This screening will be introduced by Associate Professor Deborah Shamoon from the Department of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Original Title: 卍
Alternative Title: Manji
Director: Yasuzo Masumura
Runtime: 90 mins
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: R21

4K RESTORATION

Synopsis

Adapted from one of Tanizaki’s most controversial novels, Quicksand, the film follows Mitsuko, a bored housewife who becomes entangled in a complex quadrangle of desire, deception and jealousy. Mitsuko falls in love with Sonoko, an art student she meets at a local women’s school. Amidst the rumours surrounding their relationship, their passion grows more intense. Yet beneath their fiery romance lies a web of deception…

Compared with Ichikawa’s adaptation, Masumura’s interpretation is imbued with a more feverish, sensuous intensity. Turbulent emotions seem almost to spill beyond the confines of the screen, where the aestheticism of Tanizaki’s writing takes on an irresistible beauty through Masumura’s lens.

About the Speaker

Deborah Shamoon is Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on representations of girls and women in Japanese film, literature and popular culture. Her publications include Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan (2012); “The Girl in the Whirlpool: Girls’ Culture (Shōjo Bunka) in Tanizaki’s Manji” (2020); and “Class S: Appropriation of ‘Lesbian’ Subculture in Modern Japanese Literature and New Wave Cinema,” Cultural Studies 35.1 (2020).

This screening is part of the programme Twin Tales: Kon Ichikawa and Yasuzo Masumura. For more screenings, please click here.

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