Offscreen Notes
Koji Wakamatsu: 1936-2012
On October 17, 2012, iconoclastic Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu has died after complications following being hit by a taxi cab. This is tragic news, which uncannily recalls Theo Angelopoulos dying by a similar cause earlier this year, 24 January 2012, at the same age as Wakamatsu, 76. Wakamatsu had just completed his latest film, The Millenium Rapture (2012), which is playing at Montreal’s FNC (Festival de nouveau cinema). Offscreen has written on two of Wakamatsu’s seminal political Roman Porno films, Ecstacy of Angels and Go, Go Second Time Virgin. Wakamatsu had made another film in 2012, which also played in Montreal, at Fantasia 2012, about Yukio Mishima 11:25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate. A sad day indeed for world cinema.
