Bumpkin Soup
On the grounds of a college campus in Tokyo in the early 80s, country girl Akiko (Yoriko Doguchi, FX’s Shogun) drifts in and out of odd interactions with the offbeat, intellectually dense and dirty-minded student body as she half-heartedly searches for her hometown sweetheart Yoshioka. After discovering that he has become a rather elusive campus nobody, Akiko changes course and subjects herself to the wild, erotic whims of Psychology Professor Hirayama (played by award-winning director Juzo Itami) in his search to determine the theory of shame.
From master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, known for his cerebral style and erudite direction in contemporary classics like Cure, Tokyo Sonata and Pulse, comes a Pinku film “most obviously inspired by mid-career Godard” (Hayley Scanlon, Window to Worlds) that was subsequently shelved by Nikkatsu for being too quirky and bizarre. Satirizing everything from left-wing student politics to musical numbers and academia, Kurosawa’s early work is a moody and post-modern “search for meaning in the modern world.” (Rouven Linnarz, Asian Movie Pulse)
Cast
- Yoriko Doguchi
- Juzo Itami
- Kenso Kato
- "Most obviously inspired by mid-career Godard, Kurosawa adopts a post-modern, absurdist approach satirising left-wing student politics and youthful intensity while inserting random moments of song and dance along with explicit (and often odd) sexual content.... Kurosawa certainly has his fun while exploring the innocence/experience divide."
- "The playful melange of comedy, coming-of-age and even musical is an experimental take on Kurosawa’s core theme of the relationship of people and places as well as the search for meaning in the modern world."
- "There is an understandable argument to be made here that Bumpkin Soup shouldn’t even be considered a pink film, but I like to think of it as a playful turn on the genre, one that keeps us on our toes until the very end."
Gallery
