Three Resurrected Drunkards: Nagisa Oshima

One of the great dilemmas film critics face concerns the reviewing of experimental films. On the one hand, experimental films should be praised and studied so as to help promote the continuing evolution of the cinema. On the other, should critics give experimental films good reviews simply because they are experimental? I don't believe so. I can admire an experimental film for its audacity and technique. But that doesn't mean that I have to pretend that I enjoyed it. Take Nagisa Oshima's Three Resurrected Drunkards, for instance. The film follows three Japanese students whose clothes are stolen one day while they are swimming at the beach. They are forced to wear the clothes of two Korean soldiers from Vietnam who went AWOL. The students protest at first, but when one of the Korean soldiers pulls out a pistol, they relent. And so begins a very strange film where Oshima examines one of the darker sides of Japanese culture: discrimination against Korean immigrants. The three students are captured by the military and forced to fight in Vietnam. They escape, but the two Korean soldiers pursue them. They force the students at gunpoint to continue with the charade so they can disappear into Japanese society. About halfway through the film, something even stranger happens: the film restarts from the beginning. The boys go to the same beach and get their clothes stolen once again. However, this time the boys have memories of their plight during the first half of the film. So they try to do the exact opposite of their original actions so as to avoid being shanghaied into the Korean military. But Oshima doesn't let his protagonists off so easily. Despite their best efforts, they end up being persecuted by the Japanese and captured by the military. As the film ends, I find myself wondering whether I should give Three Resurrected Drunkards a good review. After all, it was daring in its political content, beautiful in its composition, and quite unlike anything I had ever seen before. But I find myself not caring about these things. The film is deliberately obtuse and opaque, even for the radical Oshima. It feels tedious and hollow. So is it a good film? Some might think so. But I, for one, do not.

5/10