Pinku from 1967.

昭和初期、上海で知りあったお万と、竜二は日本へ帰って来た。風の便りではお万の母おりんが日本にいるというのである。二人は横浜の長屋に住み、仕事が終り次第、母を探し出すという竜二の言葉に、お万は身も心も捧げていた。だが、竜二は、バクチで負けお万を遊廓に売ってしまった。そんな時お万に好意を持っている政吉が上海から戻り、大金を賭場から盗み出しお万を身請けした。だが政吉は組の者に殺されてしまった。お万は壺振りの修行をした。賭場を渡り歩いている竜二を探しだす為である。長崎の料亭で壺を振っていた、ある日、料亭の女将がお万の母おりんである事を知ったが、賭博師である自分を恥、名乗り出ることができなかった。ところが、おりんの娘お菊（即ちお万の義妹にあたるのだが）が捜していた竜二と駈け落ちするという。お万は、旅館で絡み合っている竜二とお菊の部屋に入り竜二をドスでつき刺した。何も知らないお菊の罵声の中を「お母さんを幸せに」と言い残し自首しに行くのだった。

１９９８年度作品（video／２９分） 舞台づくりと、小鳥や魚､昆虫など、脇役たちのパフォーマンスの瞬間を掴まえるのに長い歳月をかけた作品（この部分はまだまだ進化する）―― やがて、黄泉の国の住人たちがそこに舞い降りてきて、「我を見よや！」と競演を繰り広げるのだ！

“The Kingdom” is the third film in Kanai Katsu’s avant-garde Smiling Milky Way Trilogy which began with two politically loaded films, 1968’s “The Deserted Archipelago”, a dream journey through the the post-ANPO Treaty 60’s, and 1971’s “Good-Bye”, an exploratrion of the plight of the zainichi, or Japanese of Korean heritage. “The Kingdom” doesn’t take on any loaded current event or momentary societal ill though. Instead it goes to the root of Japanese (and global) society’s engine - time - and in that way “The Kingdom” is probably the most radical film in Kanai’s trilogy of films. Katsu Kanai: My first film, The Deserted Archipelago, emerged out of the intersections between my own experiences and fantasies and Japan’s postwar history, and, as such, I might call it the “Human Chapter” of my trilogy. In contrast, Good-bye pursues the mystery of my distant DNA. Since it moves from blood to land, I might call it the “Earth Chapter.” Following these two narratives came The Kingdom. Even if we were to deny all gods, there is one god controlling us, one god whom we cannot refuse: the god of time. The Kingdom was my challenge to that god of time as well as the finale, “The Heavenly Chapter,” to my Smiling Milky Way Trilogy. The story is about a popular poet, Goku Katsumaru, who grows depressed when his editor jokingly implies that he is a “sell-out to his times.” Around Goku appear first a “Team of Pickpockets With Plans to Steal Time” and later the Bird Doctor who develops his research on migrating birds and, in particular, their internal clocks, “to liberate himself from the bonds of time.” Goku , who now dreams of becoming a poet for all time, employs the knowledge he has acquired from these men to travel from a field in the Hachioji suburbs of Tokyo all the way to the Galapagos Islands, where he attempts a total transcendence. The film is both an incredible adventure story as well as the kitsch formulation of a new “myth.” I had been challenged by the words of the young Ôshima Nagisa, who declared “I won’t accept something as cinema unless it is founded in an absolutely new story and an absolutely new methodology. We cannot be allowed to imitate ourselves.” While there are some points in common across each of the three films in this trilogy, I truly did my utmost to distinguish them at both the level of story and method—to maintain their distinct and unique qualities. In the last scene of The Kingdom, just as Goku’s face can be seen shining beneath the twinkling night sky, you see the face of Kanai Katsumaru, the protagonist from Good-bye, and then that of Hidekuni, the lead in The Deserted Archipelago, and finally, across the whole screen appear six faces without even eyes or noses. The latter were nods towards my films yet to come. The Kingdom was selected for second place in the Asahi Newspaper’s “Best Five from 1973.” The Japanese film journal, Eiga Hyôron (Film Review), listed the film in 9th place among its Best Ten of the Year. And Max Tessier wildly praised The Kingdom in the French film magazine, Ecran. I heard that Tessier even took the film to Cannes himself and screened it there, giving his own running translation of the dialogue. I’m still indebted to Tessier’s enthusiasm!

A bunch of young hipsters kidnaps a loving couple and keeps them trapped in a barren landscape. To the sounds of free jazz they are performing various experiments with the couple. In the distance is a yakuza gang keeping track of the youths. Who are really experimenting with whom?