Paper short abstract:

In his "eroductions", Kôji Wakamatsu showcased a surreal use of colour as opposed to Toshio Matsumoto's resistance to its symbolic power in Shura. However, in both cases, colour and shadow entertain a dialectical relation: the emancipation of the former is made possible by the latter and vice-versa.

Paper long abstract:

In Japan, cinematically speaking, the 1960s were the last decade when black and white and colour coexisted as equally feasible production options, despite being considered, even by the studios, two entirely different methods of shooting film. Colour films implied bigger budgets and additional pressure to provide a return on investment, while monochrome productions typically had more freedom to engage in risky subject matter and display the singular world-views of an emerging generation of filmmakers.

Pink film ("pinku eiga") was born in this context. Defined by one hour long, black and white, low budget erotic productions, this new genre of film often featured isolated colour scenes when characters engaged in sexual activity. Kôji Wakamatsu, unlike his fellow pink directors, never used colour as a means to sexually arouse his spectators. In an interview several years prior to his passing, he compared his sudden shifts to colour to explosions of strong redness, confessing that he was "using colour to create shock." Tracing an unusual chromophilia in his films from the late 1960s, we will see how, rather than inducing libidinous trances in viewers, Wakamatsu agitated them by using colour in key scenes, and made them access other planes of reality to an extent.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Toshio Matsumoto, who came from the documentary scene, perfected a monochromatic aesthetic with his first two feature-length films, "Funeral Parade of Roses" (1969) and "Demons" (1971). He once said that "Funeral Parade of Roses" was about a "bright white world" ("shiroi sekai"), while "Demons" was about a "dark world" ("kuroi sekai"). Despite this "dark world", Shura begins with a colour scene, a "sizzling red setting sun", and then is engulfed in darkness to never return. Opposed to Wakamatsu's brief but radically expressive use of colour, the permanent world of shadows contained therein illustrates a peculiar case of chromophobia in which the refusal of brightness is tied to the utter impossibility of redemption by its main characters.