By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda | Shinji Takeda | Tadanobu Asano | Takeshi Kitano
Country: france, japan, united_kingdom
Year: 2001
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0213682
Marc says: “I would strongly suggest missing TABOO. Saw it yesterday and it lacked intellectual challenge, stunning visuals, and narrative coherence. I imagine that culture differences play some part to not understanding this film. Impenetrable may be the best discretion of it. The film’s style is analogous to the genre of seventies martial art films. Not the high point of cinematic experience.”
Michael says: “TABOO is an interesting story of gay love between samurai during the time of feudal Japan. When a young, beautiful man joins the militia, all the samurai, gay and straight, seem quite taken with him. The commanders know that no good will come of it, but he is a skilled fighter, and they too succumb to his beauty, in one way or another.
“I found the film to be pretty enjoyable, with elements of old Japanese samurai films, some pretty neat combat scenes and an interesting handling of the gay aspect. The fact that men love men is treated rather interestingly by the players… both accepted and yet not really spoken of, except in the guise of rampant gossip, and with the idea that it will lead to trouble… which it does.
“I even nominated one of the supporting characters, who I found quite charming, the lieutenant commander who tries to stay uninvolved, but ends up being quite important in the multi-faceted relationships of the men involved.” 3 1/2 cats