News

Based on the homonymous collection of poems by Shuji Terayama, “Pastoral: To Die in the Country” is an autobiographical movie that, once more in a work of both the director and Atg, stretches the medium of cinema to its extremes, through an approach that is abstract, surrealistic, avant-garde, theatrical and meta, to name just a few of the elements that consist its narrative.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

Shin-chan is a 15-years-old boy who lives with his mother in Aomori Prefecture, at the foot of the Scary Mountain, where his father is buried. The young man lusts for the woman next door, to the anger of her husband and the annoyance of his mother, whom Shin-chan has no issue talking about even his most inner sexual thoughts. One day, he witnesses a woman in the village giving birth to a baby, but soon learns...

by Swapnil Dhruv Bose

One of the most striking films to have come out of the Japanese New Wave, “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets” is avant-garde writer turned filmmaker Shūji Terayama’s debut feature and is based on his eponymous book. Although he went on to make other masterpieces like “Pastoral: To Die in the Country” (1974) and “Glass Labyrinth” (1979), this brilliant work of experimental anarchy remains the apotheosis of Terayama’s unapologetically original artistic vision.

Following in the footsteps of Jean-Luc Godard and anticipating the non-linear surrealness of directors like David Lynch, Terayama constructs unforgettable vignettes which blind the viewer with their pathos. It is almost pointless to talk about the film’s plot because time and causality are rendered insignificant when confronted with the underlying spiritual anguish. The protagonist introduces himself to us in a spectacular opening monologue where he stares straight into...

An important event of the 19th New Horizons festival will be Poland’s first retrospective of works by Terayama Shūji (1935-1983), one of the most prominent avant-garde reformers of Japanese cinema and theater.

Selected filmography:

Short films

1964 Ori / Kanshū (The Cage / Klatka / Więzień w klatce)

1971 Tomato Kecchappu Kōtei (Emperor Tomato Ketchup / Cesarz Tomato Ketchiup)

1974 Chōfuku-ki (Butterfly Dress Pledge / Motyl)

1974 Seishōnen no tame no eiga nyūmon (The young people’s guide to film / Wstęp dla młodzieży do wiedzy o filmie)

1974 Rōra (Laura / Laura)

1975 Shinpan (The Trial / Proces)

1975 Hōsō-tan (A Tale of Smallpox / Opowieść o ospie)

1977 Marudororu no uta (Les Chants de Maldoror / Pieśni Maldorora)

1979 Kusa meikyū (Grass Labyrinth / Labirynt Traw)

Features films

1971 Sho o suteyo machi e deyō (Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets / Rzućmy książki, wyjdźmy na ulice!)

1974 Den’en ni shisu (Pastoral: To Die in the Country <aka Pastoral Hide and Seek> / Wiejska ciuciubabka)

1977 Bokusā (Boxer / Bokser)

1981 Shanhai Ijin Shōkan (Fruits of Passion...