Japanese (1969)
Black and White
Yoshishige Yoshida (Director) wrote it in cooperation with Masahiro Yamada
The original, long version of "Eros Plus Massacre" that hasn’t seen the light of day for 36 years. Kiju Yoshida’s groundbreaking work compares the love and independence of a turn of anarchist Ōsugi Sakae, assassinated by the military in 1923, to the vanguard of modern day Japan.
The story tells of Sakae’s relationship with three women: Hori Yasuko, his wife; Itō Noe, his third lover, who was to die with him; and his jealous, second lover, Masaoka Itsuko, a militant feminist who attempts to kill him in a tea house in 1916. Parallel to the reconstitution of Ōsugi’s life, two students do research on the political theories and ideas of free love that he upheld. Some of the characters from the past and from the present meet and engage the themes of the movie.
Meant to be released in 1970, this long version, now on DVD, was halted as an invasion to privacy, leading to the shorter, edited version that was eventually released in theaters.