The Catch (1961) | Region-Free (Blu-Ray)
$8.99
Cinema Dream Network Custom MOD Region-Free Blu-ray/BD-R Release
Sourced from a Japanese Blu-ray with added English subtitles.
Title: The Catch (1961)
Alternate Title: Shiiku
Genre: War, Drama
Plot Synopsis:
In the final days of World War II, a U.S. plane crashes in a rural Japanese village. The surviving Black pilot is captured by the villagers and imprisoned in a stable as they await official instructions. During this period, underlying tensions and conflicts within the community surface, revealing deep-seated prejudices and the harsh realities of war.
Cast and Crew:
- Director: Nagisa Ōshima
- Writers:
- Toshirō Ishidō
- Toshio Matsumoto
- Tsutomu Tamura
- Cast:
- Rentaro Mikuni as Kazumasa Takano
- Akiko Koyama as Hiroko Ishii
- Yōko Mihara as Sachiko Tsukada
- Masako Nakamura as Kazumasa’s daughter-in-law
- Teruko Kishi as Masu Tsukada
IMDb Link:
The Catch (1961)
Reviews from Letterboxd:
- Filipe Furtado – ★★★½
“Nagisa Oshima’s first independent feature about what a WWII era Japanese village does when it has to take care the titular catch (an American pilot played by Shadows’ Hugh Hurd). It plays all the allegorical notes expected from a Oshima’s film about Japanese society continuous fascism, but even if it lack surprises his scope framing is as sharp as ever, the image here truly is a weapon.”
- Luka – ★★★★
“‘We just talked and decided, that nothing that happened in the war ever happened.’ Nagisa Ōshima’s fifth film, his first independent, and generally one of the hardest of his restored works to track down, is a relentlessly dour and bleak wartime portrait of democratic infighting amongst the proletariat class. I was constantly reminded of Night and Fog in Japan, which perhaps would’ve been an even better title for this, but rather than hone in on the New Left’s collapse during the post-occupation rebuild, Ōshima and co-writer Toshio Matsumoto offer a diagnosis of the same disease present right at the war’s end; The Catch is an uncompromising treatise on the seeds of fascism, and how once planted, they cannot be uprooted…”
- Corwyn – ★★★
“‘We just discussed it and decided, that everything that happened during the war never happened.’ It’s possible this seemed a lot bolder and more unique in its particular time and place, but as it is, it’s a rather simplistic story of racist scapegoating. A Japanese village captures an American pilot during WWII and the villagers’ fear and ignorance lead them to treat him as less than human. The film is well made and the performances are good, but the story doesn’t offer much beyond its initial premise.”
Meta Description:
“The Catch” (1961), directed by Nagisa Ōshima, is a Japanese war drama that explores the moral and social dilemmas faced by a rural village after capturing a downed American pilot during World War II.
