A difficult experimental film from Nagisa Oshima. One needs some historical context, which is helpfully found in the one-page article in the Eclipse edition DVD. But even with that, it's one of those films that I found interesting, but ultimately a little difficult to think much of. It concerns four male college (high school?) students who, along with four female students, accompany their bawdy teacher to a bar, where they listen to him sing a dirty sex song (which sounds kind of tame translated into English). This makes the male students believe the teacher was encouraging them and the gals to screw around, and they begin to fantasize about raping and harming the women. I thought that perhaps this was a treatise on Japanese sexual oppression in the light of the sexual revolution that was occurring in America and elsewhere at the time (frequently characters are singing American folk songs, protesting the Vietnam War), but, according to the liner notes, Oshima was much more interested in the treatment of Koreans (at least three of the films in the Eclipse box set are), as the one girl in particular whom they fantasize about raping is half Korean or something. Just watching the movie, I would never have gotten that. I don't remember at all her race mentioned, but apparently that fact would not be lost on a Japanese audience. Or maybe it would. Who knows, it's not exactly like this film is considered a classic or anything. I'd say it's marginally worth watching for fans of Oshima or Japanese films in general.
Review of Sing a Song of Sex
