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After “Confessions Among Actresses”, director Kiju Yoshida returned to his political trilogy with “Coup d’Etat”, an account of the attempted overthrow of the Japanese government on February 26, 1936. Similar to the other entries of the trilogy”, “Eros + Massacre” and “Heroic Purgatory”, this final feature was also inspired by true events and a historical figure, in this case ultra-nationalist author Ikki Kita, but is quite a diversion, aesthetically and narratively, from the other parts of the trilogy. In an introduction filmed in 2008, the director explains how the event plays a decisive role when it comes to understanding the way Japan developed towards a more nationalist and ultimately militarist power, which sparked its involvement in World War II, but also paved the way for the protest movement of the 1960s, events he portrayed and referred to in the other features of the trilogy.

Coup D’Etat is screening at Tokyo International...

After “Confessions Among Actresses”, director Kiju Yoshida returned to his political trilogy with “Coup d’Etat”, an account of the attempted overthrow of the Japanese government on February 26, 1936. Similar to the other entries of the trilogy”, “Eros + Massacre” and “Heroic Purgatory”, this final feature was also inspired by true events and a historical figure, in this case ultra-nationalist author Ikki Kita, but is quite a diversion, aesthetically and narratively, from the other parts of the trilogy. In an introduction filmed in 2008, the director explains how the event plays a decisive role when it comes to understanding the way Japan developed towards a more nationalist and ultimately militarist power, which sparked its involvement in World War II, but also paved the way for the protest movement of the 1960s, events he portrayed and referred to in the other features of the trilogy.

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After the suicide of his brother,...

After the critical acclaim of his 1969 feature “Eros + Massacre”, Kiju Yoshida went even further in the second part of his political trilogy, “Heroic Purgatory”. The creative freedom the director enjoyed in his collaboration with Art Theater Guild would result in a work which, if you believe film scholars such as David Desser, is even bolder than its predecessor, continuing the filmmaker’s predilection on breaking the rules of cinema, from narration to elements of the mise-en-scène. In many ways, “Heroic Purgatory” seems to be a companion piece to the kind of cinema colleagues such as Nagisa Oshima were making at the time, establishing a rather bleak image at the end of a tumultuous decade, which was somewhat skeptical of the lasting social and political change the large amount of protests had tried to achieve in the past years.

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Although the feature is difficult to...

By Omar Rasya Joenoes

The first shot of the film is that of a delicate hand stretched against a grey backdrop. It is then joined by another, slightly larger hand, which feels and leaves it. The hand then lowers itself and lands on the shoulder of a man to reveal that we are watching a lovemaking session between a beautiful woman and a younger man. In contrast, the final shot of the film shows the same woman’s face at the end of a train car as the vehicle enters a tunnel, swallowing her image whole until there is nothing left to see but the dark. Between the hotel room and the train ride, we are made to witness adultery, blackmail, nude modeling, film shooting, and possibly even murder attempt.

The woman, whose story is the focal point of this photoplay, is called Mizuki Miyako (portrayed by the gorgeous Mariko Okada...