Hani Susumu’s Inferno of First Love, is a brilliant, unforgettable, and sensitive film. Working from a script by playwright, and experimental filmmaker, Terayama Shuji, Hani’s film captures Shun, an orphan, who falls in love with a pretty young nude model named Nanami, with his sexual inadequacies, problem childhood, and coming of age. Examining Shun, we see the reality of child molestation, with deep scars that ripple into adulthood, exposing the twin monsters of repression and inadequacy looming overhead. Shun’s complex relationship with his parents, Nanami, and a young girl named Momi he befriends, eventually lead to disaster, as society closes in, so does fate.
Director: Susumu Hani. AKA 初恋・地獄篇 / Nanami: The Inferno of First Love
Writers: Susumu Hani, Shûji Terayama.
Stars: Haruo Asanu, Kazuko Fukuda, Kuniko Ishii, Ichirô Kimura, Kazuo Kimura, Kôji Mitsui, Misako Miyato, Kimiko Nakamura, Akio Takahashi, Minoru Yuasa.
1968 Berlin International Film Festival – Nominated for the Golden Bear.
I actually saw a 35mm print of this. UCLA has a hoot that screened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art some years back. Remarkable work. Shuji Terayama was really something
Very modern for a film of ’68.
Easily became my favorite film. Watched it twice back-to-back. Hani is awesome here!