Review of Oshima Nagisa's Violence at Noon

This film was good. It wasn't as good as Night and Fog in Japan. That one, I think, was much better. Perhaps it was because of the avant garde staging. The camera went around to each person and a light followed to reveal each person who was talking. Also the film was intensely poltiical. Violence at Noon is about a serial killer and a rapist. It has several intense scenes between the killer and his victims. The opening sequence lured me in. It was intense.

The rest of the movie revolves around finding the serial killer. Over the course of the film there is an attempted double suicide in which the man is successful at killing himself, but the woman fails. In a cruel twist of fate the serial killer happens on the scene and rapes the woman who is unconscious. The serial killer is confronted by the innocent, attractive, school teacher who knows who the serial killer is. Oshima builds up the school teacher's attack by the serial killer by portraying her with several flattering shots of her face in profile. When she is attacked it comes as a shock.

The film ends when the serial killer is caught and later sentenced to death. The end jumps around from the school teacher and the serial killers victim to an end sequence where the school teacher is tied to the victim and is dead. The film doesn't explain how they got tied up together or how the school teacher died. The film has a solid narrative with several scenes of intense action. It also has according to the criterion website 2000 cuts. The cutting was definitely there; very quick. Near the end of the film where the school teacher confronts the serial killer, the cutting becomes very rapid. In quick succession it shows the reactions of the school teacher. The cutting reflects the changes in emotion in the school teacher. This was the most innovative aesthetic aspect to film. It gave it a quickened pace and more intense visual quality.

I like the film but it has a big plot hole. I liked the dialogue between the school teacher and the serial killer best. A good film, but doesn't reach the standard of Night and Fog in Japan and certainly no where near In the Realm of the Senses.