PUNISHMENT ROOM / SHOKEI NO HEYA

Japan, 1956, 100 minutes, Black and white.
Directed by Kon Ichikawa.

Punishment Room is a very striking film. It was directed by Kon Ichikawa (pictured, born in 1915 and still directing films in 2006). This was the film he made immediately after his Oscar-nominated film about war, The Burmese Harp.

This film is entirely different. At the same time as the US was producing films like The Blackboard Jungle, Ichikawa made this film about young university students, the gang mentality in post-war Japan.

The central character is a very unpleasant young man, a university student who lacks all respect for anybody, is ruthless in his behaviour. He is dissatisfied with everything about life in Japan at the time. He humiliates his father, forcing him to give money to finance a huge party. He also leaves the party to beat up members of a street gang. He drugs two girls and with a friend takes them to an apartment where they are raped. This was quite striking, of course, for the 1950s. It is a reminder that this kind of crime is perennial – not just something from later decades.

The film builds up to a climax, with the unsympathetic character abducted by rivals, tied to a chair, forced to drink alcohol and then confronted by the girl that he raped.

The film is very well made, is surprising as a film coming from Japan at the period – and worth seeing in the context of urban violence, the city jungle.

1. The quality of Japanese films of the fifties? The revival of their industry? Impact now? Their mood, style, picture of post-war Japan?

2. The quality of black and white photography, the movement of neo-realism at the time, the streets, the places of the city, people within their environment, slices of life? The parallel with American films of the time in presenting the generation gap and clash, young men of college age as louts, indulging in violence, disturbed? The American-style score?

3. The impact on a Japanese audience, universal audience? Japanese themes, universal themes?

4. The seeing the parents first? The father and his job, persuasion, money and the bank, his illness? The discussion by the people in the provinces about business and prospects? The preoccupation of post-war Japan getting on its feet? Seeing the father back in his office trying to make a good impression? His dominance at home compared with his subservience at the firm?

5. The contrast with the son and his friend? Their age, appearance, surliness, demanding of the father? Their college uniform? Their way of life, study and the symposiums, their car, organising the dance, making money? Moral awareness or not? Drinking, fighting? Reaction to parents? The violence, the football match (and its use during the credits?) and their excitement, drinking, drugs, the rape? The surly arrogance of that generation - not being understood and in the final analysis with the son's words, not understanding himself? How accurate a portrait of the times? Of lost youth?

6. His behaviour after the rape, the attraction of the girl, his playing sport, following her, spurning her? His confrontations with his father and mother? His betraying his friends, his reaction against the group and surly self assertiveness, hitting his lecturer, being rude to the girl? The need to for everybody, cut free, yet make amends or suffer and be self-assertive? (The existentialist style of the fifties?)

7. The build-up to the climax in the punishment room? His determination, the physical violence and its presentation? The motives of the group in hurting him, those who held back, those who punched and kicked, the drawing of the knife? The girl and her wanting to love him, her reaction to his insults and hitting him, finally taking the knife? His words as he struggled to survive, reminiscent of his theories during the symposium about action and determination?

8. The comparison of the parent generation and the experience of the war, reserve, banking, work, the wife at home and being dominated by her husband? The model of the relationship between men and women in the older generation? The clash of the younger?

9. The standards of the peer group, boys being boys and trying to be men, girls trying to be more than they should - the girls and their study, drinking and drugs, the rape and their reaction? Purpose in life and prospects for the future of the young Japanese of the time?

10. The surface melodrama of the story and yet the meaning about Japan? and its universal value?