Gushing Prayer

Forum 2018

Yasuko, Yoichi, Koichi and Bill are four high-school students who try to escape their overwhelming sense of alienation from the world around them by indulging in group sex, all to see whether they can forge their own path free of the corruptions of adult society. After revealing she has had an affair with her teacher, Yasuko is made to feel like a prostitute, with sex thus reduced to an economic transaction rather than something about pleasure. She sets out on an odyssey of self-exploration, the final goal being to see whether she can “beat” sex.
The most cryptic and formally extreme pink film from the most politically radical director to work in the field deploys actual suicide notes and a refrain by folk musician Masato Minami to unsettling effect to convey the vacuum left behind in the wake of the failed student movements of the 1960s. The cinematography by Wakamatsu regular Hideo Ito captures the landscapes of Shinjuku through an intriguing blend of the documentary and the cinematic. Real-life scenes of jeeps and tanks crawling through the streets recall just how strong the anti-terrorist police presence was in Tokyo at the turn of the decade.

by Masao Adachi
with Michio Akiyama, Yuji Aoki, Masaaki Hiraoka, Susumu Iwabuchi, Makiko Kim, Kazue 'Gaira' Komizu, Kaoru Miya, Shigenori Noda, Hiroshi Saito Japan 1971 Japanese 74’ Colour & Black/White

With

Michio Akiyama (Boy 1)
Yuji Aoki (Bill)
Masaaki Hiraoka (Cock 1)
Susumu Iwabuchi (Cock 2)
Makiko Kim (Yoko)
Kazue 'Gaira' Komizu (Man)
Kaoru Miya (Koichi's Mother)
Shigenori Noda (Arai)
Hiroshi Saito (Koichi)

Crew

Director	Masao Adachi
Screenplay	Izuru Deguchi / Masao Adachi
Cinematography	Hideo Ito
Editing	Isamu Nakajima
Music	Masato Minami
Producer	Daisuke Asakura / Keiko Sato Kokuei, Kazuto Mirita Interfilm

World sales

Rapid Eye Movies

Produced by

Kokuei

Interfilm

Masao Adachi

Born in 1939 in the city of Kitakyushu, on the island of Kyushu. With films such as Wan (1961), Sain (1963) and Gingakei (1967) Adachi became one of the leading figures in the underground avant-garde scene of the 1960s. At Wakamatsu Productions, Adachi directed some of the most radical ‘pink films’, including Seiyugi (1968) and Jogakusei gerira (1969). In addition to his work as a screenwriter and director, Adachi is a film theorist and critic.

Filmography (selection)

1963 Sain (Sealed Vagina) 1967 Gingakei (Galaxy) 1969 Seiyugi (Sex Play) · Jogakusei gerira (High School Girl Guerrilla) · Ryakusho: renzoku shasatsu-ma (AKA Serial Killer) 1971 Funshutsu kigan: 15-sai no baishunfu (Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute) · Sekigun-PFLP: Sekai senso sengen (Red Army / PFLP Declaration of World War); co-directed by Matsuda Masao 2007 Yûheisha/terorisuto (Prisoner/Terrorist) 2016 Danjiki geinin (Artist of Fasting)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018