1. Voyeurism and His Visual Style
Imamura Shohei
Voyeurism and His Visual Style

2. Imamura’s Film Style
SHOT SIZE
Imamura’s films mainly consist of long and medium shots

4. Imamura’s Film Style
Occasional close-ups – more impressive
Lower part of the body – sexual desire

6. Imamura’s Film Style
Natural light in both interior and exterior scenes
Source light - not artificially lit
Lighting in location shooting - shot in available light

11. Imamura’s Film Style
LIGHTING
Effective uses of high contrast of light and shadow - low key lighting

18. Imamura’s Film Style
The Insect Woman (1963)
Shot entirely on location with simultaneous recording → sense of reality and spontaneity

19. Imamura’s Film Style
‘I decided to give up the convenience of studio shooting and shot The Insect Woman entirely on location. I also abandoned the convenience of post-recording. Actually existing buildings and places were used in this film and dialogue and sound were recoded by wireless microphone. I did not mind if the quality of sound is lousy. I preferred the tension created by the use of wireless microphone, which picked up even the breathing of actors.’

20. Imamura’s Film Style
‘Location shooting and simultaneous recording are a lot more painful. However, I was sure that we would find a new filming method different from the one we took for granted.’
Imamura Shohei Kinema Junpo

21. Physical limitations of location shooting
Imamura’s Film Style
Physical limitations of location shooting
INTERIOR SPACE (positioning of cameras and their manoeuverbility; positioning of lights)
EXTERIOR SPACE (dictated by weather conditions; reality that you cannot alter)

23. Limitations of simultaneous recording Inclusion of unnecessary noises
Imamura’s Film Style
Limitations of simultaneous recording
Inclusion of unnecessary noises
Higher chances of re-take (time-consuming)
Inarticulate and inaudible dialogues
Limitations turned to advantages
Reality effects / tension / spontaneity
Greater realism

25. Imamura and Voyeurism Film as a voyeurist or scopophiliac art
A practice in which an individual gains sexual pleasure from seeing other people who are engaging in sexual acts, without clothes, or dressed in whatever other ways the ‘voyeur’ finds appealing; or from observing other people’s private life.

26. Imamura and Voyeurism
Films about voyeurism or peeping
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954)
A wheelchair-bound photographer discovers a woman suddenly disappears from an apartment across from his, while closely watching the activities of the apartment bloc opposite.

27. Imamura and Voyeurism
Imamura’s films are not directly about voyeurism.
They make the way in which a voyeur acts (peeping, recording) into a film style.
A hidden (half-hidden) camera follows characters.

28. Imamura and Voyeurism
The camera placed outside a room or a house records actions which take place inside.
The camera imitates the way in which we spy or peep - including limitations in sight.

29. Imamura and Voyeurism
Pigs and Battleships (1961), Insect Woman (1963), Intentions of Murders (1964), Pornographer (1966), A Man Vanishes (1967)

36. Imamura and Voyeurism
Karayuki-san (1975), Vengeance Is Mine (1979), The Eel (1997), Black Rain (1997) Warm Water under the Bridge (2001)
‘Voyeuristic’ filming style is particularly clear in these films.

45. Animal and Insect Images and Men
Frequent insertions of an image of an animal or insect
Equation of animal instinct with human desire; desire for food, survival and regeneration

46. Animal and Insect Images and Men
Existence which lives to live, eat to live, and copulate to live
Pigs in Pigs and Battleships, insects in Insect Woman, mouse in Intentions of Murder, dead eel in Vengeance Is Mine, snake eating a mouse, mantis eating another mantis in Ballad of Narayama, fish and eel in The Eel

52. Imamura’s Film Style
Opposition and indebtedness to Ozu
Orderliness against chaos in film styles
Obsession with camera position
‘Pillow shots’
Films after Black Rain - moving towards Ozu