Gohatto

Oshima made a masterful return to taboo-breaking territory with this dreamlike drama about gay samurai. Gohatto (or Taboo) was the director’s first feature in 14 years, and is likely to stand as his final work in cinema; Oshima suffered debilitating strokes both before and after its making. Recalling both In the Realm of the Senses (the linking of sex and death) and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (the treatment of homoeroticism in the military), Gohatto stars popular Japanese director and actor Takeshi Kitano (AKA “Beat” Takeshi) as Hijikata, captain of a Shogunate militia in 1865 Kyoto. Ryuhei Matsuda is 18-year-old Kano, the new recruit, ace swordsman and androgynous object of desire who sets forbidden passions raging and jealousy swirling amongst his fellow samurai. Based on two stories by Ryotaro Shiba, one of Japan’s best-selling authors, with a narrative and stylistic nod or two to Mizoguchi’s classic ghost story Ugetsu, Gohatto is an odd, enigmatic work of great poetry, striking beauty, and strange, transgressive power. “Unmissable . . . A mesmerizing, mysterious meditation on samurai death and desire” (Film Comment). “A thrilling comeback . . . powerful and confrontational . . . wonderfully subversive and convincingly sexy” (Noah Cowan, Toronto I.F.F.). Colour, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles. 100 mins.