Quote:
According to the code of the gamblers, Tokijiro, though he dislikes killing, has to join in the fighting when afforded a night’s stay and meals at the home of a town boss. He will be tested again and again in the bloody tale.

One.Man.Of.The.Gambler's.Code.1966.BDRIP.576P.X264.AC3.AFKI.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 30 min
Size: 	2.12 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 125 kb/s
BPP: 	0.292
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/7862C635F16E216/One.Man.Of.The.Gambler’s.Code.1966.BDRIP.576P.X264.AC3.AFKI.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Tai Katô – Kutsukake Tokijiro – yukyo ippiki aka One Man of the Gambler’s Code (1966) 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:
For those unfamiliar with its deep meaning, the Japanese tea ceremony appears to be a long, incredibly boring, basically uneventful ritual process. In contrast, for many of its practitioners it offers the key to understanding how to live life in a meaningful manner, and is in itself a refreshment for the spirit. The tea master Rikyu was a key figure in the evolution of the ceremony, and his teaching lineage continues to the present day. In 1591, as a result of a difference of opinion with the ruling warlord of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi (Shinsuke Ashida), tea ceremony grand master Rikyu (Toshiro Mifune) was forced to commit suicide. This story is told in a series of flashbacks, as Honkakubo, Rikyu’s closest disciple, contemplates the death of his master and his associates, and seeks to clarify his understanding of those events. In this film these suicides are interpreted as a clash between spirituality and materialism. In Rikyu, the other 1989 film about the tea master, his political differences with the general are brought forward. – Clarke Fountain, Rovi, New York Times

Quote:
Years after the death of legendary tea master Rikyu, his disciple Honkakubo attempts to resolve the mystery of the master’s death. Years before: Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin’s father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord’s plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse. – Summary by Jim Beaver, IMDB

1.66GB | 1h 47m | 680×480 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/D6960E3D56B5F9D/Death.of.a.Tea.Master.1989.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language:Japanese

Subtitles:English

The post Kei Kumai – Sen no Rikyu AKA Death of a Tea Master (1989) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
During an era of civil wars, in the 7th year of Tenso, Yoshimoto Imagawa was overthrown by Oda Nobunaga with the help of Ieyasu Tokugawa. Ieyasu’s wife, Lady Tsukiyama, was of the ruined Imagawa clan. She was basically abandoned by Ieyasu lest his fealty with Oda Nobunaga be doubted. Ieyasu’s son, half Tokugawa & half Imagawa, was married to Oda’s first daughter Tokumine Gozen, to further assure Oda that there would be no attempt at revenge over the downfall of the Imagawa clan.

1.60GB | 1h 50mn | 864×360 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/7F4853F9CAFCF36/The_Conspirator_(1961)_–_Daisuke_Ito.mkv
https://nitroflare.com/view/80966220024398F/The_Conspirator_%281961%29_–_Daisuke_Ito.srt

https://ddownload.com/o7hnb9d49c9s/The_Conspirator_(1961)_–_Daisuke_Ito.mkv
https://ddownload.com/s00tsexpk0p6/The_Conspirator_(1961)_–_Daisuke_Ito.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English (srt)

The post Daisuke Itô – Hangyakuji AKA The Conspirator (1961) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:

This tragic drama shows a young man fettered by Bushido, the way of the Samurai, who tried to escape the chains of his position, but was being forced to die. When the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the land, Tatsuno castle in Wakisaka Clan’s home of Harima held an established custom, the inspection of the arms warehouse. The Government Inspector Okuno Magodayu found a slight bit of dirt on the point of a spear and mentioned it with disdain. Ezaki Shinpachi heard it and started an argument with him. Magodayu then sent a a letter of challenge to him because he felt insulted by a low-ranking underling without a title. As it turned out Magodayu was killed. Since then, Shinpachi and the Okuno family have had continuous revenge duels. The tension mounts as this story builds to an extremely violent climax, when blood must pay for blood if the clan is to survive! Co-starring screen legend, Tanba Tetsuro. This is a true Toei classic, no comedy elements, 100% “dead” serious! Superstar Nakamura Kinnosuke and master filmmaker Imai Tadashi created a samurai classic for the ages with this movie.

1.37GB | 1h 43mn | 720×306 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/13F348601CD6020/Revenge.1964.DVDRip.AC3.x264-LooKMaNe.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Tadashi Imai – Adauchi AKA Revenge (1964) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Kinnosuke Nakamura plays seven roles in consecutive generations of Iikukuras: (Jirozaemon, Sajiemon, Kyutaro, Shuzo, Shingo, Osamu, Susumu), from medieval warrior Jirozaemon to modern day salary-man Susumu.

He is essentially playing his own descendants, each generation bound by a glorious ancestor’s oath of vassalage for himself & his family to a castle lord.

In our modern age when for the sake of feeling safe from terrorists American politicians are legislating away our civil rights while waging wars for oil profits, there is all too much in Bushido Samurai Saga that is as applicable to our present condition as it was to post-war Japan. Imai has in fact constructed a multi-level fable invested with an alarming degree of universality.

1.37GB | 2h 2mn | 720×336 | avi

http://nitroflare.com/view/138B6EE6927E9EB/Tadashi_Imai_-_1963_-_Cruel_Story_of_Bushido.part1.rar
http://nitroflare.com/view/DCC081814753EAE/Tadashi_Imai_-_1963_-_Cruel_Story_of_Bushido.part2.rar

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

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

Synopsis:
The protagonist Chujiro, who possesses many attractive qualities, is a victim of unkind circumstances: his mother abandoned him as a child, so he had no choice but to live outside society. Even so, he grows up determined to reunite with her. Worried that she might be living in misery, he saves his money to help, only to find that she has married into wealth and social position and has no intention of seeing her outcast Yakuza son…

Review:

With good script for a classic tale, & well acted, In Search of Mother (Mabuto no haha, 1962) is quite a good film from a fine director, Tai Kato, plus a soundtrack that is often amazing, especially for poetic passages.

In Search of MotherIn Search of MotherIt’s occasionally been shown under alternate titles including Searching for Mother, Long-sought Mother, Mother of My Memory, The Image of My Mother & Love for a Mother. It combines jidai-geki (period action film) with haha-mono (mother tales).

It’s a remake of a silent film classic Memories of Mother (Banba-no-Chutaro: Mabuta no haha, 1931) starring Chiezo Kataoka.

The play premiered early in 1931, on the kabuki stage, & was a film by year’s end. It was based on the actual life of playwright Shin Hasegawa (1884-1963). The play is still frequently launched, & the story has even found its way into manga comics & a video game.

The film begins with an action scene which simultaneously establishes two friends’ characters, Chutaro (Kinnosuke Nakamura) the orphaned wanderer or toseinin, & Hanji (Hiroki Matsukata) a young naive gangster or yakuza.

After an attempted revenge for Hanji’s oyabun (gamblers’ godfather), the two men hit the road in separate directions, pursued by by angry yakuza.

In Search of MotherHanji returns to his home village, but has inadvertently led some very bad guys to the home of his mother & his sister Onui (Hitomi Nakahara). His desire to leave the yakuza world & do right for his mother seems likely to be foiled, given the repurcusions of his former actions.

Orphaned Banba-no-Chutaro in time turns up in the same village, full of eagerness to fight Hanji’s battle so Hanji can enjoy, please, & appreciate the family which Chutaro does not possess & so cannot displease.

Soulful Chutaro is despised by Hanji’s mother, as she assumes he’s been the bad influence on her son. “If Hanji had decent friends, he wouldn’t be in this trouble.” But Hanji’s sister realizes what a true friend Chutaro has been to her brother, & before you know it, Onui’s in love.

In Search of MotherWith plenty of yakuza mayhem & swordplay, interspersed with the sad tales of Hanji disappointing his mother & Chutaro seeking the mother from whom he was separated at age five, it balances nicely for action-packed & touching drama.

Chujiro’s life as a toseinin drifting from place to place has permitted him to search always for his mom. This could easily have been a children’s story, but is too well played to lose adult interest.

He strives to be a filial young man to a mother he barely recalls, & this desire makes him susceptible to the needs of any woman around his mother’s age. This defines his heroic actions as well as his tears.

Chutaro meets an old blind woman who plays shamisen on the roadside. She once had a child, when she was a young woman, but gave him away & lives in regret. Her story heightens the young man’s inate chivalry.

In Search of MotherHe arrives in Edo with the Ioka gang still after his life. But big city yakuza at least have no interest in helping bumpkin gangsters. He hooks up with a gambling ronin, Komata Yasuke (Isao Yamagata), who has had a lucky evening gambling.

Through Komata’s flunky friend Kingoro (Kensaku Hara), the ronin is able to offer his services as yojimbo (bodyguard) to the Ioka gang.

Time passes & Chutaro has become somewhat settled as a town knight & gambler. One day he intervenes in behalf of Otora (Sadako Sawamura), a diseased-looking old beggar prostitute.

She horrifies Kingoro, who beat her up until Chutaro stopped him, always eager to assist down-&-out women his mother’s age. But it means Kingoro’s already budding dislike for the chivalrous youth increases in his heart.

Otora’s story seems much too grim for a youth-oriented film, but director Tai Kato treats even youth tales with a certain maturity.

In Search of MotherOhama (Michiyo Kogure) in contrast is a luckier woman, who runs an inn. But Otora reveals that Ohama is a cruel person who abandoned her son, & Chutaro’s interest in Ohama as possibly his own mother increases.

Ohama is trying to marry off a daughter for purposes of scaling the social ladder. Escaping one’s social status for one better is not an easy thing in a rigid class system, & she must herseolf appear to be of good reputation if she’s to have a marketable daughter.

She thus coldly turns her back on friends of her humble beginnings, & is not at all willing to confess she abandoned a son.

Her cruelty breaks Chutaro’s heart, & she’s almost melted by it, but will not bend. She has no desire to acknowledge a yakuza son. He leaves her, saying, “Madame, I will not come here again.”

Chutaro JizoHe departs with his lifelong quest no missing from his heart, without even his faint memories & idealized inventions of his life as a five year old with a mother he loved. He presently regrets only that he could not meet his sister before going away forever.

Too late Ohara regrets sending him away, chastised by her own daughter who would love to know her brother. Realizing her terrible error, she & her daughter set off to stop Chutaro.

On the road outside of Edo, Chutaro meets the ronin scum Kingoro, an abject loser who has joined the bumpkin yakuza who are after Chutaro’s life.

He asks these rural gangsters if they have mothers. When they say they do not, he kills them more easily. Lastly he faces the better-trained ronin, then having proven his own savage nature, feels he must evade his own mother & sister who are trying to find him in the night, calling out for his return.

His shame as a gambler, of having killed men, won’t let him come forth from hiding. The tragedy of this beautiful little film may well be maudlin melodrama, but it’s so effective, & Kinnosuke as Chutaro with tears in his eyes truly evokes depths of sorrow.

This tale has long impressed itself upon the Japanese imagination, & there is even a “Chutaro Jizo” god erected by Shin Hasegawa in 1958 at Renge-ji (Red Lotus Temple) in Kyoto, to which people still make pilgrimages in order to pray for reuinions with a lost parent or other loved one.

— Paghat (Weird Wild Realm.com)

http://nitroflare.com/view/EE8C87AD1AA22A0/Mabuta_no_haha_%28The_Mother_He_Never_Knew%29_%281962%29_–_Tai_Kato.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English, Russian (muxed)

The post Tai Katô – Mabuta no haha AKA The Mother He Never Knew (1962) first appeared on Cinema of the World.