179-180 The Pornographers & Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

[Finch]

A former buddhist monk turned erotic filmmaker, Subuyan lives with hairdresser Haru and her two teenage children. Shooting two skin flicks per day, he somehow manages to stay out of the clutches of the yakuza, but real trouble starts when Haru discovers him lusting after her daughter. Shohei Imamura’s landmark satire of postwar affluence was adapted from the internationally renowned novel by Akiyuki Nosaka (Grave of the Fireflies) and brings to vivid life the seedy side of 1960s Japan.

4K UHD & BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

New 4K restoration from the original camera negative
4K UHD and Blu-ray presentation of the feature; world premiere on 4K UHD
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Interview with actor Masaomi Kondo (2026)
Interview with Inuhiko Yomota on Akiyuki Nosaka (2026)
Interview with critic Tony Rayns (2026)
Cinéma de notre temps: Shohei Imamura, The Freethinker - a French TV documentary on Imamura featuring the filmmaker himself discussing his key films (1995, 63 mins)
Trailer
Newly improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Jasper Sharp
Limited edition of 5000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings




When a dying friend tells out-of-work salaryman Yosuke (Koji Yakusho, Perfect Days) about a hidden treasure, he sets off in search of the only clue about its location: a house by a red bridge. What he finds instead is a woman who transcends all his fantasies. Japanese master Shohei Imamura's final feature reunites the cast and crew of his Palme d’or-winning The Eel for a boldly sensuous and taboo-breaking love story.

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

High-Definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Introduction to the film by Takashi Miike (2026)
Interview with co-writer Daisuke Tengan (2026)
Making of documentary
Archival discussion between Shohei Imamura and Takashi Miike (2002)
Theatrical trailer
Teaser trailer directed by Takashi Miike, with newly filmed intro
Newly improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Bastian Meiresonne
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

[MichaelB]

Well, that's annoying—guess who imported the US edition of Warm Water Under a Red Bridge under what seemed like the reasonable impression that it wouldn't get another English-friendly release?

[Adam X]

That makes two of us. At least this seems like a much improved edition as the consolation prize.

[pzadvance]

as someone who just recently managed to secure the OOP Eureka and Arrow Imamura box sets, I'm extremely happy that Radiance has been filling in the blind spots in those sets with individual releases. Day 1 buys for me

[Peacock]

Well done Radiance!

(I almost ordered the Film Movement BD as well, partly due to the great artwork on the slipcover, but for once I’m in luck and didn’t get round to it in time)

I suppose this makes an Imamura Radical Japan boxset a bit less likely? That’s fine by me as there are plenty of other directors less well represented in English friendly HD currently.

So what’s missing from Blu now feature film wise?: Endless Desire, My Second Brother, Intentions of Murder, A Man Vanishes and the documentary cycle, Why Not?, Dr Akagi.

[Zot!]

So what’s missing from Blu now feature film wise?: Endless Desire, My Second Brother, Intentions of Murder, A Man Vanishes and the documentary cycle, Why Not?, Dr Akagi.

I think it would just be nice if the old releases could return. Am I wrong in thinking that both the MoC and Arrow films are currently OOP everywhere? Man Vanishes is in the old MoC set.

[pzadvance]

they are very much OOP, and Man Vanishes was DVD only on the MoC set

[Zot!]

they are very much OOP, and Man Vanishes was DVD only on the MoC set

Gotcha concerning Man Vanishes...but unfortunately it's not just the collector sets that are unavailable but the films (at least English-friendly).

[Calvin]

Unless we're excluding his documentaries from being features - all of those. Icarus Films released a five of them in a set headlined by A Man Vanishes but I don't think History of Postwar Japan As Told by a Bar Hostess has ever had a release.

[Lowry_Sam]

What a coincidence. I just started watching Warm Water Under A Red Bridge on Kanopy last night for the 2001 List but started to doze off.
Not sure if I'll pick it up, but The Pornographers on UHD is a must.

[hearthesilence]

I think I may have seen Warm Water Under a Bridge back in the day, in between watching SNL re-runs which led me and a school friend to interject as Jon Lovitz's Tales of Ribaldry host when things heated up.



(This was at home, not in a movie theater.)

[domino harvey]

I haven’t seen it yet but from what I know about it, I’m surprised it’s only a 15 rating

[MichaelB]

The BBFC isn’t as uptight about non-graphic sexual material as the MPAA.

See also contrasting attitudes to non-sexualised full-frontal nudity, which gets passed at PG in Britain without anyone turning a hair, whereas in the US the MPAA throws a major wobbly. (A Room with a View being a particularly famous example.)

[rapta]

Very excited for these, and glad I never did import the Film Movement disc for the latter (I did consider it a few times, but thought I'd hold off...my faith in Radiance holds true). Both are immediate pre-orders, along with the Franju (another title I've been not-so-patiently requesting from time to time).

So what’s missing from Blu now feature film wise?: Endless Desire, My Second Brother, Intentions of Murder, A Man Vanishes and the documentary cycle, Why Not?, Dr Akagi.

That's essentially it, give or take a few more obscure titles. I wonder if Radiance may be able to convince Nikkatsu to let them restore some other Imamura films since this one is going down so well? Intentions of Murder feels like the next big one they could tackle, then Endless Desire (maybe with My Second Brother as a double-bill feature, as they were made back to back). I wouldn't mind it if they ticked off some more of these, maybe even restored some from the previous MoC set.

Profound Desires has a 4K restoration, but the colours look wonky from the trailer on YouTube - perhaps Radiance could work their magic, or otherwise do a fresh restoration? I'm genuinely surprised Vengeance is Mine hasn't had a 4K bump yet, but that one's with Shochiku so I guess they're the ones to ask (presumably Criterion will get first dibs).

[andyli]

Profound Desires has a 4K restoration, but the colours look wonky from the trailer on YouTube - perhaps Radiance could work their magic, or otherwise do a fresh restoration? I'm genuinely surprised Vengeance is Mine hasn't had a 4K bump yet, but that one's with Shochiku so I guess they're the ones to ask (presumably Criterion will get first dibs).

Vengeance Is Mine already has a recent 4K restoration and is out on a French blu-ray from The Jokers. I think it's high time that this version hits UK/US, preferably in the 4K format.

As for Profound Desires, like The Pornographers it's restored at IMAGICA and looks simply gorgeous. I'm very satisfied with the Happinet edition and consider its PQ a big upgrade from the MoC blu-ray. EDIT: I posted the comparison over here.

[rapta]

Profound Desires has a 4K restoration, but the colours look wonky from the trailer on YouTube - perhaps Radiance could work their magic, or otherwise do a fresh restoration? I'm genuinely surprised Vengeance is Mine hasn't had a 4K bump yet, but that one's with Shochiku so I guess they're the ones to ask (presumably Criterion will get first dibs).

Vengeance Is Mine already has a recent 4K restoration and is out on a French blu-ray from The Jokers. I think it's high time that this version hits UK/US, preferably in the 4K format.

As for Profound Desires, like The Pornographers it's restored at IMAGICA and looks simply gorgeous. I'm very satisfied with the Happinet edition and consider its PQ a big upgrade from the MoC blu-ray. EDIT: I posted the comparison over here.

Must've missed that one, just saw the screencaps from BR.com and you're right, it looks great! I wonder what the holdup is with a UK/US UHD release...more than likely Criterion got it, as they can sit on something for years before they release it.

Also just saw your screencaps for Profound Desires, also looks a lot better than the trailer did, though the whites do look a bit blown out in the last shot. I'm sure Radiance will look into licensing this one since The Pornographers and Warm Water are both from Nikkatsu as well.

If I were them, I'd try to license Profound Desires for a UHD release - and also try to get Intentions of Murder too, and do another restoration if necessary - then maybe even do a double-bill of Endless Desire and My Second Brother to round things off. That way, you'd probably be avoiding Criterion's (or even Eureka's) own interests in trying to upgrade Vengeance is Mine by focusing solely on Nikkatsu. And if there's still interest after those are done, then look into 4K upgrades for Pigs and Battleships and The Insect Woman, and so on...

[Finch]

Can we get back on topic please or continue potential future Imamura Radiance titles in the speculation thread? Thanks.

[Mr Sausage]

What do you guys think of these films? For me they're among Imamura's strangest. The Pornographers is a 'kids'll be alright' feel good movie...run through a lurid, black comic, surrealist lense that twists it into all sorts of weird shapes. Warm Water... is your average romantic comedy, only the romance is defined by kinky bodily functions that threaten but never quite tip over into folklore. The two movies seem to lie at opposite ends when it comes to healthy sexuality, too, which makes them a good duo.

[beamish14]

What do you guys think of these films? For me they're among Imamura's strangest. The Pornographers is a 'kids'll be alright' feel good movie...run through a lurid, black comic, surrealist lense that twists it into all sorts of weird shapes. Warm Water... is your average romantic comedy, only the romance is defined by kinky bodily functions that threaten but never quite tip over into folklore. The two movies seem to lie at opposite ends when it comes to healthy sexuality, too, which makes them a good duo.

Haven’t seen Pornographers in decades, but I adore Warm Water, which is the perfect combination of comedy, magical realism, and romantic drama

Both films are based on works that have been published in English and are easily procurable

[colinr0380]

I still have not seen Warm Water Under A Red Bridge (it may show how dire my 'to watch' pile is that I have the HvE DVD from the mid-2000s still in there!), but The Pornographers may be my favourite Imamura. I do agree that it has a sense of 'the kids will be alright' about it, but only really because our prime focus is on the middle aged generation and their dire hang ups, predilictions and fetishes so much that anything else looks better in comparison! We are following our main characters in their frustrated marriage as they are both looking to proxies for their lack of intimacy in conventional sex, and instead of forging that bond of intimacy together are instead putting their desires into areas that either cannot respond (the carp!) or are transgressively indecent (the blue movies; the mother's incestual attraction to her son). Which inevitably isolates and drives them solipsistically insane, especially in that stunning long shot where the son introduces his new love interest of someone of his own age to his mother, and we get the image of her walking all the way from a speck in the distance into a close up whilst the lighting changes around her and we just hear the clicking of her heels down the corridor as the possessive mother's world shatters.

In that sense I think The Pornographers is very similar to the much later American Beauty, even down to its surrealist moments occurring within a grounded setting. But it is also very in the tradition of Imamura's other films of generational rifts and the sense of sympathy for the middle aged, average looking people who are facing the loss of what sexually attractive qualities they had in their prime, and either get a late opportunity to grasp at a second chance to be desired or wanted; or have to come to terms with finding other interests to fill that lack.

Though where The Pornographers really excels (and where I am very much looking forward to seeing this in 4K after being so used to the 2003 Criterion DVD) is in its beautiful photography, where the widescreen frame is constantly being cut into boxes and we see bustling 'real world' activity constantly at the edges of the frame (say in that early scene where we see the men in the sauna through an open window in a building, but also see people passing by on a bridge behind the building just on the edge of the frame; similarly framed is the scene of the mother attempting to seduce the son) or through buildings (such as the beauty salon where we see through the entire building to the passing traffic going by on the other side). Which I think is suggesting the cramped and piled together nature of the character's lives, where there is no space for privacy, or for intimacy that is not intended as a spectacle to be witnessed by others, or in a group setting such as the stag film bookends. Which in itself may be what drives the characters into their transgressive actions, when if there was room for the family to have their own space maybe there would not be the resorting to incestual feelings, just through the characters being inescapably thrust together already. Inevitably the only escape (again, maybe caused by the lack of privacy) is into one's own mind and eventual madness where the characters will ironically be able to achieve their goals of being desired by their (inanimate and unable to offer true love) objects of affection whilst simultaneously ending up fundamentally, entirely isolated from everyone, and everything.

[colinr0380]

Also, realising that Takashi Miike had a relationship with Imamura suddenly puts a few things together. Particularly that Miike's Visitor Q (and its liberally lactating mother) is probably working just as much as an Imamura riff as it is as a take on Pasolini's Teorema!

[artfilmfan]

What I remember about Red Bridge, from seeing it years ago, is that I liked it less than The Eel. I never finished watching the Criterion DVD of the other film. Just wasn’t able to get into it,

[knives]

Also, realising that Takashi Miike had a relationship with Imamura suddenly puts a few things together. Particularly that Miike's Visitor Q (and its liberally lactating mother) is probably working just as much as an Imamura riff as it is as a take on Pasolini's Teorema!

He was actually an assistant director on a couple of Imamura’s films which means he has a director lineage back to Ozu.

[ex-cowboy]

Miike was a student of the Japan Institute of the Moving Image, which Imamura founded, and if I remember correctly, he has a very brief cameo in Black Rain

[Glowingwabbit]

From the discord:

FYI @everyone unfortunately the French TV documentary on THE PORNOGRAPHERS - Cinéma de notre temps: Shohei Imamura, The Freethinker - has run into some legal issues, and we won't be able to include it on the upcoming release. We will hopefully see if it can be included on a future Imamura release

So more Shohei Imamura incoming.