The film's full title, ThePornographers: An Introduction to Anthropology only hints at Imamura's incomparable wit and appreciationof the perverse. But, as Donald Richie (Japanese Cinema) has noted, it does not indicate "the extent of hiscompassion" for his protagonist, Ogata, a small-time pornographic filmmaker shocked by the degeneratemorality that surrounds him in his seedy Osaka neighborhood. Ogata is a do-gooder who feels it is his dutyto restore to mankind some of the things that civilization denies it-beginning with pornography, a harmlesspleasure, and throwing in a procurement or two. The scenes of the making of these 8mm films cast withsub-amateurs are some of the funniest in Japanese cinema. Before long, however, our hero becomessaturated with lechery-his own and that of his clientele-and, foresaking his fellow man, re-invents theplastic partner to keep him company as he sails off into a lonely retreat. The Pornographers is a technicaltour-de-force: the camera constantly takes on the role of the voyeur, peeking through windows, keyholes,fishtanks, anything peekable-most obviously, a movie lens.