Not that Oshima ever loses interest in political questions in his exploration of passion. It's just that his films are grounded in a deeper awareness of human nature. Turim seems to believe that the best way to understand most Oshima films is to focus on the relations between characters. After all, the director encourages audiences to mark parallels and contrasts between them. Take Merry Christmas , which is about prisoners of war in a Japanese internment camp.
Allies become potential enemies while foes are perceived as friends.
The story combines attraction and repulsion without drawing clear distinctions between them. Through such unusual set-ups, Oshima challenges common clich s. But for all its overall lucidity and rigor, Turim's approach displays two key weaknesses. First, she emphasizes the social meaning of the plot at the expense of framing, color and other aspects of visual style. While bias towards content yields illuminating insights, it limits discussion of visual organization.