Avant-garde can be interpreted in many ways, and Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers experimented with them all. Directed by Parisian film director and producer Amelie Ravalec, this documentary examines the social changes, student protests and political unrest that emerged in post-war Japan, as captured by avant-garde artists and photographers.
This is not for the faint-hearted, and the confronting content will challenge Western sensitivities. This is the very reason why Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers is important, as it captures an entire segment of Japanese history that’s rarely seen.
Documenting the underground scene through photography, theatre, erotica, bondage, animation, imagery and dance, the film is both beautiful and brutal in equal measure.
The post-war urban evolution was a time of immense global change and offered the opportunity to challenge the norm and create new lifestyles and culture in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s. As society sought freedom from tradition, experimentation broke with convention. Japan became a paradise for artists to capture the seedy backstreets of US camps, tattooed gangsters, Shibari rope bondage, street performers and often violent Butoh dance-theatre.
Flashes of imagery and film are centred around interviews with the photographers and artists, such as Watanabe Hitomi (photographer), Kaneko Ryúichi (photographic historian), Yokoo Tadanori (contemporary artist), Enomoto Ryoichi (art director/designer), Ishiuchi Miyako (photographer), Hosoe Eikoh (photographer), Terayama Shúji (artist), Awazu Kiyoshi (graphic designer) and Tanaami Keiichi (pop artist).
Through these intimate interviews, viewers gain rare insight into the motivations behind their work, often embroiled in their own personal turmoil. As they delve into the collapsed values and rebellion against the ideological regime previously enforced, they demonstrate their boldness and bravery, often risking their reputations and safety to capture what was happening around them.
If you have any interest in Japanese culture, Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers is essential viewing.
Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers is now showing at Luna Palace Cinemas.
Review written by Carmen Jenner.