Stories Written in Sunlight and Water: The Cinema of Yoshida Yoshishige: Pt.1 The Studio Years

One unfortunate aspect of these examinations of the Japanese new wave has been an almost total lack of engagement with Yoshida Yoshishige. Critical discourse from both Japan and the West has long since treated Yoshida, implicitly or otherwise, as a peripheral figure. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances for this critical neglect, chief among which would doubtless be the complete lack of ready availability of his work outside Japan. Another factor attendant upon Yoshida's obscurity is the perceived esoteric nature of his cinema. Several of his most prominent works particularly the independently produced political, revolutionary trilogy of Erosu purasu gyakusatsu (Eros plus Massacre, 1969), Rengoku eroica (Heroic Purgatory, 1970) and Kaigenrei (Coup d'etat, 1973) are markedly difficult and obtuse.