Samurai and Japanese Movies DVD Store : THE CATCH: THE BEAST OF JAPAN (1961)

Shiiku - Summer of 1945, just when the Japanese Defeat is coming, in the middle of nowhere, a black american soldier is caught and kept prisoner in a small village.

The Catch is set during the final days of World War II. A black GI is captured in a remote Japanese farming village and becomes a pawn in the power struggle between various factions. The villagers aren’t united, rich and poor hate each other, everyone is lying, stealing from their neighbor, or demeaning others. People are trying to survive, they don’t care about anything else. They have lost their compassion!

As the villagers squabble over their “catch,” Oshima explores subjects that would become his hallmarks – Japanese hypocrisy, racism, xenophobia, insularity, scapegoating – with detached ferocity. The black americain soldier is just a scapegoat to let us see the real beast; the villagers.

Nagisa Oshima has said “if the americain soldier was white, he’d have been admired and maybe respected by the Japanese. Because, unconsciously, Japanese think that the White Man is superior”. Which explains a lot about the behavior of the villagers!

Director: Nagisa Oshima

Stars: Rentaro Mikuni, Hugh Hurd, Jun Hamamura

1961 - JAPANESE with OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES - B&W - 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN - 105 MINUTES

Destination: United States