Quote:
Yasujiro Ozu’s frequent leading man Chishu Ryu is riveting as Shuhei, a widowed high school teacher who finds that the more he tries to do what is best for his son’s future, the more they are separated. Though primarily a delicately wrought story of parental love, There Was a Father offers themes of sacrifice that were deemed appropriately patriotic by Japanese censors at the time of its release during World War II, making it a uniquely political film in Ozu’s body of work.Read More »
SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE WIDE SKY (1954, aka KONO HIROI SORA NO DOKOKA NI) came near the end of Masaki Kobayashi’s formative period as a director — scripted by the sister of his mentor Keisuke Kinoshita (and scored by Kinoshita‘s brother), this drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails.Read More »
Synopsis:
Japanese pink film in Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno series starring Asami Ogawa and directed by Masaru Konuma. Ogawa’s debut film, this was the seventh and last entry in the Office Lady Journal series, which had been launched in 1972 with Office Lady Journal: Scent Of Female Cat. In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, the Weissers write, “This film is a perfect end to the series. Konuma is the master of free-form, rambling cinema. He manages to make ordinary life seem extraordinary with moments of kinkiness (i.e., the eroticism of a sex scene with Ms. [Aoi] Nakajima wearing a full kimono dress; or another segment where Asami is making love in a room full of baby chicks).”
— From wikipedia.Read More »
Synopsis:
Japan nineteenth century. High demand for tattooed geisha generates an entire industry for their “production”. Europeans pay more for tattooed beauties. Against this background, and considering the gorgeous tattooed women develop the history of confrontation between two highly skilled masters of tattoo.Read More »
Two employees of rival ad agencies vie for the same contract, and each other’s hearts, in this restrained office drama from director Hideo Suzuki. Stars Yoko Tsukasa and Akira Takarada.Read More »
quote:
Haru’s Journey provides an insider’s look at Japanese culture through its themes of acceptance, endurance and familial commitment. It tells the story of elderly fisherman Tadao and his granddaughter Haru, who live in a small fishing village in Hokkaido. When Haru’s job disappears, she wants to take her stubborn grandfather to live in Tokyo where she will find more opportunities. But Tadao refuses to go to the capital, sparking a search for another family member who will share his life. Thus begins a road movie driven by family dynamics, as the two set out for Japan’s main island, Honshu, to see if one of Tadao’s siblings will look after him. First stop is his even more cantankerous older brother, Shiego, and their testy exchange reveals there’s more to Tadao’s selfishness than just old age. By contrast, selfless Haru takes on responsibility for the pair’s dwindling finances so their pilgrimage can continue…Read More »
IMDB says:
An elegiac ode to a loner who finds it difficult to fit in and the inevitable eruption of his frustration, Isolation of 1/880000 tells the story of Takemitsu, a disabled young man caught in the “examination hell” of trying to get into one of Japan’s top universities. Director Sogo Ishii (now renamed as Gakuryu Ishii) was the original 8mm punk, whose works expressed unhinged energy and made speed, intensity and rebellion their stylistic and thematic center, carrying over into his later 16mm and 35mm films such as Crazy Thunder Road and Crazy Family. In contrast, Isolation prefigures the more ethereal aesthetic of his big budget 1990s films.Read More »
Quote:
Capone Cries a Lot (カポネ大いに泣く, Kapone ōi ni naku?, aka Capone’s Flood of Tears) is a 1985 Japanese comedy film directed by Seijun Suzuki. It stars Kenichi Hagiwara as a naniwa-bushi singer who travels with his wife to the United States in hopes of achieving fame and fortune.Read More »
Quote:
IN SEARCH OF THE UNRETURNED SOLDIERS IN MALAYSIA
In Malaysia, Imamura follows one false lead after another as he tries to locate unreturned Japanese who had given up the culture of their birth to integrate with Malaysian society. These wrong turns take the filmmaker on a tour through the complexities of post-war Malaysia, and allow him the time to air his outrage with the Japanese military’s conduct in Southeast Asia, focusing particularly on the 1942 Sook Ching massacre.Read More »