Pigs and Battleships

Director: Shohei Imamura
Year Released: 1961
Rating: 2.0

In post-War Japan, drunk American soldiers flood the streets looking for prostitutes - meanwhile, the Japanese Yakuza is doing its own part to damage the honor of the country via the black market. Imamura does a fine job of not simply pointing the finger at the Americans, but also criticizing his own people, but the movie is also exhaustingly moral, slightly hysterical and awkwardly employs symbolic elements. That Imamura went from something as simple as this to significantly more nuanced works like Vengeance Is Mine and Dr. Akagi shows his growth.