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Lost for 70 years until 2022, Shimizu’s second postwar film recalls Mr. Thank You as he frames the narrative in a familiar setting, tracking an autumnal bus ride from a hot spring town through a mountain pass. When the jaunty bus unceremoniously breaks down, a bittersweet sadness overcomes the passengers as unexpected reunions take place, but nothing can be what it was before the war.Read More »
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In 1954, Go Akuzu (Ken Takakura) travels to the Tsuruga Straits that separate Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido from the main island of Honshu, to investigate the tragic loss of a passenger ship in the treacherous waters of the straits. His solution to the marine dangers is to first advocate and then get a green light on building an underground tunnel to handle the inter-island traffic. His devotion to keeping the 25-year project on target leads to a separation from his wife, and a certain amount of loneliness — until he helps Tae Makimura (Sayuri Yoshinaga) get a job at a local restaurant. Read More »
A trio of tales delineating Sex and the Japanese city, “Tokyo Noir” provides more emotional colors than just black and white. Picture marks a collaboration between writer-helmers Naoto Kumazawa and Masato Ishioka that’s less diverse than in “Female,” another recent erotic Nipponese collection, but is still emotionally rewarding, thanks to solid performances and considered pacing. Sexual slant could open up fest slots beyond Asia.Read More »
Criterion’s title for this film is “You Were Like a Wild Chrysanthemum.”
From the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Films of Keisuke Kinoshita” program notes:
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Masao (Ozu regular Chishu Ryu) returns to his hometown after a successful career in business; the visit prompt memories of the time right before he left to study, when as a young man he fell in love with Tamiko, a beautiful, high-spirited young woman who also loved him but whom he was forbidden to marry as his family—and especially his mother—already had plans for him. Kinoshita brilliantly captures the flush of young love, played out against stunning landscapes—a love made all the more poignant as we know it will remain unrequited. Film scholar Donald Richie called it “one of the most nostalgically beautiful of Kinoshita’s films.”Read More »
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Michio Segawa, whose father is a water bus driver, lives with his father since his mother died, but he doesn’t feel lonely because he has a beloved carrier pigeon called Dede. Soon, Michio gets a new mother. His new mother brings along her younger sister, Emiko. The house suddenly becomes lively, and Michio’s mother is kind to him, but Michio feels strange. When Emiko is on his father’s lap, he can no longer go to his father to get his gloves fixed right away when they get torn, as he used to do. His father also scolds him strangely.Read More »
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TV commercials collector Jean Marie Boursicot’s (who might be known to you by his Nights of AdEaters) compilation of advertising films and commercials produced by famous film directors. Featured directors; Vol 1: David Cronenberg, Tim Burton, Luc esson, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Giuseppe Tornatore, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, Tarsem Singh, Jean Jacques Annaud, Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica, Wong Kar Wai, Michel Gondry, Tony Scott, Jean Luc Godard, Tony Kaye, Jan Kounen; Vol 2: Hugh Hudson, Martin Scorsese, Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Godard, Carlos Saura, Franco Zeffirelli, Claude Chabrol, Jean Jacques Annaud, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Federico Fellini, Giuseppe Tornatore, Patrice Leconte, Andrei Konchalowski, David Lynch, Helmut Newton, Nikita Mikhalkov, Jean Jacques Beineix, Jean Pierre Jeunet and William Klein.Read More »
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Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.
Kiichi and Sakie, a couple who ran a barbershop, and their cousin, Shutaro. However, the war forced Kiichi and Jutaro to go off to war. Kiichi’s death is reported to Sakie, and she is reunited with her cousin, who has been demobilized. The two embraced each other with the hope of starting anew, and three years passed. Then, Kiichi suddenly returned.Read More »
Hoshino (Toshiro Yanagiba) is the mob-connected owner of a ritzy Chinese restaurant. One evening he’s sitting down in a lavishly appointed private room to enjoy an elaborate multicourse dinner, when he gets a call from a crooked politician of his acquaintance. A long-meditated money-laundering deal is about to bear fruit and earn him a cool 5 billion yen. The gang boss who backed him on this deal will be pleased.Read More »
Highlander Colin MacLeod must choose between confronting the immortal who killed his lover centuries ago, or saving the survivors of a ravaged New York City.Read More »