.
Filmography
Muddy River (1981),For Kayako (1984), The Sting of Death (1990), Sleeping Man (1996), The Buried Forest(2005).
|
