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A young girl moves from Iwate to Kawasaki after leaving her village, but she suffers from asthma and is ostracised by her friends. A young boy who dreams of becoming a footballer. The two gradually develop a friendship, but tragedy strikes at the end…
A very pure and touching film. The last part of the film will make you cry.Read More »
Non-ko (36-sai Kaji Tetsudai), 7th film directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri. Stars Maki Sakai and Gen Hoshino (Shakerock). Nobuko commonly called Nonko who is 36 years old and a once-divorced woman returns Shinto shrine that her family runs, to help out around the house. There is no drive and no place to belong, just a backwards little country town. The only thing she does is riding her bicycle and going to the bar to drink with the owner, an another divorcee. She cannot remember the last time she had sex. One day, Nonko encounters a young man named Masaru who has great expectations about selling chicks at shrine’s festival. Masaru is rather naive and pitiable, but this earnest and straightforward younger man puts a smile back on her face, and she gradually becomes more emotionally and physically receptive…Read More »
Lost for decades, Asia is One was rediscovered in 2005. Shot around the time of the reversion, Asia is One initially begins by capturing shifting perceptions in Okinawa and economic developments—from the onset of increased tourism and cultural preservation, to the exodus of islanders migrating to the mainland for better opportunities whether for work, education or a better life. Composed of testimonials, Asia is One uncovers the history of labor abuse and exploitation by mainland mining companies since the 1930s and documents the Taiwanese and Zainichi immigrants who worked in these harsh mines, confronting the legacy of imperialism alongside concepts of border and identity on the vast stretches of islands that lead down to Taiwan.Read More »
The great Okawa Hashizo plays a double role in this thrilling tale of intrigue and corruption within the capital city of Edo. When Moriya Shuma, an injured Edo officer is rescued by a vassal whose appears to be his exact double, he swears to sweep out all the criminals from the city. Directed by one of Japan’s most revered filmmakers, Nakagawa Nobuo, this story is filled with twists and turns, and loaded with surprises. Plenty of realistic swordplay highlights this exciting motion picture.Read More »
Film about Sakamoto Ryōma. The focus is on Oryo, the maid who became Ryoma’s wife and lived with him for one year before his death. Directed by Jun Ichikawa.Read More »
This is an early film from the career of Shibuya Minoru and according to Donald Richie in The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, “One of his best, the 1939 [actally 1938] Mother and Child (Haha to ko), was taken from a onvel by Tsuneko Yada. This story of a young daughter, her businessman father, and his mistress was slightly overloaded with sentiment and burdened with the confused social criticism apparent in some of the director’s postwar work, but was nonetheless representative of the period.Read More »
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The young Sonny Chiba is fabulous in this wildly entertaining Kinji Fukasaku film. It’s the 4th movie in the very loosely related Gang series. This instalment sees former gangster (Koji Tsuruta) brought back to action when the police needs his help to bring down a dangerous gang lead by Tetsuro Tamba. Chiba plays an enthusiastic young man who goes undercover even though it’s obviously more than he can handle. Critic Mark Schilling aptly described his character as “the seventh samurai” of this story. Though not an all time classic like some of Fukasaku’s later movies, it’s a very stylish and entertaining film full of 1960s cool. Chiba, bursting with youthful charm and energy, is the film’s biggest asset. This is one of his best performances, often leaving superstars like Tamba and Tsuruta in his shadow, and marked the beginning of his best era as an actor.Read More »
As the great military commander Hideyoshi was consolidating his power across Japan, one of his actions was to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one of the survivors has hired a young but skilled assassin to avenge the deaths of his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and kill the supreme ruler of the country.Read More »
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Kazuo Hasegawa has wild friends and hates being compared to his stepbrother, Reikichi Kawamura, who is steady, works hard at his taxicab business, and is amiable. That’s why he left home a year ago. Now he has heard his mother is ill, and wants to come home, but thinks she hates him. That’s nonsense, says Kawamura. Hasegawa agrees to reform. Just then two men come in and want to hire a cab. Everyone has gone home for the evening, so Hasegawa shows his willingness to reform by taking the fare. They drive to a distant house. They ask him to wait. While he does so, Kinuyo Tanaka pops out, begs him to help her escape. He does so. The two men are her step-brother, and the man everyone wants her to marry…. except her, of course.Read More »