Login
Login

Japón

{{short description|2002 film by Carlos Reygadas}}

{{Other uses|Japon (disambiguation){{!}}Japon}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Japón

| image = Japón (film).jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| director = Carlos Reygadas

| producer = Carlos Reygadas
Jaime Romandía

| writer = Carlos Reygadas

| screenplay =

| story =

| based_on =

| narrator =

| starring = Alejandro Ferretis
Magdalena Flores
Yolanda Villa

| music =

| cinematography =

| editing =

| studio = NoDream Cinema
Mantarraya Producciones

| distributor = The Criterion Collection DVD/Blu-ray (USA)

| released = {{Film date|2002|10|2|Belgium|df=yes}}

| runtime = 130 minutes

| country = Mexico

| language = Spanish

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Japón ({{langx|en|Japan}}) is a 2002 film by the Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. It was Reygadas' debut feature, which was shot on anamorphic 16-millimeter film in a 2.88:1 screen aspect ratio.

Plot summary

The film follows a man going through an acute existential crisis. He leaves Mexico City to go out to the country and prepare for his death, staying with an old indigenous widow in her ramshackle home overlooking a desolate canyon. In the vastness of a wild and impressive nature, he confronts the infinite humanity of the widow and oscillates between cruelty and lyricism. His senses become dull, arousing his desires and instincts for sexuality and life.{{Clarify|date=July 2022}}

Production

It wasn't easy for Carlos Reygadas to find the old lady for Ascen's character. After casting three hundred candidates, the first one chosen fled quickly when she found out about the sex scene and forced the shooting to be suspended for a few days. Until Magdalena Flores showed up, who only relinquished her reservations when she made Reygadas promise not to show the scene when he screened the film for the locals. {{cite news|title=El buen salvaje|url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/radar/9-814-2003-06-29.html|work=pagina12.com.ar|date=June 29, 2003|accessdate=July 1, 2025}}

Magdalena Flores never had access to the script or the dialogue. For each take Carlos Reygadas told her what to do and say, when and how. For the sex scene, for example, he anticipated how she would react in real life. "She had promised me she would do the scene, so I knew she would do whatever Ferretis told her to do. I also knew that her modesty was inevitable and that she would resist, which is exactly what I wanted to have in the film. I also told Ferretis to gently put Magdalena on her hands and knees and penetrate her. The scene played out exactly the way I had imagined it," Reygadas said.{{cite news|title=Carlos Reygadas habla sobre su película Japón|url=http://cinelatinoamericano.org/texto.aspx?cod=1466|work=cinelatinoamericano.org|date=November 10, 2007|accessdate=July 1, 2025}}

Reception

Japón received high accolades from most critics who have seen it, but the film has had relatively limited exposure. It was placed at #100 on The Moving Arts Film Journal's list of the 100 greatest films of all time.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110106083521/http://www.themovingarts.com/100-greatest-movies-of-all-time/ The Moving Arts Film Journal 100 Greatest Films]}} The film also won the special mention of the Camera d'Or prize in the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 79% approval based on 28 reviews from critics.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/japon|title=Japon (2003)|publisher=|via=www.rottentomatoes.com}}

Controversy

Japón contains a number of scenes of real animal cruelty and the British Board of Film Classification demanded cuts for its UK release in accordance with the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937.{{cite web|title=Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw8and1Geo6/1/59/contents|work=Legislation.gov.uk|publisher=Crown copyright|access-date=3 April 2012}} The removed scenes are described as an unsuccessful attempt to strangle a bird that then stumbles around injured on the ground and a dog being forced to sing along with a song through the application of a painful stimulus.{{cite web|url=http://www.phase9.tv/movie-reviews/japon.shtml|title=Japon|last=Phase9|date=14 April 2015|publisher=}} The film also includes an unsimulated scene of a bird being shot down and then killed by having its head torn off and the (off-camera) slaughter of a pig.{{Cite web |url=http://www.austin360.com/movies/content/movies/reviews/j/japon_latimes.html |title=Austin360 Movies: Japon Reviews – Los Angeles Times |access-date=2012-04-03 |archive-date=2012-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206093632/http://www.austin360.com/movies/content/movies/reviews/j/japon_latimes.html |url-status=dead }} Reygadas defended these scenes, as well as the explicit sexual encounters in Batalla en el Cielo, saying, "If you think about it, what’s so outrageous about a naked obese woman? There are plenty of astonishing images in other films with flying cars and such… What you see in my films, you can see it any ordinary day: a gas station, a hunter killing an animal, people making love. I’m not trying to impress anyone with those images; they make sense in the context of my films."Castillo, José [http://bombsite.com/issues/111/articles/3452 'Carlos Reygadas'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918030245/http://bombsite.com/issues/111/articles/3452 |date=2010-09-18 }}, BOMB Magazine, Spring 2010, retrieved December 20, 2012

Awards

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb title|0322824}}
  • {{Rotten Tomatoes|m/japon}}
  • [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6272-jap-n-on-seeing-ourselves-seeing Japón: On Seeing Ourselves Seeing] an essay by Valeria Luiselli at the Criterion Collection

{{Carlos Reygadas}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japon (film)}}

Category:2002 films

Category:Films about animal cruelty

Category:Films directed by Carlos Reygadas

Category:2000s Spanish-language films