Contextual Study - Japanese New Wave

I decided that as part of my contextual study for a "New Wave" of cinema I would focus on the Japanese new wave of cinema, during the 1960's. Also known as "Nuberu Bagu" this was a crucial point for Japanese cinema as many directors were breaking off from studios and turning into independent filmmakers and most almost always either had a political or social point to make within their films.  At this point in time the French new wave was also beginning to take form, so both of these new waves occurred simultaneously and many Japanese new wave directors took influence from their French counterparts, directors like Renoir, Goddard and Trauffant were just a few of the auteurs that influenced   the directors of the Japanese new wave such as Hiroshi Teshigahara, Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura.

One director in particular which I intend to analyse and study greatly contributed to the Japanese new wave during the 1960's is Nagisa Oshima whose films have earned him the comparison as the "Goddard of the East". He saw films as a form of activism and often embedded social or political statements within his films, Oshima's films were sometimes controversial and aimed to disrupt the status quo as he wasn't interested in classic forms of cinema. Oshima's films would often focus on themes and characters that were almost never explored in classic Japanese cinema such as outcasts, murderers, rapists, sexual deviants and the politically marginalised.

What I'm going to focus my contextual study on is the films of Nagisa Oshima during the 1960's as part of the Japanese new wave as it can also draw comparisons and similarities to the French new wave in terms of stylistic features and social influence. The Japanese new wave he's been accused of simply imitating the French new wave, however it does in fact have its own cultural significance in its development although reasoning for the movement may seem similar to its French equivalent, and its this reasoning and the overall development of the movement which sets it apart from the French new wave.