The Japanese Film Festival this year profiles OSHIMA Nagisa -- arguably one of the most un-Japanese Japanese film directors ever, who has deliberately challenged Japanese political, social and cinematic norms throughout his career. Oshima's filmography and career resembles not so much one by an aspiring film auteur, but more that of a socially aware academic-activist who happened to make film his means of expression and protest. His entry into film was accidental -- intensely involved in student politics as a university undergrad, he could not find a job after graduation until he happened to tag along with a friend to take the entrance exams for assistant directors at Shochiku. Shochiku was in financial difficulties and the management was trying to innovate by allowing first-time directors to direct their own scripts. "A Town of Love and Hope" turned out to be a shock to Oshima's bosses and contemporary audiences, who were used to a standard template of mild-mannered domestic dramas where characters bicker but always gloss over their differences and everyone ends the film content. One might accuse his films of being academic, but Oshima was out to provoke strong reactions with political and social reform in mind, and to achieve this he experimented with all aspects of film. Overall his films of the 1960s -- the period from which the 4 films featured in this year's Japanese Film Festival are selected -- exude a kind of rebellious desperation and energy, of struggle with society and politics.