Photo: © 2018 WAKAMATSU PRODUCTION
Dare to Stop Us
The 1960s-70s marked the Golden Age of Wakamatsu Productions, founded by revolutionary auteur Wakamatsu Koji (Caterpillar) and staffed (for nearly free) with radical young artists like avant-garde filmmaker Adachi Masao, cinematographer Ito Hideo and scriptwriter Arai Haruhiko. Shiraishi Kazuya (The Blood of Wolves) also cut his teeth making low-budget exploitation pictures at the company, and has directed this rambunctious, fact-based account of one young dreamer, Yoshizumi Megumi, who joins Wakamatsu in 1969 to make pinku eiga (softcore porn). As she struggles to fit into the testosterone-heavy “family,” and to find her own voice, Megumi’s life is equal parts heroic and tragic.
Director: Shiraishi Kazuya
Cast: Kadowaki Mugi, Iura Arata, Yamamoto Hiroshi
Languages: Japanese with English subtitles
2018; 119 min.; DCP