BD 84 Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974

[What A Disgrace]

April 20



• Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (Gokushiteki Erosu: Renka 1974) presented from a new HD transfer of the film.

• A new filmed introduction to the film by writer and critic Chris Fujiwara.

• Interview with Kazuo Hara: The director in conversation at the 2018 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

• Trailer.

• Booklet with new writing on the film by author and critic Tony Rayns.

• New and improved English subtitle translation.

• Region Free (A/B/C) Blu-ray.

• World premiere on Blu-ray.

[zedz]

A challenging, disturbing and fascinating film (you can take the first three words in the title at face value!) I wonder if his similarly confrontational previous documentary Goodbye CP is on the horizon as well?

[swo17]

I thought I remembered hearing there was a set in the works. Was that just Criterion's forthcoming Eclipse set?

[What A Disgrace]

I thought I remembered hearing there was a set in the works. Was that just Criterion's forthcoming Eclipse set?

Yes, a set of five films in the new Eclipse series.

[zedz]

That's great for availability, but most of Hara's films would benefit from a lot more context than a combined essay can offer.

[What A Disgrace]

Yes, personally I'm not going to get the Criterion set unless a few years pass and Second Run (or anybody else in the UK) have yet to release any further works after this disc. I just might regret it if I did.

Besides the two that SR have/will released, Janus also has Goodbye CP, A Dedicated Life and Sennan Asbestos Disaster, but the announcement specified Hara's five works with Sachiko Kobayashi, which includes Minamata Mandala and excludes A Dedicated Life.

[Bikey]

Preorder at our webstore

Amazon UK

[Bikey]

Full details now at our website

[Bikey]

"For anyone serious about personal documentary, Japanese independent cinema, or the ethics of nonfiction filmmaking, this disc is indispensable - raw, unflinching, and long overdue." Beaver

[Bikey]

"[Kazuo Hara] is a genuinely unique, fearless talent, and the proof is right here."
The Geek Show

[What A Disgrace]

I only just realized, now that my copy has arrived, that this IS spine #84, sitting right between Barnabas Kos and The Hop Pickers, which came out a year and a half ago. I wonder what held up the release?

[ikms]

Showed my wife the package "it's by the guy who did Emperor's Naked Army, sure to be crazy" and she replied "How do you know?" which caused me to note the lack of BBFC certification... oh right, because it's a documentary. Watched it last night and for the first time considered the audience/purpose of those UK censors; is it to protect the viewer, or the participants/subjects (human or otherwise)? Given Radiance has titles with multiple disc masters to avoid potential prosecutions, how incredible that a humble documentary gets an easy pass, even when it is up there with some of the more transgressive of the Japanese new wave.

[GaryC]

Showed my wife the package "it's by the guy who did Emperor's Naked Army, sure to be crazy" and she replied "How do you know?" which caused me to note the lack of BBFC certification... oh right, because it's a documentary. Watched it last night and for the first time considered the audience/purpose of those UK censors; is it to protect the viewer, or the participants/subjects (human or otherwise)? Given Radiance has titles with multiple disc masters to avoid potential prosecutions, how incredible that a humble documentary gets an easy pass, even when it is up there with some of the more transgressive of the Japanese new wave.

Under the Video Recordings Act, documentary material can be exempted from BBFC certification, but as per the amendment in 2014 (Video Recordings Act 1984 (Exempted Video Works) Regulations 2014) there is a list of material that cannot be exempted and, as it says on the BBFC site, "The effect of these Regulations is that if content is likely to be classified above PG it is not exempt." I haven't seen this film, but is that likely? If it is exempted, it hasn't been submitted to the BBFC so they haven't classified it. Maybe someone could comment?

[Bikey]

Reviewed in the latest Sight and Sound