Profound Desires of the Gods DVD – Choichiro Kawarazaki , Rentarô Mikuni

The culmination of Shohei Imamura’s extraordinary examinations of the fringes of Japanese society throughout the 1960s Profound Desires of the Gods was an 18-month super-production which failed to make an impression at the time of its release but has since risen in stature to become one of the most legendary – albeit least seen – Japanese films of recent decades. Presenting a vast chronicle of life on the remote Kurage Island the film centres on the disgraced superstitious interbred Futori family and the Tokyo engineer sent to supervise the creation of a new well – an encounter which leads to both conflict and complicity in strange and powerful ways. A tragic view of a passing epoch that teeters on the edge of grotesque farce Imamura’s merciless gaze combines with spectacular colour ‘Scope photography to create a mythic saga convulsing with earthly impulses. From the director of Vengeance is Mine and Warm Water Under a Red Bridge the Masters of Cinema series is proud to present this unforgettable work for the first time in the UK on DVD in an exclusively restored high-definition transfer released on 21 February 2011.