Radical Japan
I just finished the set: watched all the films and special features. Going to start on the booklet after work today, though I’ve flipped through it some.
I was really blown away by the whole set, not just Oshima’s work that I hadn’t seen (which was a ton), but how Radiance put this all together. I was already looking forward to RJ2, but now it’s probably my most anticipated release of the year.
I had only seen Cruel Story of Youth, In The Realm of the Senses, Mr. Lawrence & Death by Hanging prior to getting this set, so I had a ton of new experiences. I’d also never seen any of the special features, and some of them really enhanced the films beyond the scope of what I’m personally used to with special features.
“Boy” and “The Man Who Left His Will on Film” ended up being my favorites of the set with “Boy” narrowly taking my favorite spot… I’m just a sucker for a knockout child actor who can put an entire film on their back and carry from start to finish. The film was great in general, from story to technique and composition, but that performance just stopped me in my tracks similarly to the first time I saw “Florida Project,” only I enjoyed “Boy” far more as a film/narrative and because Tetsuo Abe is pre-adolescent there’s a bit more of a deeply tragic shattered innocence effect in his performance.
It’s a really nice faith rewarded to half-blind invest in a pretty sizable box set and come out feeling like that director is one of your favorites. I didn’t love every film in the set, but I loved the journey, especially chronologically. Watching Oshima’s evolution as a filmmaker in that order was really, really rewarding.
But anyway, really just came to shout out the wonderful job Radiance did with this. The whole breadth of the box set felt a lot like a museum exhibit.
Can’t wait to see subject of volume two!