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A group of militant extremists whom we know only by their code names - the days of the week - realize that they've been betrayed by their own organization when a nocturnal weapons raid on a U.S. Army base goes awry. The delicate internal balance of trust and friendship splinters apart. Their already fragile, idealistic young psyches quickly disintegrate into a morass of sexual paranoia, violent recrimination and sadistic torture that completely destroys their ability to function as an organization.Quote:
This film is the creation of Director Koji Wakamatsu who, after filming the Japanese Red Army in the Palestinian territories, became a target of both the Japanese government and Interpol, and was blacklisted by the American government. To this day he is unable to leave Japan.Wakamatsu has been dubbed the "Master of the Pink Movie", referring to the radical politics and flashy scenes of sex and violence characteristic of his movies. During Japan's Sixties and Seventies he produced numerous films which were both shocking and celebrated. His film "Affairs in the Wall" (1965) was selected as an entry in the Berlin Film Festival, and his production of Nagisa Oshima’s "In the Realm of the Senses" (1976) received critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. He has directed over 100 films.
Wakamatsu had the opportunity to watch the violent student revolutions in Tokyo during the late 60's and early 70's. In interviews he has explained how, while filming what he believed would be a final and deciding clash between students and police, he observed that the student movements ultimately failed to prevail due to their personal allegiances to subgroups within the overall movement. These allegiances fragmented the focus of the movement and allowed police to overcome the crowd. Wakamatsu's conclusion was that in order for the movement to be successful, it would have had to be a radically individualized, non-allegianced revolution. He fully explores this idea of a radicalized revolution in Ecstasy of the Angels
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First you must know the Image/American Cinematheque DVD despite it's apparent officialness owns more to a shameful bootleg then anything else. Other then being hardsubbed the copy was probably taken from a festival print without Wakamatsu's approval, but what's even more disturbing (and baffling from such a prestigious institution!) is that it was released with the wrong cut!. They mixed the film reels! Now this being more of an experimental arthouse movie than straight narrative it might not have stricken viewers, nevertheless when you watch the correct cut it all makes much better sense.Actually for those intrested in checking out, the mistake starts from around 30min 50sec. In the American Cinematheque dvd (chap 8 I think) you see October's bandage being removed (whereas later on, you have scenes where he's wearing his bandage!). The Japanese dvd cut instead features the love scene between Fall and February from Winter group. The wrong mix of reels goes up until around 43min, then the movie cut comes back to it's correct order.
So there isn't additional footage to this edition, just the proper cut intended by director Wakamatsu which you will finally be able to enjoy with english subs. What I did was take the transcribed subs available from Kloofy which were ripped from the hardsubbed R1, transcribe the missing lines (around 90/100 lines missing), and retime the whole lot to the R2J. Believe me... quite some work if you want to know.
http://www.filesonic.com/file/1459680751/Ecstacy of the Angels.avi
http://www.filesonic.com/file/1459654711/Ecstacy of the Angels-ENG.srt
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