Captive's Island

Captive's Island
Film Poster
処刑の島
Directed byMasahiro Shinoda
Screenplay by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTatsuo Suzuki
Edited byMasahiro Shinoda
Music byTōru Takemitsu
Distributed byDaiei Film
Release date
  • 2 July 1966 (1966-07-02) (Japan)[1][2]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Captive's Island (処刑の島, Shokei no shima, lit. Execution Island), also known as Punishment Island, is a 1966 Japanese drama film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. The screenplay by Shintarō Ishihara was based on the novel Ryujinjima ni nite by Taijun Takeda.[1][3][4] The film probes deep into the damaging effects of the Japanese Imperial system on individuals. It concerns the story of a young man who travels to an island to punish the man who had murdered his family and brutalized him twenty years prior, but he develops feelings for the man's daughter which tests his resolve to carry out his revenge. The film makes extensive use of flashbacks, cutting forward and backwards in a free-form multilayered structure, to illustrate how the past casts a shadow over the present.[5]

Plot

A young man in the guise of a salesman travels to an island and asks the ship’s captain, Nomoto, for lodging. This man's name is Saburo, and he was on the island 20 years prior. Saburo's father, Genichiro Nishihara, had been an anarchist, and as a result, Saburo's parents and brother were brutally murdered by Sergeant Otake, a military police officer. The military sent the young Saburo to the island (Shimanagashi) to cover up this atrocity. Saburo didn't know that Otake had also been sent to the same island. Otake, who kept cattle and goats in the island, was given charge of reforming juvenile delinquents and continued to brutalize Saburo. Saburo tried to escape several times, but each time he was beaten to the point of bleeding. His companion Matsui betrayed Saburo, and his teacher Kuroki was a sympathetic but fearful bystander. One day, Saburo is thrown into the sea by Otake and left for dead.

Saburo, who was rescued by a fisherman, has reappeared on the island 20 years later. Matsui is now the president of a construction company. A young woman, Aya, is nearly attacked by three men but Saburo saves her. Aya is Otake's daughter and had met Saburo when she was a little girl. Saburo has feelings for Aya, which complicates his revenge plans.[1]

Themes & Reception

The film explores the effects of violence on both the body and the character’s psyche. Scenes of men beating children and one another are numerous, attacks are carried out with crutches, whips, and live eels, and Shinoda is keen to show this brutality in close ups. Bruised and bloodied bodies contrast sharply with the physical beauty of the island’s greenery and the surrounding ocean. Shinoda also emphasizes violent physicality by muting the soundtrack during some of the most violent moments.[6]

Film scholar Albert Johnson praised the film as one of the best Japanese films of 1966. He praised the evocativeness and beauty of the nature photography and wrote that it was "a dispassionate, moving statement on the nature of evil and the hopelessness of vengeful satisfaction.[5]

Cast

References

  1. ^ a b c "処刑の島" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  2. ^ "処刑の島" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  3. ^ Nygren, Scott (2007). Time Frames: Japanese Cinema And the Unfolding of History. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9781452909233.
  4. ^ "処刑の島" (in Japanese). Kotobank. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b Johnson, Albert (2006). "Captive's Island | San Francisco Film Festival". history.sffs.org. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  6. ^ Cutler, Aaron (26 September 2010). "New York Film Festival 2010: Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2024.


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