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Of Imamura's late films, ZEGEN is the most like his early masterworks: epic, tumultuous, sexually impudent, and grotesquely funny. (It is also the culmination of what can be seen as a trilogy of films starring Ken Ogata, the others being VENGEANCE IS MINE and THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA.) A satire about colonialism, commerce, and carnality, ZEGEN is the true story of a hairdresser, sent to Manchuria to spy on the Russian army. A born entrepreneur, he set up a chain of brothels throughout Asia - a kind of fornication franchise - and became “the Big Boss of the South Seas.” As Imamura portrays him, the “zegen” is a decent but doltish and blindly patriotic businessman who views his development of a prostitution empire throughout Southeast Asia as the vanguard of Japan's military adventurism: “For the sake of a great cause, I procure women!” Miike Takashi was an assistant director on ZEGEN; no doubt he picked up some of his outrageous chops from master Imamura.
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