Pigs and Battleships Film Still
  • Japan
  • 1962
  • 108 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 2.35:1
  • Japanese
  •  
  • Spine #472

SYNOPSIS: A dazzling, unruly portrait of postwar Japan, Pigs and Battleships details, with escalating absurdity, the desperate power struggles between small-time gangsters in the port town of Yokosuka. Shot in gorgeously composed, bustling CinemaScope, the film follows a young couple as they try to navigate Yokosuka’s corrupt businessmen, chimpira, and their own unsure future together. With its breakneck pacing and constantly inventive cinematography, this film marked Shohei Imamura as a major voice in Japanese cinema.

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Disc Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • “Imamura: the Freethinker,” a 1995 episode of the French television series Cinéma de notre temps
  • Interview with critic and historian Tony Rayns
  • New and improved English subtitle translations
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Audie Bock

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Pigs and Battleships: Feeding Frenzy

By Audie BockMay 20, 2009

The title alone screams incongruity. Shohei Imamura’s 1961 black-and-white caper movie Pigs and Battleships bursts with the confusion and exuberance of a cross-cultural encounter Read more »


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