Event

GO, GO SECOND TIME VIRGIN

Dir. Wakamatsu Kji, 1969
Japan. 65 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

GO, GO SECOND TIME VIRGIN is loosely inspired by the murder of actress Sharon Tate by the Manson Family in August 1969. Wakamatsu's film, released later that year, imagines a similar scenario on Tokyo rooftop during a hot summer day, in which two teenagers are pushed to the end of their limit. Half critique of a hedonistic sex-crazed subculture, and half gloomy portrayal of two unfortunate youths, Virgin stuns the viewer with a barrage of different media techniques; color blends with black and white, frenetic jazz accompanies psychedelic 1960s rock n' roll, and the characters speak in broken poetry. Here, sadism walks hand in hand with love, and the Death and Sex Drives are never very far apart. Like many films of the genre, the film explodes with blood and violence at its conclusion, which strangely mirrors the "double suicide" trope of traditional Japanese theater.