Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1968 • Japan
Starring Kazuo Kitamura, Rentaro Mikuni, Choichiro Kawarasaki
In many ways the ultimate expression of director Shohei Imamura’s vision of a world ruled by elemental instinct and chaos, this stunning, visually ambitious epic follows Kariya (Kazuo Kitamura), an engineer from Tokyo, as he arrives on a remote island populated by the strange, inbred Futori family, who draw him into their primeval world of superstition, mysticism, and ritual. Filmed over eighteen grueling months that pushed Imamura to the brink, PROFOUND DESIRE OF THE GODS astounds with images of shocking, hallucinatory power.
Up Next in Directed by Shohei Imamura
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Vengeance Is Mine
Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1979 • Japan
Starring Ken Ogata, Mayumi Ogawa, Mitsuko BaishoA thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is on the run from the police. Director Shohei Imamura turns this fact-based story—about the seventy-eight-day killing spree of a r...
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Eijanaika
Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1981 • Japan
Starring Shigeru Izumiya, Kaori Momoi, Masao KusakariIn the 1860s, near the turbulent end of the Edo era, Genji (Shigeru Izumiya), a peasant returning to Japan after six years of exile in America, searches for his wife and becomes swept up in the curren...
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The Ballad of Narayama
Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1983 • Japan
Starring Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei HidariImbued with the power of myth, Shohei Imamura’s Palme d’Or–winning magnum opus is a stark and stunning vision of a world ruled by the elemental laws of nature and survival. Against the backdrop of the ch...
