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Event
EXTREME PRIVATE EROS: LOVE SONG 1974
Dir. Kazuo Hara, 1974
Japan, 98 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles
Shot over several years, EXTREME PRIVATE EROS: LOVE SONG 1974 is a documentary about Haras ex-lover and is a clarion call against a historically reserved Japanese culture. The film follows Miyuki Takeda, Haras ex and father of his son, as she navigates new relationships (first with a woman, and then with an American GI in Okinawa), raises her son, and explores life in 1970s Japan as an outspoken feminist. But the film isnt just a portrait of the vulnerabilities of a radical feminist single mother in a time when that wasnt heard of; Miyuki often takes the opportunity of being filmed by her ex to let loose with what she really thinks about him as a partner, as a lover, and as a filmmaker.
As well as a portrait of two complicated, damaged people, the film is a portrait of Okinawa as a dysfunctional city, damaged by two decades of American military presence. Hara films the GI bars and the underage prostitutes that frequent the bars for business. Hara takes a detour into the life of a 14-year-old Okinawa girl Chichi, whose life converges and diverges from Miyukis story in intriguing ways.
Released around the same time as the groundbreaking PBS series An American Family (and predating the similarly-themed SHERMAN'S MARCH by a decade), EXTREME PRIVATE EROS takes a long, hard look at gender roles, romantic relationships, and what it means to be a family in 1970s Japan. Haras out-of-sync sound and hand-held photography are disorienting and intimate at the same time, giving the feel of experimental cinema to a film with very real content. The results are bitter and sometimes hard to watch, but always compelling.
Special thanks to Tidepoint Films.
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LocationSPECTACLE THEATER (View)
124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11249
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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