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Survivor Ballads: Three Films by Shohei Imamura is currently available on a 3-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Academy

Throughout the 1980s, Shohei Imamura, a leading figure of the Japanese New Wave era of the 1960s, cemented his international reputation as one of the most important directors of his generation with a series of films that all competed at Cannes to great critical acclaim. This exclusive box set from Arrow Academy presents restored versions of three late career classics from the legendary filmmaker.

Based on an ancient folktale, The Ballad of Narayama (1983) was the first of two works from the director to win the prestigious Cannes Palme d Or. Imamura s magnum opus depicts the members of an extended farming family eking out their existence in the mountainous north of Japan against the backdrop of the changing seasons before village lore decrees they make the sacrifice of abandoning their aged...

Although his last feature “Zegen” was not quite the success production company Toei had hoped for, they, nevertheless, wanted to continue their collaboration with renowned director Shohei Imamura and gave him the opportunity to tell a story he had been thinking about for quite some time. Based on Masuji Ibuse’s novel of the same name, the project “Black Rain” was set in Japan in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a work which cinephiles, critics and film scholars alike often regard as an exception to Imamura’s work in the 1980s, as it bears more similarities to the features he directed in the 1960s given its radical imagery, tone and themes. At the same time, “Black Rain” follows Imamura’s concept of the period piece as a tale set in the past but which has a striking significance for the present, and even for the future,...

After the success of “The Ballad of Narayama” production company Toei, satisfied with the result of their first collaboration, wanted to continue working with acclaimed director Shohei Imamura, but it would take quite a while before he was able to take over directing duties once again. As film scholar Tony Rayns mentions in his introduction to “The Ballad of Narayama”, Imamura defined a period piece, if it should have any merit for the present, to have something to say about the present state of affairs. In the light of that concept “Ballad” can be read as a parable on the state of Japan at the time of production in the 1980s, whereas Imamura’s next film, “Zegen”, has been largely regarded as a comment on Japan’s aggressive imperialism at the beginning of the 20th century. However, there is so much more to say about a black comedy such as...

Survivor Ballads: Three Films by Shohei Imamura

On Limited Edition Blu-ray, 7th December

Based on an ancient folktale, “The Ballad of Narayama” (1983) was the first of two works from the director to win the prestigious Cannes Palme d’Or. Imamura’s magnum opus depicts the members of an extended farming family eking out their existence in the mountainous north of Japan against the backdrop of the changing seasons before village lore decrees they make the sacrifice of abandoning their aged mother on the top of a nearby mountain when she reaches her seventieth year. Making its HD debut, “Zegen” (1987) takes a satirical look at Japan’s prewar colonial expansion through the unscrupulous eyes of its flesh-peddler antihero as he establishes a prostitution enterprise across Southeast Asia. Finally, the harrowing “Black Rain” (1989) details the precarious existence of a household of atomic bomb survivors as, five years after being...