Buta to gunkan

Shôhei Imamura's "Pigs and Battleships" is a very well crafted film. Despite this, it's a very unpleasant film and probably won't appeal to most viewers.

This film is set amid the social chaos that followed World War II in Japan. Now an occupied nation, poverty and crime are rampant. The film specifically focuses on the very lowest elements of society-- grifters, pimps, prostitutes and gangs. They are a uniformly disreputable group of people in the film--and because of that, it's very difficult to care in the least about these folks. And, because you don't really care about them, this makes the film do hard to enjoy. But this isn't necessarily a criticism--Imamura wanted to shock audiences and make social commentary about this as well as the country's ambivalence about having American troops in their land. On one hand, some folks admire the soldiers and think they are the greatest in the world, whereas others see them much like how hyenas view lions--they are just waiting to pick up their scraps. It's all very depressing and awful. The only bright spot is at the end. Following a crazy scene involving death, escaped pigs and total chaos are signs that perhaps ONE damaged soul might just make her escape. Bleak...but powerful.

Before I knew anything else about him, the first of Imamura Shohei's films I saw was 1989's 'Black rain,' a dour, tragic drama that lingers long after we finish watching. I think that first exposure spoiled me, because even if only subconsciously I keep expecting the man's other works to meet that same level of excellence. It's hardly that something like 'Pigs and battleships' is bad - far from it; this is solidly made, and worthwhile on its own merits. But even as the story grows more absorbing in the back end this doesn't make a particularly strong or lasting impression, and I don't expect I'll think on it hereafter. No, not every picture needs to be a revelation, but especially if some odds and ends bear discrete subjective faults, is it enough for a title to be broadly enjoyable?

Scribe Yamanouchi Hisashi penned a harsh but compelling story, with dark or wryly comedic elements, of a loose group of yakuza struggling with infighting, disloyalty, and finances; a low-ranking gangster, the troubled relationship with his girlfriend, her family, and the pig farm in which all of them have some interest. Imamura illustrates a keen eye as director, and likewise cinematographer Himeda Shinsaku. The cast give vibrant performances, and where stunts and effects are employed they're fantastic. The production design and art direction are as vivid and fetching as the filming locations, and all this comes together somewhat brilliantly in the last stretch as everyone's weak hopes for a better life, or at least to get ahead, are shredded. Mayuzumi Toshiro's original music is a fine complement all the while, and far more than not the sum total is engaging and engrossing as the plot progresses.

The problem I have is that the feature gets messy in the details, and all the less sure-footed facets feed into one another. Through both Imamura's direction and Tanji Mutsuo's editing the pacing tends to feel rushed and harried, too often disallowing some beats and ideas from carrying the full impact that they should. This amplifies, and is reinforced by, the sloppiness with which Yamanouchi's story is brought to bear in his screenplay. Taken each by themselves the characterizations are firm, but this isn't so good about elucidating who each of them are, let alone who they are to each other, or how it is that everyone seems to know each other. The ideas are there for the scene writing, but few are those moments that don't feel unfocused or inchoate even on paper. Or maybe I should be pinning more responsibility on Imamura after all; everything looks good, superficially, but the substance underpinning the sights and sounds to greet us gets mired in an execution that sometimes comes across as disjointed, overbearing or both.

Please understand, I do like 'Pigs and battleships.' I wonder if I'm not being too unkind in my assessment. But for as commendable as the production is at large, and the underlying narrative, there's nothing here that's specifically special or memorable, and other movies have played in a similar space. It's worthwhile on its own merits, but unless one has a special impetus to watch, I don't think it's so likely that this is going to stand out. Maybe it doesn't need to; maybe it's enough as it is. Why, I'll go so far as to say that maybe there's something about my viewing experience that was less than ideal, and if I were to try again I'd like it more than I do. I just know that its best aspects must be weighed against those that are more flawed or at least less impressive, and while I'm glad I took the time to watch, for my part I'll probably forget most everything about it in a matter of time. Do check out 'Pigs and battleships,' and have a good time with it as I did; just as much to the point, though, may you get more out of it than I did.

"This film is entirely fictional" states the film in the very beginning, lingering purposefully on the faces of bawling drunk Americans wandering the nightly streets, some harassed by, others looking for company. You don't really have to know Imamura at all to recognize the delicious irony. The beginning is so full of impressions, smells and life only Welles' "Touch of Evil" (1958) bests this in how in just a few minutes we're completely in the place and breathe its air. The sweaty chaos of the close-leaning alleys, kisses beneath stairs.

Welles is also echoed in the beautifully fluent tracking shots. It's interesting to read Imamura's statements made during the sixties and later, when he recalls Ozu's intention of a highly aestheticized cinema, and his own, more anthropological, perhaps more real. These kinds of comments distracted me for a long time – I wasn't expecting visually strong films, which Imamura's are, neither was I prepared to see so many fresh ideas, of which there are many.

I'm not completely satisfied with the ending, but I'll have to wait and see whether it'll grow on me. It is, on one hand, a successful melange of both the sadistic and ironic, but on the other it brings the film to a close perhaps too neatly. Not that I have any idea as to how to make it better, but it's too much of a showdown, and although Imamura plays it to great comic effect with a tragic undersong, it's a bit too excessive to my liking.

The Criterion Collection has released this on DVD (Region 1) as part of the 'Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes' boxset that also includes "Akasen satsui" ('Intentions of Murder', 1963) and "Nippin konchûki" ('The Insect Woman', 1963). Masters of Cinema have released this on a Region B Blu- ray that also includes an early Imamura film, his debut actually, "Nusumareta yokujô" ('Stolen Desire', 1958).

Teen hoodlum Kinta is excited to be given the plum job of supervising the pig pen at the local US base, for which he'll be responsible diverting the food scraps to the black market, and scoring a good income for his yakuza gang. His girlfriend Hiroku earnestly hopes he'll leave the yakuza and get an honest job, but neither is she a paragon of virtue - she is drawn into prostitution and petty thievery. The story mostly follows their troubled relationship, against a backdrop steeped in corruption, which results from the clash of US Forces occupation against the poverty and aspirations of the people of post-war Japan.

A scathing, even cynical critique. There is no tenderness at all here. Even the young lovers embracing is shown more as a desperate clinging than emotional attachment. And corruption is everywhere - there are no good guys. Confronting stuff, well-photographed, memorable as a vivid nightmare.

Typical high school relationship turmoil pales in comparison to this. A young couple are looking for a more prosperous life in early 60s Japan, however, the young man thinks that running with a gang will help him clear some financial debts quick along with selling swine on the black market in the grittier parts of Japan. His girlfriend wants him out of that stupid gang while her parents are far from model parents as they try to steer her into prostitution. The story follows Kinta as he wrestles with becoming a man and trying to find a way out of the gang world as his girlfriend would be happy if he had a traditional factory job; something he bristles at. Will they be able to detach themselves from bad influences or will they collapse under the pressures? This film had really nice shot framing and a few really innovative transitions, especially for the era. The acting was solid and the drama slowly increased built upon well-crafted characters. One key scene has similarities to Scarface but swap cocaine with pigs. Ha Ha.