Japan

  • Shigehiro Ozawa – Tosei-nin retsuden AKA Yakuza’s Tale (1969)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaJapanShigehiro Ozawa

    Synopsis
    A yakuza member embarks on a trail of revenge for his murdered boss. Senzo, the successor of the Mita Family, searches for the man bearing a tattoo of a dragon who is said to be responsible for the death of their former leader. – LetterboxdRead More »

  • Naomi Kawase – Vision (2018)

    2011-2020ArthouseAsianJapanJapanese Female DirectorsNaomi Kawase

    Juliette Binoche finds rapture in the forests of Yoshino

    Jeanne (Juliette Binoche) travels to Japan to search for the rare medicinal plant ‘Vision’, which according to legend only appears once every 997 years under special conditions. On her trip, she meets Tomo, a forest ranger, who joins her in her quest and helps retrace her past. Twenty years earlier, in the same forests of Yoshino where Jeanne now hopes to find Vision, she experienced her first true love.Read More »

  • Makoto Shinozaki – Sharing (2014)

    2011-2020AsianDramaJapanMakoto Shinozaki

    Two girls experience anxieties of their own in a story set in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster in Japan. One girl is a professor studying the dreams related to the earthquake. The other is a student who has a nightmare while rehearsing for a play about the disaster.Read More »

  • Akihiko Shiota – Gaichû AKA Harmful Insect (2001)

    2001-2010Akihiko ShiotaAsianDramaJapan

    Eiga Wiki wrote:
    Harmful Insect follows a girl named Sachiko after her father dies, her mother attempts suicide, and her entire class is gossiping about her possibly having an affair with her sixth grade teacher who recently moved away. Because of all this, Sachiko stops going to school and hangs out with a street-dweller named Takao and his mentally disabled friend. When Takao is beaten to death Sachiko is forced to return to her former life, only to face more unwanted trauma at the hands of adults who never seem to have her best interests in mind.Read More »

  • Akihiko Shiota – Hiru mo Yoru mo AKA Lifeline (2016)

    2011-2020Akihiko ShiotaArthouseJapanRomance

    Plot: Ryosuke (Koji Seto) runs a used car dealership in the sticks, some way outside Tokyo. He inherited the business, and doesn’t enjoy running it. When a girl (Jun Yoshinaga) is dumped by the driver of a car on the road outside his forecourt, his life starts to turn upside-down. (from Letterboxd)Read More »

  • Susumu Hani – Gozenchu no jikanwari AKA The Morning Schedule (1972)

    1971-1980ArthouseAsianJapanSusumu Hani

    Hani’s subsequent work, Morning Schedule , combines his interest in contemporary youth with his continued interest in modern women. The story deals with two high school girls who decide to take a trip together. The fiction feature, which is narrated, was filmed in 8mm and each of the major actors was allowed to shoot part of the film. Further, the audience is informed of who is shooting, thereby acknowledging the filmmaker within the context of the work. The use of 8mm is not new for Hani. More than half of his fourth film was originally shot in 8mm. Likewise, the use of a narrator dates back to A Full Life. Throughout his career, Hani has concerned himself with people who have difficulty in communicating with one another. His documentaries, narratives on social problems, and dramas on emerging women have established his reputation as one of the foremost psychologists of the Japanese cinema.Read More »

  • Tôru Murakawa – Bara no hyôteki AKA Target (1980)

    1971-1980ActionAsianJapanTôru Murakawa

    Two killers revenge a wirepuller of the underworld in Yokohama.

    Almost no information online.Read More »

  • Kihachi Okamoto – Burû Kurisumasu AKA UFO Blue Christmas (1978)

    1971-1980DramaJapanKihachi OkamotoSci-Fi

    UFOs appear on Earth, and people who actually see them suddenly find that their blood has turned blue. Soon panic and hysteria result in the new “blue-bloods” being persecuted by the rest of mankind, and eventually certain all-too-familiar measures begin to be taken against them.Read More »

  • Mitsuo Yanagimachi – Kamyu nante shiranai AKA Who’s Camus Anyway? (2005)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaJapanMitsuo Yanagimachi

    Quote:
    Throws down the gauntlet with the very first shot, in which the camera glides sinuously all over the sprawling exterior of a university campus, caroming from one group to characters to another, for minute after self-consciously virtuosic minute, and just as you’re idly wondering whether Fred Ward is going to show up and start ranting about the opening of Touch of Evil, we suddenly pick up two film students engaged in discussion of that very topic, who then proceed to address The Player itself. Except that Altman’s achievement really is little more than a clever, hollow joke, whereas Yanagimachi has taken that sort of suffocating pomo referentiality as his subject.Read More »

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