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Overview

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Taboo, 1999

Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Ryuhei Matsuda

Directed by: Nagisa Oshima

Written by: Nagisa Oshima

Language: Japanese

Country: France, UK, Japan

Runtime: 100 min

MPAA Rating:

Rating:6.9

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Profile of Taboo

Taboo can be described as stylized, captivating, and disturbing. The plot revolves around samurai, political unrest, and gender. The main genres are drama, foreign, and period. In approach, Taboo is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. It is located in Japan. Taboo takes place in the 19th century. It is based on a book. The movie has received attention for being original and an award winner.

Summary of Taboo

Widely regarded as the greatest living Japanese director as well as one of the film world's foremost hierophants of transgression, Nagisa Oshima returns from a long hiatus with a film worthy of his reputation. Set in 1865 during the waning days of the Tokugawa shogunate, it focuses on an exotic young male beauty, Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda), who has recently been recruited by the strict Shinsengumi samurai militia. He quickly becomes the lover of another recruit, Hyozo Tashiro (Tadanobu Asano), and, although homosexuality is officially verboten, Commander Kondo (Yoichi Sai) seems to have adopted a don't-ask don't-tell policy. He has little choice, since the teenage wraith soon becomes the prime object of desire for half the militia. Jealousy threatens to erode the company's morale as the samurai engage in kendo swordplay for a shard of attention from the impassive Kano. Captain Hijikata (Takeshi Kitano), the most humane and aware of the samurai, struggles to maintain discipline while fighting against his own attraction to the youth. Taboo is a fascinatingly ambiguous exploration of the uncontrollable force of sexuality in a highly repressive military environment. The ravishingly otherworldly art direction by Yoshinobu Nishioka and insistently minimal score by Ryuichi Sakamoto are particularly notable.