Profound Desires of the Gods (ej svensk text) (Blu-ray + DVD)

The culmination of Shôhei Imamura’s extraordinary examinations of the fringes of Japanese society throughout the 1960s, PROFOUND DESIRES OF THE GODS [Kamigami no fukaki yokubô] was an 18-month super-production which failed to make an impression at the time of its release, but has since risen in stature to become one of the most legendary — albeit least seen — Japanese films of recent decades. Presenting a vast chronicle of life on the remote Kurage Island, the film centres on the disgraced, superstitious, interbred Futori family and the Tokyo engineer sent to supervise the creation of a new well — an encounter which leads to both conflict and complicity in strange and powerful ways. A tragic view of a passing epoch that teeters on the edge of grotesque farce, Imamura’s merciless gaze combines with spectacular colour Scope photography to create a mythic saga convulsing with earthly impulses.