Naked Pursuit (Kofun, 1968)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C     Film: B-

 

 

Has the counterculture driven a Japanese man to rape, obsession and loneliness?  That is the question posed by Toshio Okuwaki’s Naked Pursuit, a challenging 1968 film about that man (Masayoshi Nogami) and a pretty, young woman (Maki Oaki) who is all alone until he shows up and the crazy story begins.  Instead of being just his perverse delight or her nightmare, the incident happens and then in the English version, we even hear the thoughts of both throughout.  At a short 73 minutes, it quits while it is ahead, but makes a bold attempt (if not always successful) to examine the anatomy of such a collision all the way.

 

Though Harry Novak might seem like an exploitation producer, the film itself is not as exploitive as it sounds and even has some feminist moments, though they may be too late for some and not what you’d expect.  Shunichi Naho’s screenplay begins by briefly trying to tie this chaos with that of counterculture and student uprisings as if that produced some extra evils in the world, but that is quickly lost and forgotten once the sexual violence begins, only to be briefly revisited.  The film will not be for everyone and is unrated, though a hard “R” would be the right rating.  How things have changed.  Despite material that might be rejectable upfront, the film is worth a look for its adult attempt to deal with the subjects with some intelligence.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image shows its age and is in black and white until the final reel, which is in decent color.  The slow motion shots are disturbing and the print is supposed to be form the original 35mm negative.  It is not perfect, but has its moments and Shizuka Takeda’s cinematography is very good and solid use of anamorphic lenses.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 English and Japanese Mono are not as dynamic, with the Japanese version being slightly fuller.  This is a simple soundtrack film, though, so even at its best it is not going to be sonically spectacular.  The choice of voice over is interesting, but the lack of it in the original Japanese version is even more effective.  Extras include stills, the original U.S. theatrical trailer and a mixed audio commentary by Luke Y. Thompson & Jess Hlubik that jokes around too much and does not take the film seriously enough.  Some facts surface, but this is a disappointment otherwise.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo