Quote:
The country makes an unusual setting for Naruse, known for his city films, and the lyrical, open-air feeling of this color, ’Scope film almost hides the defeat that permeates the story of a woman trying to be independent of her traditional farming family.

Summer.Clouds.1958.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-ASO.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 9 min
Size: 	9.00 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	29.970 fps
Bit rate: 	10 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.161
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch E-AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/03909FB79352770/Summer.Clouds.1958.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-ASO.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/70544D07A6CE334/Summer.Clouds.1958.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-ASO.srt

https://rapidgator.net/file/08a271bb3da5f6b88edbd22154ad43e1/Summer.Clouds.1958.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-ASO.mkv https://rapidgator.net/file/9a55999fcd3c3ad0556241d199539609/Summer.Clouds.1958.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-ASO.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Mikio Naruse – Iwashigumo AKA Summer Clouds (1958) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.

Akasaka.no.shimai.yori.yoru.no.hada.1960.SD.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 43 min
Size: 	1.43 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	712x296 
Aspect ratio:  	2.40:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	1 846 kb/s
BPP: 	0.365
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AAC LC @ 128 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/070DE08C0BDF47E/Akasaka.no.shimai.yori.yoru.no.hada.1960.SD.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:None

The post Yûzô Kawashima – ‘Akasaka no shimai’ yori: yoru no hada AKA The Akasaka Sisters: Soft Touch of Night (1960) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
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. At times like that, Michio goes to the tofu shop in front of their house and is treated to a meal. When Emiko brags about the donuts her mother made and praises her mother, Michio thinks that his previous mother was much better. Whenever Michio saw Dede, the pigeon that his mother had given him and that was now just a keepsake, he couldn’t help the pain in his heart. One day, when Michio came home from school, he found that Dede the pigeon had disappeared from its nest box. In a frenzy, Michio ran out of the house to find his precious Dede. That night, his father, mother, and the man at the tofu shop made a big fuss searching for Michio, who had gone missing. Fortunately, they found that Michio had been safely taken care of by the police. His father went out alone to pick him up. On the night path home, Michio was happy to walk alone with his father for the first time in a long time. Father and son walked and talked under the starry sky. When his father asked Michio, “Don’t you think it would have been better if Mom hadn’t come?” Michio now answered clearly, “I don’t think so.”

	
Image of a Mother 1959 HDTV 1080i AAC MPEG2 tattookiss-KG.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 28 min
Size: 	4.99 GiB
Video
Codec: 	MPEG-2
Resolution: 	1440x1080 ~> 1920x1080
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	Variable
Bit rate: 	Variable
BPP: 	
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AAC LC

https://nitro.download/view/835BE35017F3C32/Image_of_a_Mother_1959_HDTV_1080i_AAC_MPEG2_tattookiss-KG.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:None

The post Hiroshi Shimizu – Haha no omokage AKA Image of a Mother (1959) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Masaki Kobayashi’s six-part magnum opus, The Human Condition, based on Junpei Gomikawa’s postwar novel, bears the imprint of Kobayashi’s tutelage under legendary filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita at Shochiku’s Ofuna studio, a critical, introspective, and deeply personal account of wartime Japan framed from the perspective of an idealistic everyman (and Kobayashi’s alterego), Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai). Opening to the ironic image of lovers Kaji and Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) meeting under an archway auspiciously called the Southern Gate of Peace in Manchuria as Imperial troops march in the street, Kobayashi presents an incisive image of 1930s Japanese society that is morally consumed—and ravaged—by increasingly extremist values of militarism, occupation, and nationalism.

Parts 1 and 2 chronicles Kaji’s assignment as a labor camp manager at a rural outpost in southern Manchuria, a position that he had reluctantly accepted to avoid imminent conscription to the Imperial army. Brimming with wide-eyed (and implicitly leftist) theories on worker relations and industrial production, Kaji is confronted with the reality of the rampant abuse, exploitation, and inhumane working conditions at the mine, where forced laborers and designated “special prisoners” (presumably captured Chinese insurgents, but more likely, enslaved peasants) are routinely beaten, overworked, and undernourished (using the convenient excuse of nationwide rationing) in the name of increased production to support the ongoing war effort. Candidly exposing such taboo issues as the forced recruitment of comfort women (usually from occupied territories), slavery of the colonized population, and mass execution of civilians, the first installment of The Human Condition, nevertheless, captures redemptive moments of grace, most notably in Kaji’s cultivated relationships with the world weary, but sympathetic senior official, Okishima (So Yamamura) and the Chinese labor leader, Chen (Akira Ishihama).

Parts 3 and 4 continues with Kaji’s travails as a junior enlisted man in the Imperial army stationed at an outpost in the frozen tundra of northern Manchuria. Despite proving himself a disciplined soldier and excellent marksman, Kaji’s prospects for promotion in rank have been systematically stifled by senior officers wary of his leftist tendencies and blemished record with the Kenpeitai (military police) from his former career as a labor camp manager. Resigned to a demoralizing existence of continual harassment from veteran soldiers who share barracks with new recruits, Kaji gradually finds renewed purpose in his role as protector, initially, in supporting a bullied, fragile soldier, Obara (Kunie Tanaka), then subsequently, in leading a class of new recruits. As in Parts 1 and 2, the second installment of The Human Condition reinforces the sense of a dysfunctional morality engendered by a culture of ingrained hierarchy, entitlement, and aggression as virtue in the jingoistic quest of winning the war at all cost.

Parts 5 and 6, in a way, represents an inverted full circle, a Japanese rendition of the Long March (in this case, from north to south) in which Russian Red Army forces and Chinese insurgents patrol the countryside in the waning days of the Pacific War, and the soldiers return to a transformed landscape where the Japanese are now the displaced refugees left to fend for themselves, exploited and humiliated by their conquerors. Determined to make his way home, Kaji soon realizes that he cannot escape the toll of the battlefield, and even the hope of compassionate treatment under the ideals of an enlightened revolution proves to be an illusion in the face of petty grudges, self-interest, and miscommunication. Suffused with recurring images of figurative concealment – night time excursions, jungles, and obscuring grain fields – the final installment of The Human Condition is more austere and alienated than the preceding chapters, reflecting the sense of disillusionment intrinsic in Kobayashi’s caustic social indictment. Concluding as the installment began with the twilight image of Kaji instinctively heading south to return home to his beloved Michiko, Kobayashi creates a sobering allegory for a tainted national soul in the indelible image of noble determination and blind delusion.

Masaki Kobayashi - (1959) No Greater Love, Part 1.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 47mn
Size: 	1.76 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x432 
Aspect ratio:  	2.40:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 117 Kbps
BPP: 	0.200
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 1.0ch AC-3 @ 224 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/B9A11A753830086/Masaki_Kobayashi_-_(1959)_No_Greater_Love,_Part_1.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/BACC16AC3FC9634/Masaki_Kobayashi_-_(1959)_No_Greater_Love,_Part_2.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Masaki Kobayashi – Ningen no jôken AKA The Human Condition: I. No Greater Love (1959) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This is the story of Kiyoshi Yoshida, who feels estranged from both parents after his father returns from war. How the boy adapts to life with the virtual stranger his father has become is the film’s focus.A young boy has formed an idealized image of his father, who has yet to be repatriated from Russia. When they finally meet they fail to get along. The boy withdraws more and more into himself, and the picture is concerned with how the two gradually develop a love for each other.

Yellow.Crow.1957.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-ZETA.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 43 min
Size: 	2.96 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	29.970 fps
Bit rate: 	Variable
BPP: 	
Audio
#1:  	jap 2.0ch AAC LC

https://nitro.download/view/125E63F22B0B765/Yellow.Crow.1957.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-ZETA.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/F38448C9E93BC9A/Yellow.Crow.1957.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-ZETA.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

Many thanks to @xrt for this copy

The post Heinosuke Gosho – Kiiroi karasu aka Yellow Crow (1957) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off. However, it is not to be: on this hectic day a man just back from the war front visits the doctor with a medical emergency, followed by a woman who claims to have been molested. Then a yakuza arrives to ask the doctor to cut his finger off…

Doctors.Day.Off.1952.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-ZETA.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 37 min
Size: 	2.78 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	Variable
BPP: 	
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AAC LC

https://nitro.download/view/986E7CE5C164B5C/Doctors.Day.Off.1952.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-ZETA.mkv

https://rapidgator.net/file/081c4731ad8af99f314e6d69f227a9fe/Doctors.Day.Off.1952.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-ZETA.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:None

The post Minoru Shibuya – Honjitsu kyûshin AKA Doctor’s Day Off (1952) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Keijiro and Ayako Kono seem like a picture-book upper middle-class family. He is a respected professor and the couple has two amiable children. But the Kono’s domestic siutuation is more complicated than it seems on the surface. The children are actually the illegitimate children of Kono’s long-time mistress, Miho. To compensate for giving up the children, the Konos subsidize a bar which Miho operates.

Ayako, interested in eliminating her husband’s continuing interest in Miho, pays the bar girls to “spy” on Miho, in the hope of showing Miho is not “faithful” to her husband. Miho becomes tired of the situation, and proposes that she break off relations with Kono but be given outright ownership of the bar. After Ayako flatly rejects this, Miho’s mother suggests that, for leverage, Miho demand the children back.

	
Mikio Naruse - Tsuma to shite onna to shite AKA As a Wife, As a Woman (1961).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 46 min
Size: 	1.63 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	720x366 ~> 860x366
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.317
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/8A112636643A370/Mikio_Naruse_-_Tsuma_to_shite_onna_to_shite_AKA_As_a_Wife,_As_a_Woman_(1961).mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Mikio Naruse – Tsuma to shite onna to shite AKA As a Wife, As a Woman (1961) first appeared on Cinema of the World.