Koji Wakamatsu was born in Wakuya, Miyagi, Japan on 1 April 1936. He worked as a construction worker before beginning his film career with Nikkatsu in 1963, mostly working in their Roman Porno series. Eventually, he formed his own company, Wakamatsu Pro, where he produced the majority of his films, a number of which feature collaborations with Masao Adachi, who functioned as his scriptwriter. The majority of his films were extremely low-budget, shot in a few days but sill managed to combine artistry, sociopolitical commentary and exploitation elements in the most artful ways. His success was mostly commercial in Japan, but the big European festivals, including Cannes and Berlin frequently featured his works, since the 60s. His prolific career includes more than 115 titles, in a life that could easily inspire tomes. Wakamatsu died on 17 October 2012 after being hit by a taxi cab in Tokyo on 12 October on his way home after a budget meeting to discuss his next project, a movie about the Japanese nuclear lobby and Tepco.
Here are 10 of his most interesting works, in a list that we will definitely increase in the future, as our exploration of his impressive oeuvre becomes more thorough
1. Secrets Behind the Wall (1965)
That the protagonists are essentially housewives adds to the whole aesthetics, as these are the women that are usually considered as being the measure of “normality”. In this case, however, they are presented as having sex in their mind much more than house chores, or other, ridiculous notions, as the middle-aged neighbor who throws her underwear to other balconies on purpose, to show off the fact that they are French-imported. At the same time, their failure as parents, a concept that is dominating Japanese family dramas nowadays, is also depicted eloquently, through their interactions with their children, and the impact their behaviour has on theirs.
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2. The Embryo Hunts in Secret (1966)
The question of if exploitation can be artful or is simply torture porn finds one of its apogees in “The Embryo Hunts in Secret”, in a film though, that hides much of the former underneath its evident, quite disturbing premises.
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3. Violated Angels (1967)
“Violated Angels” is another quite difficult film to watch from Wakamatsu, but the artistry here is more than evident, and in combination with the comments of the finale allow the movie to emerge as one of the best of this period in his filmography, and definitely rise above all the grotesqueness that surrounds it.
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4. Go Go Second Time Virgin (1969)
Absurd, extreme and relentlessly depressing, “Go Go Second Time Virgin” is a desperate symbolic representation of a generation trapped by a negligent society that is not able to look after it or nurture it. Here, like in many Wakamatsu’s films, the social malaise interweaves with sexual violence. In a significant yet brief scene, Poppo’s violated body lays on the concrete, while a middle-class housewife suddenly appears, totally unaware, and happily hangs the washing in the sun. She supposedly represents the family and the community that ignored and failed our protagonists. (Adriana Rosati)
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5. Violence Without a Cause (1969)
Koji Wakamatsu directs a film that works on two levels, one obvious and one almost metaphoric one. The first one, as “Violence Without a Cause” is presented as a pinku movie in theory, includes sex, voyeurism and violence, with the last aspect highlighting the true nature of the obvious level of the movie, that of exploitation. In that regard, almost every sex begins from or ends up in violence, with the apathy the three young men indulge in rape being almost chilling. The voyeuristic (peeping essentially) element is also quite intense, with Wakamatsu including two rather lengthy scenes where the protagonists are watching people have sex from a peephole in their closet. At the same time, and although the women in the movie are quite beautiful and sexual, there is very little sensualism here, since Wakamatsu seems not to be interested in titillation, but instead on using sex to present his social comments (and because he was forced to, according to the rules of the pinku).
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