1 August – 1 September 2026
In Focus
"An artist does not build his work on one single theme, any more than a man builds his life according to only one idea"
– Nagisa Ōshima
A key figure of the Japanese New Wave, Nagisa Ōshima's body of work is one of the most vital, challenging and admired in cinema history. This programme brings together nine of his films with a particular focus on the work he made through his own production company in the 1960s and early 70s, illuminating the anti-establishment spirit and formal radicalism running through his cinema.
In Focus
"An artist does not build his work on one single theme, any more than a man builds his life according to only one idea"
– Nagisa Ōshima
A key figure of the Japanese New Wave, Nagisa Ōshima's body of work is one of the most vital, challenging and admired in cinema history. This programme brings together nine of his films with a particular focus on the work he made through his own production company in the 1960s and early 70s, illuminating the anti-establishment spirit and formal radicalism running through his cinema.
Presented in collaboration with Radiance Films.
Programme
Saturday 1 August, 4pm
Repeat screening on Tue 4 Aug
The Catch
An adaptation of Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe's unsettling and politically trenchant fable, Nagisa Ōshima's The Catch tells the story of an African-American pilot captured by the inhabitants of a remote mountain village in the final days of WWII.
Wednesday 5 August, 7pm
Repeat screening on Sat 8 Aug
Death By Hanging + Yunbogi's Diary
At once disturbing and oddly amusing, Ōshima's macabre farce about a man who survives his execution and throws the judiciary system into chaos, is a searing indictment of both capital punishment and the treatment of Korean immigrants in his country.
Sunday 9 August, 2.30pm
Repeat screening on Wed 12 Aug
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
When a thief is caught stealing form a book shop by one of its employees, the two embark on an unusual, erotic adventure. Set against the vivid backdrop of the massive student-led riots, Nagisa Ōshima's radical concoction of cinema verité, underground kabuki and just about everything in-between, is a striking meditation on the psychosexual ambiguities of the postwar counterculture.
Wednesday 12 August, 8.30pm
Repeat screening on Sat 22 Aug
Boy
Based on the shocking story of a young Japanese couple jailed for throwing their ten-year old son into traffic in order to extort money from unwitting drivers, Boy is one of Ōshima's most beautiful and restrained films.
Sunday 23 August, 4pm
Repeat screening on Tue 25 Aug
The Man Who Left His Will on Film
One of the most urgent, anxious cinematic interventions into the post-1968 defeat of the radical youth movement, Ōshima's The Man Who Left His Will on Film is an enigmatic unravelling of the suicide of a young member of a political film cooperative.
Thursday 27 August, 6.30pm
Repeat screening on Sat 29 Aug
The Ceremony
Among Ōshima's most ambitious works, The Ceremony, is a savage critique of the corrosive abuses of power at the heart of both a patriarchal Japanese family and the nation itself.
Saturday 29 August, 4.30pm
100 Years of Japanese Cinema
Ōshima's documentary celebrating the centenary of cinema in Japan, traces the history of Japanese cinema from the silent era of the late 1800s to more recent work by the likes of Hayao Miyazaki and Takeshi Kitano.
Sunday 30 August, 4pm
Repeat screening on Tue 1 Sep
Dear Summer Sister
For his final independent film, shot on location in Okinawa immediately after it's release from US control, Ōshima combines a breezy tale of summer romance with an unpredictable exploration of the island and its inhabitants.
Saturday 1 August, 4pm
Repeat screening on Tue 4 Aug
The Catch
An adaptation of Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe's unsettling and politically trenchant fable, Nagisa Ōshima's The Catch tells the story of an African-American pilot captured by the inhabitants of a remote mountain village in the final days of WWII.
Wednesday 5 August, 7pm
Repeat screening on Sat 8 Aug
Death By Hanging + Yunbogi's Diary
At once disturbing and oddly amusing, Ōshima's macabre farce about a man who survives his execution and throws the judiciary system into chaos, is a searing indictment of both capital punishment and the treatment of Korean immigrants in his country.
Sunday 9 August, 2.30pm
Repeat screening on Wed 12 Aug
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
When a thief is caught stealing form a book shop by one of its employees, the two embark on an unusual, erotic adventure. Set against the vivid backdrop of the massive student-led riots, Nagisa Ōshima's radical concoction of cinema verité, underground kabuki and just about everything in-between, is a striking meditation on the psychosexual ambiguities of the postwar counterculture.
Wednesday 12 August, 8.30pm
Repeat screening on Sat 22 Aug
Boy
Based on the shocking story of a young Japanese couple jailed for throwing their ten-year old son into traffic in order to extort money from unwitting drivers, Boy is one of Ōshima's most beautiful and restrained films.
Sunday 23 August, 4pm
Repeat screening on Tue 25 Aug
The Man Who Left His Will on Film
One of the most urgent, anxious cinematic interventions into the post-1968 defeat of the radical youth movement, Ōshima's The Man Who Left His Will on Film is an enigmatic unravelling of the suicide of a young member of a political film cooperative.
Thursday 27 August, 6.30pm
Repeat screening on Sat 29 Aug
The Ceremony
Among Ōshima's most ambitious works, The Ceremony, is a savage critique of the corrosive abuses of power at the heart of both a patriarchal Japanese family and the nation itself.
Saturday 29 August, 4.30pm
100 Years of Japanese Cinema
Ōshima's documentary celebrating the centenary of cinema in Japan, traces the history of Japanese cinema from the silent era of the late 1800s to more recent work by the likes of Hayao Miyazaki and Takeshi Kitano.
Sunday 30 August, 4pm
Repeat screening on Tue 1 Sep
Dear Summer Sister
For his final independent film, shot on location in Okinawa immediately after it's release from US control, Ōshima combines a breezy tale of summer romance with an unpredictable exploration of the island and its inhabitants.
