, also known as ''Taboo'', is a 1999 Japanese film directed by

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. One of the foremost directors within the Japanese New Wave, his films include '' In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan, and ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrenc ...

. It is about

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

in the

Shinsengumi The was a special police force organized by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time wh ...

during the ''

bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji governm ...

'' period, the end of the samurai era in the mid-19th century.

Plot

At the start of the movie, the young and handsome Kanō Sōzaburō (

Ryuhei Matsuda is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in ''Taboo'' and the rock star Ren Honjo in '' Nana''. Early life Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yūs ...

) is admitted to the

, an elite samurai group led by

Kondō Isami was a Japanese swordsman and official of the late Edo period. He was the fourth generation master of Tennen Rishin-ryū and was famed for his role as commander of the Shinsengumi. Background He was born Miyagawa Katsugorō to a farmer Miyaga ...

(

Yoichi Sai was a Japanese film director. He was the president of the Directors Guild of Japan. Life and career Sai was born on 6 July 1949 in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. His mother was Japanese and his father was Zainichi Korean. Sai won the Best Screenp ...

) that seeks to defend the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

against reformist forces. He is a very skilled swordsman, but it is his appearance that makes many of the others in the (strictly male) group, both students and superiors, attracted to him, creating tension within the group of people vying for Kanō's affections.

Cast

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

as Vice-Commander Hijikata Toshizō *

as Kanō Sōzaburō *

Shinji Takeda , born December 18, 1972, is a Japanese actor, talent and saxophone player. He has had notable roles in such works as '' The Incite Mill'', ''Kyō Kara Hitman'' and ''Tokyo Eyes''. Filmography Film Television Dubbing *'' Rambo: Last Blood'', ...

as Captain

Okita Sōji was the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period. He was one of the best swordsmen of the Shinsengumi. Background He was born in 1842 or 1844 from a samurai family in the ...

Tadanobu Asano , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in '' Electric Dragon 80.000 V'', Kakihara in '' Ichi the Killer'', Mamoru Arita in '' Bright Future'', Hattori Genosuke in ''Zatoichi'', Ke ...

as Hyōzō Tashiro *

as Commander

* Koji Matoba as Sugano Heibei * Masa Tomiizu as Inspector

Yamazaki Susumu was a Shinsengumi officer and spy, otherwise known as a . He was a ''rōnin'' (masterless samurai) from Osaka and an expert in ''Katori Ryu''. In 1863, he officially joined the Shinsengumi and in 1864, Yamazaki and Shimada Kai were assigned by ...

* Masato Ibu as Military Advisor Itō Koshitarō * Jirō Sakagami as

Inoue Genzaburō was born in Hino, Tokyo. He was the captain of the sixth unit of the Shinsengumi which were a special police force for the Tokugawa regime. Inoue is the oldest unit captain of Shinsengumi. Like his older brother, Inoue Matsugoro, Inoue Genzabu ...

* Yoshiaki Fujiwara as Samurai *

Tomorowo Taguchi is a Japanese actor, film director and musician. After leaving Dokkyo University without graduating, he started to earn his living as an illustrator, writer and pornographic cartoonist. He joined a theatre called Hakken no Kai in 1978 and he ma ...

as Samurai Tojiro Yuzawa *

Kei Satō was a Japanese character actor and narrator. He is known for his work with Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima, and for several films with Kaneto Shindo, such as '' Onibaba'' and '' Kuroneko''. He won the best actor award from ''Kinema Ju ...

as Narrator (voice)

Production

The original title of the film, ''Gohatto'', is an old-fashioned term that can be translated as "against the law". Nowadays, "gohatto" can be translated as "strictly forbidden" or "taboo" ("tabu"). During the filming of ''Taboo'', actor

was sixteen years old. It was Nagisa Ōshima's final directorial effort.

Reception

Roger Ebert wrote that "''Taboo'' is not an entirely successful film, but it isn't boring."

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said that it was "a film which for some will be dismayingly impenetrable, but it is unmistakably the work of a master film-maker and a work of enormous strangeness and charm." The film was a financial success in Japan, grossing ¥1.01 billion and becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year. The film was also given a limited theatrical release in North America where it grossed $114,425.

Home Video

From July 2020 through June 2021, the

Criterion Channel The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

streamed the film as part of the feature collection "Scores by

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto i ...

". Criterion's description for the film was;

Accolades

It was nominated for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

2000 Cannes Film Festival The 53rd Cannes Film Festival started on 14 May and ran until 25 May 2000. French film director, screenwriter, and producer Luc Besson was the Jury President. The Palme d'Or went to the Danish film '' Dancer in the Dark'' by Lars von Trier. The ...

, losing out to ''

Dancer in the Dark ''Dancer in the Dark'' is a 2000 musical drama film written and directed by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musician Björk as a factory worker who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to p ...

''. The film won four awards at the 2000

Blue Ribbon Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan. The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanes ...

: Best Director for

, Best Film, Best New Actor for

, and Best Supporting Actor for

. Ryuhei Matsuda won the 2000 Japan Academy Prize for Newcomer of the Year; the film was nominated in nine other categories. Matsuda also won the Best New Actor category of the 2001

Kinema Junpo Awards , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

, as well as the 2001 Yokohama Film Festival prize for Best New Talent.

won the Best Supporting Actor category at the 2000

Hochi Film Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded by the ''Hochi Shimbun , previously known as , is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper. In 2002, it had a circulation of a million copies a day. It is an affiliate newspaper of ''Yomiuri Shimbun''. ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Gohatto'' , list = {{Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film {{Mainichi Film Award for Excellence Film 1999 films 1999 drama films Japanese LGBT-related films Gay-related films Jidaigeki films Samurai films Films directed by Nagisa Ōshima Films scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto Films set in Bakumatsu Shochiku films 19th century in LGBT history 1999 LGBT-related films 1990s Japanese films