A Tokyo engineer who arrives on a remote island to relaunch a sugar refinery falls into a potful of atavisms, superstitions and taboos. In his exuberant manner, Imamura revisits the well-worn theme of the shock between tradition and modernity and, in a desperate anarchistic gesture, seems to tar archaism and forced industrialisation with the same brush. Under this mad psychedelic sun, the question is nonetheless a burning one: what has Japan made of itself? Imamura paid dearly for his audacity; the film was commercial flop, he was thrown out of Nikkatsu. The magnificent title measures up to this saga, and the restored film has done justice to its sumptuous palette of colours. AR
Restored print
