Although Koji Wakamatsu is probably not mentioned within the same circles as Nagisa Oshima or Hiroshi Teshigahara, Wakamatsu was a very active filmmaker during the 1960s when Japan was experiencing their own “new wave.” With a film like The Ecstasy of the Angels that has plot involving bomb detonation and the implications of committing acts of terrorism, it is difficult to not think of “the bomb” aka the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you look at many postwar Japanese films and Japanese New Wave films, the atomic bomb and its aftermath is a prevalent issue that is discussed explicitly or implicitly (ex: Teshigahara’s Woman of the Dunes and The Face of Another would be films that are more implicit in their approach). With this film it seems Wakamatsu is either attempting to avoid any strong allusions to “the bomb” or he is being very subtle in his approach. The film begins with the nightclub singer referencing fire, burning cities, and a “battle ground.” February says The Four Seasons’ plan is to “destroy” their target and their eventual target is the city. The weapons come in a “U.S. Army” crate. Possibly Wakamatsu attempting to distance the film from these allegorical readings is that unlike traditional genre films, we never see the bombs physically detonating or their destruction. What seems more prevalent though is the theme of individualism vs. the collective that comes across not only in the dialog but also in the sex scenes which require “teamwork” but seem to illustrate gratification for the individual rather the group. Just as the Red Army Faction forbid its members from having sexual partners, the Japanese man wearing the glasses, who embodies the Party’s rhetoric, views sex as a detriment to the Party, although he later contradicts this when he tries undressing Friday.
While I very much enjoyed Ecstasy of the Angels, I'm often at odds with the way women are treated in the film. Yes, there's a certain quota of scenes wakamatsu needed to film in order for it to be released, the male gaze notwithstanding. However, Wakamatsu went out of his way to depict violence against women in Ecstasy of the angels that is typically more cruel and more sexual than the violence against the men. It's a shame that a film that is so rich in content has a very problematic element to it. The article briefly mentions it, but makes no attempt to justify the misogyny in the film. However, I must note that clearly Wakamatsu isn't sexist, come the time that United Red Army occurs, there's no gross male gaze sexual violence in there, just plain violence. So I think that he intentionally made the violence sexual to make a statement, but that doesn't justify something that is genuinely harmful to women at large. However, that begs the question of is he really to blame for then. For one, it was a different time, and it was a different place. I'm coming from this issue with a modern feminist method, which is a fairly western point of view. Is it appropriate to criticize this way? Who knows? I'd like to say so, but I'm afraid it's ethnocentric, applying my point of view to all others.
Yes, Wakamatsu refers to the pink film genre as a "Trojan horse" in the Toscano article so it seems that he is trying to on one hand adhere to certain generic conventions which involve misogyny and violence, while presenting a personal story about the Red Army Faction on the other. Later in the article, though, he says that the great thing about making a film is he can show his disdain for the police by "killing" them on-screen, which makes me suspect that he would be any less aggressive toward women. One could argue, however, that the misogyny is justified in the narrative through developing "strong female characters" who get their revenge like Friday who is later seen slapping another male character. Although I have not seen any other pink films, this debate about misogyny reminds me of the debates around certain exploitation or slasher films where someone like Tarantino would justify the violence as a reason to create strong female characters. 1980s slasher films were extremely profitable given their fan base and low budget characteristics, but it is simpler to chastise the director than the audience. It is interesting to note that during the major violence/rape that occurs early in the film, although the male character is brutally attacked until his face is literally covered in blood, the film makes Friday's physical abuse, before the rape, appear more painful through editing her close-up reactions, the abuser and his reactions, and his weapon.
If Wakamatsu Kōji’s Ecstasy of the Angels were to be contained in a brief description, it would be “complex and ambiguous,” especially in the relationship between sex, violence, and politics (Albert Toscano and Hirasawa Gō 41). As a film in the pinku eiga genre, it impossible to explain it without considering the role of the political and artistic, in addition to the titillating sex and violence; this is, in fact, one of the main conventions of the genre’s incarnation in its beginnings in the late 1960s. Indeed, in Ecstasy of the Angels, the longest revolutionary discussions occur *in conjunction with* sex, so that the two are joined through a melding of the auditory and visual, the intellectual and visceral. To that end, Toscano and Hirasawa’s claim that “violence and sex frequently appear as futile explosions or evasions” is not entirely correct in this film when they’re thought of as vehicles for political action (43). The immediate futility is definitely present, but the longer term effects are those of unignorable impact – for the characters, the viewers, and Japan. Because the film ends with the mass bombings of the remaining members of October’s group and without narration or dialogue, the ending is not neatly closed up. The woman at the end even preternaturally survives her own bomb (in the still that is the film’s primary cover and post image), symbolizing that the Four Seasons Organization itself lives on, bloody and damaged and perhaps unwise and internally disunified as it is.
With the overt political message, the longer shooting schedule, and expanded budget – 12,000,000¥ (as opposed to the “established” pinku eiga budget of 4,116,000¥ [or $35,000]) over almost a month instead of the standard week or two, according to Hirasawa’s solo document about the film – it might be valid to question Ecstasy of the Angels’s status as a pinku eiga film. It has the strong presence of sex and mayhem of pinku eiga, yet though it has the feel of something more small art house-y, it was released by the highly influential and well-respected Art Theatre Guild Japan. The inclusion of color footage at (albeit artistic) moments points blatantly to the higher budget and the *overall* use of it at times of impact, not sexual intercourse, indicates a different focus than the usual pinku eiga. To rephrase my initial quote from “Walls of Flesh: The Films of Koji Wakamatsu (1965–1972)”, this film is multi-layered and doesn’t lend itself to a clear, basic interpretation of the events of both the film and the revolutionary history at which it hints.
Megan, I too, noticed how much of the longer revolutionary discussions occur during sex scenes. I wondered what, if any deeper meaning, came from this.I believe that having these important discussions during sex scenes adds to the "direct and abrasive" nature that Jasper Sharp talks about in his essay on the Ecstasy of Angels, adding meaning to this odd combination. Wakamatsu says here is a sex scene, but by adding meaningful dialogue, the viewer can not watch the sex scene as just any sex scene, because the dialogue (especially in the sex scenes with Fall) during these scenes give so much to the plot of the movie. I noticed how in the sex scenes with Fall, who seems to be the leader of a group of terror cells, is always viewed from a different angle. However she is with three different partners, each scene from a different angle, and she is always the one doing the majority of talking. I think that this could possibly refer to the mixed messages she is giving each of her partners. We find out at the end that it is her deal brokering that causes here cells implosion.
Although it may not be a typical pink film, its constant incorporation of sex and violence throughout the movie must still fall under the pink film genre. Through the revolutionary characters, E of A seems to do a better job of making a statement outside of sex and violence, although the statements are made during sex, and result in violence.
I also found peer pressure, especially with Saturday(I believe), to be a major lesson during the film. Saturday is the character who has a problem with the pornography being shot, and is the middleman between Fall and October, after October's blinded. He seems to be the most worrisome and careful of the group, but ends up bombing at random when his courage is questioned by October. This also seems to come up in Wakamatsu's United Red Army when the younger brothers were pressured into joining the group.
In my opinion, “Ecstasy of the Angels” is an earlier example of Koji Wakamatsu’s criticism of the radical groups that sprung out of the movements in Japan. I argue this because the Four Seasons Association is basically torn apart due to inner struggle in this film. The October group decides to make the struggle personal after they find out that they were set up by the rest of the Association. In this film, sex & violence go hand in hand, which is typical of the pink genre. In particular, the scene where Monday & Friday are having sex and the hear someone at the door. When Monday opens the door, there men who identify themselves as February of winter’s army, beat Monday until his face is covered in blood, and then the leader of the group stabs Friday in the leg and twists it around. The camera goes in close to see her expressions of agony until she passes out. The leader then tells his minions to rape her until she talks. This scene of intense violence accompanied by sex is characteristic of the Pinku eiga genre. Indeed it is interesting, as Andrew pointed out, how most of the violence or at least the worst of it is taken against women. Almost every woman in this film is shown having sex, often with them talking about revolutionary topics in these scenes, almost suggesting that the only time we should pay attention to women in this film is when they are naked. It isn’t until the very end of the film that Friday drives towards the base of Mt. Fuji and blows herself up that we see a woman playing a real revolutionary role.
Koji Wakamatsu’s Ecstasy of the Angles was the first pink film that I have seen. In the article Koji Wakamatsu: From Yakuza to Pornographer, Wakamatsu is quoted as describing his films as having a sexy touch in addition to being underground. This is interesting to me because an underground movement is in the forefront of Ecstasy of the Angles while the sexiness seems to be put into the back seat by the violence in the film. The shadowing of the sexy scenes by the violent ones is interesting as well. The scenes of violence are overt and over the top. There is a significant amount of blood and violent sounds to accompany the acts. The sex scenes tended to be a little awkward. The male in the scene seemed to, for the most part, using the female. This idea is highlighted by the graphic nature of the rape scene. After the male in the scene is beaten, the woman is raped in the most graphic sex scene in the film. This is the literal pairing of violence with sex in the film, while there seems to be a motif of violence followed by sex. This association is where I get confused on the so-called sexy nature of the film. Were the sex scenes supposed to be appealing to the audience or are they rather an expression of a primal urge, much like the physical violence? If it were an expression of a primal urge, the film would make more sense to me because of the dichotomy between the primal urges and the more cerebral reasons for committing some of these acts. These are people who are fighting for an ideology that they believe will better the world, and at the same time are doing some of the most basic human functions. It could be merely insight into their worlds, or it could be viewed as commentary on how they went about trying to make change.
Ecstasy of the Angels (1972) features many recurring themes from Wakamatsu’s films; lots of violence and the unsustainability of groups. in the previous film we watched United Red Army (2008), Wakamatsu’s goes through three different stages, highlighting the birth, burtual training, and ultimate ending of this particular terrorist group. The violences acts as the reason for the downfall of the United Red Army, hinting that the number of deaths in training was too much for the members. However, in Ecstasy of the Angels, Wakamatsu uses violence to show group conflict but not through intimidation, but as a way to establish power.
As Alberto Toscano and Go Hirasawa note in the essay, Walls of Flesh: The Films of Koji Wakamatsu (1965–1972), “Even the moments of violence that close Ecstasy of the Angels and Season of Terror could seem like explosions of impotence—they ultimately leave the landscape of power unscathed—rather than indications of utopia, although they also function as criticisms of, or at least counterpoints to, the self-destruction of the revolutionary cells” (47).
In many other films across the world, like The Third Generation (1979) or even on the smaller extent Something in the Air (2012), violence is not what ended their respective groups, in fact that is what united them is a sense. What usually ends most of these groups is a difference in politics or agenda. Ecstasy uses violence, but in a way to divide the groups. As soon as group Fall steals the expolsives from the site, it is immediately taken away by the Winter group. They are nearly beaten to a plup and Saturday get raped repeatedly because of this power divide.
there is so much violence is this movie, there should be a question of where did the politics go? Wakamatsu’s is trying argue that politics does exist within this group, the cloud of power struggle and violence within the different members of the group has gotten so murky is can do hard to find it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Koji Wakamatsu is probably not mentioned within the same circles as Nagisa Oshima or Hiroshi Teshigahara, Wakamatsu was a very active filmmaker during the 1960s when Japan was experiencing their own “new wave.” With a film like The Ecstasy of the Angels that has plot involving bomb detonation and the implications of committing acts of terrorism, it is difficult to not think of “the bomb” aka the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you look at many postwar Japanese films and Japanese New Wave films, the atomic bomb and its aftermath is a prevalent issue that is discussed explicitly or implicitly (ex: Teshigahara’s Woman of the Dunes and The Face of Another would be films that are more implicit in their approach). With this film it seems Wakamatsu is either attempting to avoid any strong allusions to “the bomb” or he is being very subtle in his approach. The film begins with the nightclub singer referencing fire, burning cities, and a “battle ground.” February says The Four Seasons’ plan is to “destroy” their target and their eventual target is the city. The weapons come in a “U.S. Army” crate. Possibly Wakamatsu attempting to distance the film from these allegorical readings is that unlike traditional genre films, we never see the bombs physically detonating or their destruction. What seems more prevalent though is the theme of individualism vs. the collective that comes across not only in the dialog but also in the sex scenes which require “teamwork” but seem to illustrate gratification for the individual rather the group. Just as the Red Army Faction forbid its members from having sexual partners, the Japanese man wearing the glasses, who embodies the Party’s rhetoric, views sex as a detriment to the Party, although he later contradicts this when he tries undressing Friday.
Nice post. That's an angle that wasn't discussed in the presentation. Given the larger context I a persuaded by these suggestions.
DeleteWhile I very much enjoyed Ecstasy of the Angels, I'm often at odds with the way women are treated in the film. Yes, there's a certain quota of scenes wakamatsu needed to film in order for it to be released, the male gaze notwithstanding. However, Wakamatsu went out of his way to depict violence against women in Ecstasy of the angels that is typically more cruel and more sexual than the violence against the men. It's a shame that a film that is so rich in content has a very problematic element to it. The article briefly mentions it, but makes no attempt to justify the misogyny in the film. However, I must note that clearly Wakamatsu isn't sexist, come the time that United Red Army occurs, there's no gross male gaze sexual violence in there, just plain violence. So I think that he intentionally made the violence sexual to make a statement, but that doesn't justify something that is genuinely harmful to women at large. However, that begs the question of is he really to blame for then. For one, it was a different time, and it was a different place. I'm coming from this issue with a modern feminist method, which is a fairly western point of view. Is it appropriate to criticize this way? Who knows? I'd like to say so, but I'm afraid it's ethnocentric, applying my point of view to all others.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete
DeleteYes, Wakamatsu refers to the pink film genre as a "Trojan horse" in the Toscano article so it seems that he is trying to on one hand adhere to certain generic conventions which involve misogyny and violence, while presenting a personal story about the Red Army Faction on the other. Later in the article, though, he says that the great thing about making a film is he can show his disdain for the police by "killing" them on-screen, which makes me suspect that he would be any less aggressive toward women. One could argue, however, that the misogyny is justified in the narrative through developing "strong female characters" who get their revenge like Friday who is later seen slapping another male character. Although I have not seen any other pink films, this debate about misogyny reminds me of the debates around certain exploitation or slasher films where someone like Tarantino would justify the violence as a reason to create strong female characters. 1980s slasher films were extremely profitable given their fan base and low budget characteristics, but it is simpler to chastise the director than the audience. It is interesting to note that during the major violence/rape that occurs early in the film, although the male character is brutally attacked until his face is literally covered in blood, the film makes Friday's physical abuse, before the rape, appear more painful through editing her close-up reactions, the abuser and his reactions, and his weapon.
If Wakamatsu Kōji’s Ecstasy of the Angels were to be contained in a brief description, it would be “complex and ambiguous,” especially in the relationship between sex, violence, and politics (Albert Toscano and Hirasawa Gō 41). As a film in the pinku eiga genre, it impossible to explain it without considering the role of the political and artistic, in addition to the titillating sex and violence; this is, in fact, one of the main conventions of the genre’s incarnation in its beginnings in the late 1960s. Indeed, in Ecstasy of the Angels, the longest revolutionary discussions occur *in conjunction with* sex, so that the two are joined through a melding of the auditory and visual, the intellectual and visceral. To that end, Toscano and Hirasawa’s claim that “violence and sex frequently appear as futile explosions or evasions” is not entirely correct in this film when they’re thought of as vehicles for political action (43). The immediate futility is definitely present, but the longer term effects are those of unignorable impact – for the characters, the viewers, and Japan. Because the film ends with the mass bombings of the remaining members of October’s group and without narration or dialogue, the ending is not neatly closed up. The woman at the end even preternaturally survives her own bomb (in the still that is the film’s primary cover and post image), symbolizing that the Four Seasons Organization itself lives on, bloody and damaged and perhaps unwise and internally disunified as it is.
ReplyDeleteWith the overt political message, the longer shooting schedule, and expanded budget – 12,000,000¥ (as opposed to the “established” pinku eiga budget of 4,116,000¥ [or $35,000]) over almost a month instead of the standard week or two, according to Hirasawa’s solo document about the film – it might be valid to question Ecstasy of the Angels’s status as a pinku eiga film. It has the strong presence of sex and mayhem of pinku eiga, yet though it has the feel of something more small art house-y, it was released by the highly influential and well-respected Art Theatre Guild Japan. The inclusion of color footage at (albeit artistic) moments points blatantly to the higher budget and the *overall* use of it at times of impact, not sexual intercourse, indicates a different focus than the usual pinku eiga. To rephrase my initial quote from “Walls of Flesh: The Films of Koji Wakamatsu (1965–1972)”, this film is multi-layered and doesn’t lend itself to a clear, basic interpretation of the events of both the film and the revolutionary history at which it hints.
Megan, I too, noticed how much of the longer revolutionary discussions occur during sex scenes. I wondered what, if any deeper meaning, came from this.I believe that having these important discussions during sex scenes adds to the "direct and abrasive" nature that Jasper Sharp talks about in his essay on the Ecstasy of Angels, adding meaning to this odd combination. Wakamatsu says here is a sex scene, but by adding meaningful dialogue, the viewer can not watch the sex scene as just any sex scene, because the dialogue (especially in the sex scenes with Fall) during these scenes give so much to the plot of the movie. I noticed how in the sex scenes with Fall, who seems to be the leader of a group of terror cells, is always viewed from a different angle. However she is with three different partners, each scene from a different angle, and she is always the one doing the majority of talking. I think that this could possibly refer to the mixed messages she is giving each of her partners. We find out at the end that it is her deal brokering that causes here cells implosion.
DeleteAlthough it may not be a typical pink film, its constant incorporation of sex and violence throughout the movie must still fall under the pink film genre. Through the revolutionary characters, E of A seems to do a better job of making a statement outside of sex and violence, although the statements are made during sex, and result in violence.
I also found peer pressure, especially with Saturday(I believe), to be a major lesson during the film. Saturday is the character who has a problem with the pornography being shot, and is the middleman between Fall and October, after October's blinded. He seems to be the most worrisome and careful of the group, but ends up bombing at random when his courage is questioned by October. This also seems to come up in Wakamatsu's United Red Army when the younger brothers were pressured into joining the group.
In my opinion, “Ecstasy of the Angels” is an earlier example of Koji Wakamatsu’s criticism of the radical groups that sprung out of the movements in Japan. I argue this because the Four Seasons Association is basically torn apart due to inner struggle in this film. The October group decides to make the struggle personal after they find out that they were set up by the rest of the Association. In this film, sex & violence go hand in hand, which is typical of the pink genre. In particular, the scene where Monday & Friday are having sex and the hear someone at the door. When Monday opens the door, there men who identify themselves as February of winter’s army, beat Monday until his face is covered in blood, and then the leader of the group stabs Friday in the leg and twists it around. The camera goes in close to see her expressions of agony until she passes out. The leader then tells his minions to rape her until she talks. This scene of intense violence accompanied by sex is characteristic of the Pinku eiga genre. Indeed it is interesting, as Andrew pointed out, how most of the violence or at least the worst of it is taken against women. Almost every woman in this film is shown having sex, often with them talking about revolutionary topics in these scenes, almost suggesting that the only time we should pay attention to women in this film is when they are naked. It isn’t until the very end of the film that Friday drives towards the base of Mt. Fuji and blows herself up that we see a woman playing a real revolutionary role.
ReplyDeleteKoji Wakamatsu’s Ecstasy of the Angles was the first pink film that I have seen. In the article Koji Wakamatsu: From Yakuza to Pornographer, Wakamatsu is quoted as describing his films as having a sexy touch in addition to being underground. This is interesting to me because an underground movement is in the forefront of Ecstasy of the Angles while the sexiness seems to be put into the back seat by the violence in the film. The shadowing of the sexy scenes by the violent ones is interesting as well. The scenes of violence are overt and over the top. There is a significant amount of blood and violent sounds to accompany the acts. The sex scenes tended to be a little awkward. The male in the scene seemed to, for the most part, using the female. This idea is highlighted by the graphic nature of the rape scene. After the male in the scene is beaten, the woman is raped in the most graphic sex scene in the film. This is the literal pairing of violence with sex in the film, while there seems to be a motif of violence followed by sex. This association is where I get confused on the so-called sexy nature of the film. Were the sex scenes supposed to be appealing to the audience or are they rather an expression of a primal urge, much like the physical violence? If it were an expression of a primal urge, the film would make more sense to me because of the dichotomy between the primal urges and the more cerebral reasons for committing some of these acts. These are people who are fighting for an ideology that they believe will better the world, and at the same time are doing some of the most basic human functions. It could be merely insight into their worlds, or it could be viewed as commentary on how they went about trying to make change.
ReplyDeleteEcstasy of the Angels (1972) features many recurring themes from Wakamatsu’s films; lots of violence and the unsustainability of groups. in the previous film we watched United Red Army (2008), Wakamatsu’s goes through three different stages, highlighting the birth, burtual training, and ultimate ending of this particular terrorist group. The violences acts as the reason for the downfall of the United Red Army, hinting that the number of deaths in training was too much for the members. However, in Ecstasy of the Angels, Wakamatsu uses violence to show group conflict but not through intimidation, but as a way to establish power.
ReplyDeleteAs Alberto Toscano and Go Hirasawa note in the essay, Walls of Flesh: The Films of Koji Wakamatsu (1965–1972), “Even the moments of violence that close Ecstasy of the Angels and Season of Terror could seem like explosions of impotence—they ultimately leave the landscape of power unscathed—rather than indications of utopia, although they also function as criticisms of, or at least counterpoints to, the self-destruction of the revolutionary cells” (47).
In many other films across the world, like The Third Generation (1979) or even on the smaller extent Something in the Air (2012), violence is not what ended their respective groups, in fact that is what united them is a sense. What usually ends most of these groups is a difference in politics or agenda. Ecstasy uses violence, but in a way to divide the groups. As soon as group Fall steals the expolsives from the site, it is immediately taken away by the Winter group. They are nearly beaten to a plup and Saturday get raped repeatedly because of this power divide.
there is so much violence is this movie, there should be a question of where did the politics go? Wakamatsu’s is trying argue that politics does exist within this group, the cloud of power struggle and violence within the different members of the group has gotten so murky is can do hard to find it.