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Nanami: The Inferno of First Love

Nanami: The Inferno of First Love (初恋・地獄篇, Hatsukoi Jigokuhen), also known as The Inferno of First Love and Nanami, First Love, is a 1968 Japanese drama film directed and written by Susumu Hani. The film competed for the Golden Bear award at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival in 1968.[3]

Nanami: The Inferno of First Love
Japanese film poster
Directed bySusumu Hani
Written by
Produced by
  • Tomoji Fujii
Starring
  • Kuniko Ishii
  • Akio Takahashi
CinematographyYuji Okumura
Edited bySusumu Hani
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byArt Theatre Guild
Release date
  • 25 May 1968 (1968-05-25) (Japan)
[1]
Running time
108 minutes[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Budget$130,000[2]

According to Hani, Shūji Terayama, known as an underground dramatist at the time, was approached to work on the film but considered the synopsis Hani provided already complete. At the insistence of his investor, Hani later asked Terayama to lend his name to the film for his appeal among younger audiences.[4]

Plot

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Nanami, a nude dancer, and her friend Shun, who is still a virgin, rent a room in a love hotel. He isn't able to make love to her, but she is understanding. They reflect on their past; Nanami came from Shizuoka to Tokyo and started working as a dancer because her former job didn't pay enough, Shun was left by his mother as a child and now works as a goldsmith in his stepfather's workshop. In flashbacks, it is revealed that Shun was and is still repeatedly sexually abused by his stepfather.

A customer of Nanami, Ankokuji, talks her into participating in photo shoots of lesbian sadomasochism and erotic catfights, attended by other clients of the red-light district and by yakuza. Shun, who witnessed a photo shoot and is jealous of Ankokuji, confronts him and Nanami. Ankokuji explains that his interest in Nanami aries from his loveless marriage, but when Nanami later sees him with his seemingly harmonious family, she turns away from him in disappointment.

Nanami and Shun continue seeing each other and make another appointment in the love hotel. On his way there, Shun is stopped by Ankokuji's former red light district associates, who try to press him into telling them Nanami's whereabouts. Shun flees and is fatally hit by a car. Nanami, who waits for Shun in the hotel apartment, hears the voices from the street, opens the window and sees Shun's body surrounded by passers-by.

Cast

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  • Kuniko Ishii – Chiaki Nanami
  • Akio Takahashi – Shun
  • Haruo Asanu – Algebra
  • Ichirō Kimura – Psychiatrist
  • Kazuo Kimura – Doctor
  • Kōji Mitsui – Mr. Otagaki, Shun's stepfather (although the role is credited to the popular actor Kōji Mitsui (三井弘次) in many English-language reference works, the character is portrayed by a different actor whose name's Kanji characters (満井幸治) also translate to "Kōji Mitsui," and whose only film credit is this role.[5])
  • Kazuko Fukuda – Mrs. Otagaki, Shun's stepmother
  • Misako Miyato – Mother
  • Minoru Yuasa – Ankokuji
  • Kimiko Nakamura – Ankokuji's wife

Release

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Nanami: The Inferno of First Love grossed over $1 million in Japan.[2] The film was originally released in the United States with 20 minutes cut.[2]

Reception

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Many film scholars consider this work to be one of Hani's major achievements, while others judge the film to be commercial and exploitive.[6] In A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, film historian Donald Richie called it "one of the seminal films of the sixties".[7]

In 2012, filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia included the film in his personal top ten (for The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time poll), writing: "Nanami: Inferno of First Love delivers emerging adolescent sexuality and lyrical debauchery as only the Japanese New Wave can. Do not accept imitations!"[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b "初恋・地獄篇 (Nanami: The Inferno of First Love)" (in Japanese). Kinenote. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Susumu Hani's Low Budget Saga". Variety. 15 October 1969. p. 22.
  3. ^ "Awards for Hatsukoi: Jigoku-hen". IMDb. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  4. ^ Jacoby, Alexander; Amit, Rea. "Midnight Eye interview: Susumu Hani". Midnight Eye. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Nanami: The Inferno of First Love". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). jmdb.ne.jp. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  6. ^ Desser, David (1985). "The Inferno of First Love (Hatsukoi Jigoku-Hen)". In Magill, Frank N. (ed.). Magill's Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films. Volume 3. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press. pp. 1480–1485. ISBN 0-89356-247-5.
  7. ^ Richie, Donald (2005). A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (Revised ed.). Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International. p. 276. ISBN 978-4-7700-2995-9.
  8. ^ "Ashim Ahluwalia". BFI. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2021.

Bibliography

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  • Buehrer, Beverley Bare (1990). "Nanami – The Inferno of First Love (1968)". Japanese Films: A Filmography and Commentary, 1921-1989. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland. pp. 195–197. ISBN 978-0899504582.
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