Sunday, November 23, 2008

Fake trailers? Forget "Grindhouse" and try Nagisa Oshima!

by Chris MaGee

It seems like fake trailers are in vogue right now ever since Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez padded their homage to 70's and 80's B-movies "Grindhouse" with fake trailers directed by the likes of Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright and Eli Roth. Now we have Ben Stiller giving us fake trailers at the beginning of "Tropic Thunder" and Japanese special effects whiz Yoshihiro Nishimura interspersed the bloodletting in his "Tokyo Gore Police" with hilarious fake commercials.

Who would have thought that one of the founding fathers of the Japanese New Wave could be named as one of the possible orginators of this trend? Not me, but check this out. Here is one of Oshima's first films, the 1959 7-minute short "Tomorrow's Sun", a trailer for a fictional film. It's surprising to see a director known for such serious examinations of sex, politics, racism in Japanese society produce something that's so much fun.

If you're heading out in the next few weeks to catch some of the Nagisa Oshima Retrospective going at at Cinematheque Ontario then treat yourself to a trailer before heading out the door.

1 comment:

Kathie Smith said...

That is pretty awesome. I wish I knew more of the story behind this 'trailer'. There are definitely some familiar actors from Oshima's films in that clip.

The Oshima retrospective just wrapped up here in the Twin Cities. The Walker screened 16 films, omitting some from the amazing scheduled you guys have there. I would have loved to have seen them all.