8/10 (sat), 22:00 ~ Uno Port Pier#2 Outdoor Trailer Theater,
Skype Q&A session after the screening
Director: Kosuke Oshida
Japan/2012/Japanese with English Subtitles/Color/113min/dramatic comedy
“39 (Thank you) Gangsters” is Kosuke Oshida’s first dramatic feature about three youngsters with intellectual disabilities and one old man with dementia. The idea for this film was developed 15 years ago around Dir. Oshida’s real brother, Kiyotaka, who lives with Down syndrome and who also acted as himself in the film.
With a budget of 300 million yen (about US$37.5K) collected from his circle of friends and by asking and begging many others, Oshida completed the film in 2011 after two years of production.
Turning a “heavy” social issue into a comedy
押田監督 Dir. Kousuke Oshida
To describe this film, Director Oshida often uses the term “heavy comedy (ju-kigeki)”. It refers to a film genre coined to describe the films of the late Shohei Imamura, whom Oshida considers as his mentor. In Imamura’s ju-kigeki, heavy social problems are illuminated with comedy.
The film shows the harsh realities that mentally disabled people face in the modern Japanese society, such as repeated offenses, prostitution, exploitation, and homelessness.
Oshida chooses a form of drama, especially comedy, as an art form to tell their stories. This choice alone reveals Oshida’s desire to inherit Imamura’s belief that humor is an absolute necessity for a film. His choice also reverberates Imamura’s life philosophy – “Humans are nasty and lovable,” which Oshida considers a necessary perspective in portraying humans.
Indeed, Kosuke Oshida is one of the few who can be truly seen in Imamura’s lineage among the many students Imamura taught in his life.