Japan

Synopsis:
In Japan’s underground yakuza society, some men define themselves by honor, others by vengeance… and some are beyond definition – cold-blooded merciless sociopaths. And in this remake of Kinji FUKASAKU’s cult classic, celebrated director Takashi MIIKE redefines the Yakuza movie genre. Based on the real life of an infamous gangster, Graveyard of Honor is the story of Rikuo ISHIMATSU, a lowly dishwasher who unknowingly saves the life of a Yakuza Oyabun and quickly rises to a position of power in his gang. Loyally supporting his Oyabun and his brother gangsters, Ishimatsu wreaks havoc on anyone who stands in their way, inevitably earning himself a trip to the slammer.Read More »

After being threatened by his girlfriend’s brother, Ko (Riki Takeuchi) goes on a trip on his Kawasaki to contemplate his options. He meets Miiyo (Kiwako Harada) by chance, and the two stay in touch. He later receives an invitation to her island, where he begins to teach her how to ride, and quickly falls for her. Miiyo is an extremely quick study, and the two are a well-matched pair. However, her obsession with motorbikes seems to be leading her down a dangerous path.Read More »

Synopsis:
Master Director Kon Ichikawa’s 1963 classic is considered by many to be one of the finest films ever made in Japan.Kasuo Hasegawa stars as Yukinojo, a talented kabuki actor who specializes in playing female roles (women were not allowed on the stage during the period of the film). But his success on the stage is but a means to an end; his true goal is to visit vengeance upon the three ruthless and powerful men who destroyed his family’s business and drove his parents to commit suicide.Yukinojo’s vengeance will be carefully scripted, and skillfully acted. But the price of admission will be high indeed.Read More »

A female highschool teacher (Rei Akasaka) must deal with sexual harrassment from her students and being trapped in a love triangle with two men, neither of whom has any interest in marrying her.Read More »

SYNOPSIS
In this period action-drama set in 15th century Japan, a band of youngsters have been taken from their families and brought to a secret village, where on the orders of the shogunate they are trained to become elite warriors sworn to protect their masters. As they learn the difficult and demanding ways of battle and espionage, they become the oniwaban, or “demon spies,” whose skills are almost supernatural in strength and power. When it is learned that one of the emperor’s vassals has broken his vows by establishing a private armory on his fiefdom, four of the young “demon spies” are sent in to destroy the weapons and bring the challenger to justice. Demon Spies marked a change of pace for director Tsuboshima Takashi, who was best known for his comedies. (Mark Deming on All Movie Guide)Read More »

Synopsis:
Summer vacation is nearly over and Korean undergraduate SanjunIm (Japanese name: Hayashi) is returning to his school in Tokyo from his home in Hokkaido. On the way he stops in Morimachi, in Hakodate, to visit Sunchun Jong (Japanese name: Akio Matsumoto), his father’s best friend. It has been 10 years since Sanjun has seen Matsumoto, in Sakhalin. He is married to a Japanese named Toshi and has a stepdaughter named Kayako. Kayako is now a junior high school student. Sanjun was born in Japan, the son of Korean immigrants. After Japan lost the war, Sanjun, with his father and brothers, remained in Japan. As a nisei (second generation), Sanjun lacks the sense of his Korean roots that the first generation of Koreans who came to Japan possess.Read More »

This 1981 nihilist epic by Shohei Imamura is witty, grotesque, relentless, and beautifully engineered. The setting is the Edo era, when local warlords battle the emperor for control of the country, and all of Japan is under cultural pressure from its long delayed opening to the West. Political loyalties and personal loves disintegrate; the only certainty is money, and even that is crumbling. Imamura follows eight major characters through a bright, bursting, impossibly dynamic mise-en-scene, leading up to the Eijanaika (“What the hell?”) riots—a frightening, exhilarating explosion of empty freedom, the freedom of those who have lost everything. A very important film, and possibly a great one.Read More »

People from all walks of life (a high-school student, a middle-aged businessman, a yakuza chief, etc.) all receive mysterious messages from loved ones who were killed 3 months earlier in a shipwreck. They are instructed to go to a small island in the Inland Sea that evening. At the stroke of midnight, the lost ship emerges from the sea and they are given a brief time to say their final words to their lost loved ones, before the deceased must once again board the ship and it sinks back into the depths. (Summary from IMDB)Read More »

Summary:
Based on the book by Keiko Ochiai, “The Rape” details the struggles and determination of a young woman who is attacked and raped on her way home from her lover’s and shows how she comes to terms with the crime and the perpetrator in life and in court.

Awards:
Nominated – Award of the Japanese Academy (1983) – Best Actress Yûko TanakaRead More »