A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

Quote:
It is the mid 19th century in Japan as a wandering ronin (the term designated to samurai who no longer have a master to follow), Kuwabatake Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune), roams the windy, autumnal countryside, unsure as to the direction he should head next in search for food and money. Gambling on one particular route takes him to a small town awash in corruption and gamesmanship between two warring factions, one commandeered by Seibi (Seizaburo Kawazu) and the other by Ushitora (Kyu Sazanka). Each has associated themselves with one of the two major industries the sullen town calls its own, a sake brewery run by Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura) and a silk factory owned by Tazaemon (Katamari Fujirawa). Despite the consternation and warnings of a local tavern owner, Goji (Eijiro Tono), the ronin sees a window of glorious opportunity to make serious bank and have a grand time at it by foxily sowing the seed of everyone’s destruction while offering up his services as a yojimbo (bodyguard).

Akira Kurosawa is known one of Japan’s great cinematic exports, if not the very greatest. Dabbling in drama, historical epics influenced by the works of William Shakespeare, and entertaining romps replete with unforgettable characters and splendid adventure, his career spanned six decades and earned him the sort of reputation most directors will only ever savor in their dreams. Yojimbo, while not an outlier in his filmography, is one of his more straightforward, non-epic samurai films, a movie more concerned with the small-scale adventure of a clever if self-serving masterless samurai who singlehandedly cleans up a town sick by death, decay, and corruption. Balancing action, suspense, and comedy, Yojimbo is one of Kurosawa’s simpler adventure films, an extremely watchable romp that goes down smooth.

It is the aforementioned genre blend that has inspired people to cherish the film for over five decades. Yojimbo is never just one sort of movie but a great many rolled into a single package. Despite its multitude of layered tones, the movie is not convoluted nor is it complex. Kurosawa was a master of his trade, a man with the Midas touch. He knew what he was doing when he walked on the set, when working in pre-production, when calibrating the performances of his actors, etc. There is nary a moment in Yojimbo that feels off, the merits of which can be the subject of intense debate. Kurosawa’s style may be divisive, but it is entirely his own.

For the uninitiated, the comedic aspects are courtesy of amazingly exaggerated performances. Wild cries, rambunctiousness, agitated and nervous individuals: these are but some of the signature ingredients utilized whenever Kurosawa aims for laughs. Understandably, this style is not everyone’s cup of tea. That said, it is difficult to not appreciate the dedication of his cast. One such example is the town’s lone police officer (Ikio Sawamura), who behaves more like a clown or a jester than anything else throughout the picture, which can be a bit off-putting at first.

For all the various characters and plot elements the director has to juggle, Yojimbo is an impressively economical enterprise. Much like the titular bodyguard, the movie clicks along at a breathtaking pace, introducing new players by the minute, each one clearly drawn out, albeit mostly one-dimensional, with Sanjuro plotting his way into the always temporary good graces of either Seibi’s or Ushitora’s band. Even if non-Japanese viewers get confused by the dozens of character names, each of their faces and expressions is instantly recognizable, smoothing the process of taking in so much information. True enough, the majority of characters are exaggerations rather than three-dimensional individuals, but that is part of the fun. The lively performances are what help define the world the story takes place in.

A lot can be written about frequent Kurosawa acting collaborators Takashi Shimura, Tatsuya Nakadai (who plays a pistol wielding maniacal gangster associated with Ushitora), and the many other supporting players, but the one who will always be mentioned in the same breath as the director’s name is Toshiro Mifune, who played in a whopping 16 films by Kurosawa. In Seven Samurai and Rashomon, his roles are those of loud, cantankerous balls of energy, whereas Yojimbo sees him play a different sort of rascal. His Sanjuro speaks very little, preferring to let his mind and sword do the talking. Having once proven his worth, people listen anxiously whenever he does open his mouth. For those who have seen Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, an extraordinary remake of Yojimbo, Mifune’s performance will have viewers recall Clint Eastwood’s work in the aforementioned western. Sanjuro is a man of action, not of words. He may not act immediately, preferring to size up the situation at hand, but when he sets his plan in motion, he is as ruthless as he looks. Despite his rough-looking exterior and the swiftness with which he cuts down his foes, the film does make sure to reveal that beneath his grim mug is a conscious, demonstrated in the sequence when he risks his life to reunite a kidnapped woman with her young son and meek husband despite that emotional men ‘disgust’ him.

One aspect of the film that must be highlighted is the beautifully fluid camerawork. Working with cinematographers Kazuo Miyagawa and Takao Saito, Kurosawa’s camera is cinematic candy. The wide lens allows for tremendously handsome, communicative shots of the town’s main street where the two rivaling gangs frequently have standoffs. Sanjuro will sometimes sit atop a watchtower located in the middle of said avenue and witness the comically inept posturing of both gangs, the frame brilliantly set so as to capture Sanjuro and the gangs in a single frame. Depth of field is extraordinary as well, with many scenes featuring a small party of characters conversing in the foreground while others, clearly visible, approach by foot from far away, like in the rain-drenched scene when Ushitora and the giant Kannuki (Namigoro Rashomon) can be seen through a tavern’s walls walking towards the establishment where Sanjuro and Goji are talking. Finally, there are the smooth camera pans that minimize edits. Very often, a shot will commence in a specific location to capture whatever information needs to be communicated, but rather than cut away to something else that grabs a character’s attention, the frame will simply glide to the left, right, up, or down. It is an example of calculated filmmaking of the highest order. There is nothing inherently wrong with relying on edits (the magic of movies is largely due to good editing, after all), but when a director can find another solution to the issue of adding information into a scene that avoids rapid cuts, a solution as attractive and effortless as the one employed in Yojimbo, it deserves praise.

Yojimbo is not an action-packed film, with most of the hacking and slashing occurring in brief spurts, but let that not discourage viewers from checking this most amusing of adventure films. Impeccably crafted, featuring a memorable anti-hero and a dastardly villain in Tatsuya Nakadai, Kurosawa’s first effort to feature the character of Sanjuro is nothing if a lot of fun.

Yojimbo (1961) BDRIP 4K Restoration 576p x264 AC3 KJNU.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 50 min
Size: 	3.83 GiB
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Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
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Bit rate: 	4 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.374
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Original Dual Mono Mix (Star Media Blu-ray))
#2:  	Japanese 3ch AC-3 @ 384 kb/s (3.0 mix Perspecta simulated-stereo effects)
#3:  	English 1.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Commentary by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince (Criterion Blu-ray))
#4:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Commentary by film critic Philip Kemp (BFI Blu-ray))

https://nitro.download/view/161E57DC7CE039C/Yojimbo_(1961)_BDRIP_4K_Restoration_576p_x264_AC3_KJNU.mkv

Language(s):Japanese, English
Subtitles:English

The post Akira Kurosawa – Yojimbo (1961) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Nikkatsu’s big prestige film of the year, however, was Kiriro Uryama’s Foundry Town – a drama about the troubled family life of a bright, spunky teenage girl in a rough factory town. Urayama’s first film, w/ a script by Shohei Imamura, Foundry Town was ranked 2nd in the Kinema Jumpo magazine’s annual critics poll. Sayuri Yoshinaga, who played the lead, became a major Nikkatsu star, appearing in a series of teen romances with Mitsuo Hamada.

Kyupora no aru machi.1962.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 39 min
Size: 	2.40 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x434 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
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https://nitro.download/view/E5C74114987592D/Kyupora_no_aru_machi.1962.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kiriô Urayama – Kyûpora no aru machi AKA Foundry Town (1962) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

PLOT:
The attempted suicide of his fiancée prompts a Japanese salary-man to read his family chronicles and look back at the life of his ancestors. They were samurai, the military nobility caste who carried out acts of violence at the behest of feudal lords, but suffered even more so under their cruelty, often forced into ritual suicide (seppuku). The women were under constant threat of kidnapping and rape, and the men subjected to arbitrary disfigurement and homosexual slavery … In a radical departure from the usual romanticisation of the samurai, director Tadashi Imai – using period sets and sometimes graphic images – made a film fundamentally critical of medieval Japan’s feudal system and the inhumane samurai code called bushido. In addition, the final two of the eight episodes in the film draw parallels between that and kamikaze pilots of World War II, as well as Japan’s modern achievement-oriented society. Bushido zankoku monogatari was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1963 Berlin International Film Festival.

Cruel.Tales.of.Bushido.1963.Tadashi.Imai.576p.BluRay.x264.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 2 min
Size: 	2.54 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x428 
Aspect ratio:  	2.40:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 806 kb/s
BPP: 	0.267
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 1.0ch AC-3 @ 160 kb/s (Mono)

https://nitro.download/view/A4297BB7A7CF839/Cruel.Tales.of.Bushido.1963.Tadashi.Imai.576p.BluRay.x264.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English, French

The post Tadashi Imai – Bushidô zankoku monogatari AKA Cruel Tales Of Bushido (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.

2.11GB | 1h 47m | 1440×1080 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/F4CED85F556E58B/The.Eleventh.Hour.1957.1080i.HDTV.AAC.H.264.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English,Japanese

The post Tomu Uchida – Dotanba AKA The Eleventh Hour (1957) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Eburi is a 36 year-old man. Nothing enthuses him any more. While being drunk, he promises to contribute a story to a magazine. When he sobers down, he decides to write about the life of a salaried employee like himself who is very ordinary, not particularly talented.
The following is his story:
In 1949, Eburi gets married to Natsuko. His monthly salary is 8,000 yen and hers 4,000 yen. Therefore, both have to work to support themselves. Eburi has developed a habituIl tendency to pester around when he gets drunk. One year after their marriage, son Shosuke is born. In 1959, Eburi’s mother dies in despair of her husband who has become listless due to the several ups and downs of gaining big profits and going bankrupt. His father is still alive and Eburi is enable to find a way to pay his father’s debts. He is doubtful if he can make his wife and child happy. Nevertheless, he has somehow managed to survive so far, living in one of the houses at the employee housing quarters. He gives the title “The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman” to his story of half novel and half essay style. When it is published, it receives the Naoki Literary Prize (the award given in memory of popular writer Naoki Sanjugo). At a party to celebrate his award, he gets drunk and pesters around.

Notes
The film is based on a novel written in the style of an essay under the same title by Yamaguchi Hitomi, depicting everyday life of a man categorized as “During-the-war Generation” who spent school days during the war and get married to start new life in the struggling post-war era. “Everyman” in the title means an average salaried employee who makes up an overwhelming majority of the city population in Japan, and “The Elegant Life” indicates sarcasm on betterment of the standard of living of ordinary salaried employees accompanied with Japan’s economic growth after only a decade from the destroyed post-war period. As depicted in the film, the author Yamaguchi Hitomi was awarded the Naoki Literature Prize for this story. When he established himself well enough to become independent, he quit working as a salaried employee. Director Okamoto Kihachi and the leading actor Kobayashi Keiju belong to the same generation as the author. Exploiting innovative effects such as inserting animation sequences, the film humorously presents compassion of a middle-aged salaried employee. Kobayashi Keiju, who was originally noted for his excellent portrayal of salaried employee, won the best leading actor award of the Mainichi Film Contest for his superb performance in this picture.

1.83GB | 1h 42m | 825×344 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/2389B33D6B4AE60/Eburi.manshi.no.yugana.seikatsu.AKA.The.Elegant.Life.of.Mr.Everyman.1963.DVDRip.x264.mkv
or
https://nitroflare.com/view/2FD270CB0FC7989/Eburi.manshi.no.yugana.seikatsu.1963.DVDRip.x264.part1.rar
https://nitroflare.com/view/ECCE5C090D78608/Eburi.manshi.no.yugana.seikatsu.1963.DVDRip.x264.part2.rar

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kihachi Okamoto – Eburi manshi no yûga-na seikatsu AKA The Elegant Life Of Mr. Everyman (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Everyday, 12 April 2006
Author: sharptongue from Sydney, Australia

The style is equivalent to the kitchen sink dramas which came to prominence in the 1950s. No kitchen sinks here, but plenty of the gritty (or, more accurately, muddy) details of everyday life on rice farms and fishing boats, where the only labour-saving device is a cow to pull a rotary hoe – and the cow is only on hire. Much screen time is devoted to planting and harvesting the rice, and catching fish and eels on the lake. Punishing work, liked by no-one.

The first half of the movie meanders among an array of characters, never staying with any one person or group for long. Added to the leisurely pace, it means you’ll need patience to get through to the second half, where the story settles mainly onto one family, who tend a small rice paddy and fish for eels. A lot more happens in the second half. A boating mishap has consequences for the main characters. However, it is still far from action-packed. Even during the dramatic moments, the pace is gentle, even when events are not.

The direction and cinematography are pretty good. Some of the scenery, in rural Ibaragi prefecture, is pleasing to the eye. The acting is uniformly excellent and convincing, though perhaps overly sincere. Overall, Rice appears to be a realistic portrait of poor rural life in Japan in the late 1950s. Reflecting real life, it’s a bit on the dull side.

	
Rice.1957.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 57 min
Size: 	1.97 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	714x478 ~> 714x535
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 000 kb/s
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Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 384 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/B740334F089F1E2/Rice.1957.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Tadashi Imai – Kome AKA Rice (1957) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Director Satsuo Yamamoto wields his sarcastic scalpel in this message movie that takes jabs at the practices of the medical profession. Zaizen Goro may only be an assistant professor but he has already made a name for himself. His superior, however, does not approve of his attitude towards their profession, and is at odds over who to nominate as his successor. The selection of the new professor reveals a rich and complex political world inside Naniwa University.

9.12GB | 2h 29mn | 1280×542 | mkv

http://nitroflare.com/view/2A9D1E88425E6CA/Shiroi.Kyoto.AKA.The.Great.White.Tower.1966.720p.Bluray.AAC.2.0.x264-SaL.mkv

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English, Japanese

The post Satsuo Yamamoto – Shiroi Kyotô AKA The Great White Tower (1966) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.