Dr. Akagi

This movie is outstanding both as art and as philosophy. Artistically, Imamura has great range and is able to make quick switches of tone and style without losing the thread, or the audience. There is a similar yoking of divergent feelings in the relationship that develops between the two main characters. They are wildly incompatible to the end, yet together they form something that we know is right. Philosophically, Imamura does what no one in Hollywood would dare attempt. In the atmosphere of moral relativism that American films have promoted since the 60s, nothing is more preposterous than to hunger and thirst after justice. But Imamura's final film vindicates that hunger and makes us want to share it. The story's surprises are so intricately prepared that I can't say much more without ruining it, but I left the theater profoundly exhilarated.