(from Japanese Film Festival)
Lion Standing in the Wind is based on a real story and chronicles the inspirational life of Dr Koichiro Shimada who sets off to Kenya to serve as a medical doctor. In a turn of events, he finds himself stationed in a hospital in Lokichogio in the heart of the Kenyan conflict. Witnessing death and the grim reality of child soldiers rocks him to the core and propels him on a path that he did not expect. He abandons his life in Japan and devotes himself to saving lives in Kenya.

Released in March this year, this candid drama is the latest instalment from the prolific director Takashi Miike, usually known for his ultra-violent and outrageous works (As the Gods Will, Ichi the Killer).

Based on the novel Kaze Ni Tatsu Lion (The Lion Standing in the Wind) by Masashi Sada. The novel itself is based on the song Kaze ni Tatsu Lion, also by Sada, which was inspired by love letters written by the real-life Dr Koichiro Shibata, who ran a mobile clinic in Kenya.

The catalyst for this adaptation was actor Osawa Takao, who was so moved by the song that he urged the songwriter to adapt the song into a novel, and then a film. Osawa went on to star as Dr Shibata in the film adaptation.

5.01GB | 2h 19m | 1280×536 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/24E2A688BCB2E0C/The.Lion.Standing.in.the.Wind.2015.720p.BluRay.x264-WiKi.mkv

Language:Japanese,English
Subtitles:Japanese (Hardsubs, for English parts)

The post Takashi Miike – Kaze ni tatsu raion AKA The Lion Standing in the Wind (2015) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

MARK SCHILLING wrote:
Junji Sakamoto’s “Zatoichi: The Last,” the latest revival, doesn’t feature Katsu, who died in 1997 after a wild, riotous life. Instead it stars the hyper SMAP singer Shingo Katori, who has mostly appeared on the big screen in comedies (“The Uchoten Hotel”) or kiddie actioners (“Saiyuki”).

Also, instead of portraying Ichi as an outcast and loner, the film gives him a wife, friends, a community — and strong feelings for all of them.

None of this sounded promising going in, but “Zatoichi” is a better film than expected. Fans can rightly complain, however, that it lacks much of the rude swagger of the original series as well as its feats of legerdemain, such as Ichi slicing and dicing various airborne objects.

Sakamoto has compensated with the sort of spare, striking stylistics and strong, elemental emotions found in Yoji Yamada’s acclaimed samurai trilogy, particularly the 2006 “Bushi no Ichibun” (“Love and Honor”), whose swordsman hero, played by SMAPster Takuya Kimura, was also sightless. At the same time, the film is loaded with action sequences that try to be more hard-breathing, blood-soaked substance than choreographed, CG-assisted style — though the whole idea of one blind swordsman, however accomplished, taking on hordes of sighted opponents is frankly fantastic.

The story begins with Ichi pledging to his wife Tane (Satomi Ishihara) that an upcoming fight will be his last. At its end, with Ichi bloody but triumphant, a cowardly late-comer rushes in to stab him, but Tane unwittingly steps in between Ichi and the blade. The late-comer flees, Tane dies — and Ichi is left seething with grief and anger.

Instead of hunting down the killer, Ichi returns to his native village, where he finds a home with his friend Ryuji (Takashi Sorimachi), a humble farmer, and his family. There he leads a quiet life while becoming close to Ryuji’s young son Goro (Seishiro Kato) and big-hearted mother (Chieko Baisho), who cares for him as if he were her own flesh and blood.

But the local big man, Tendo (Tatsuya Nakadai), is despotic and ruthless. Together with corrupt local officials, he and his minions run roughshod over the villagers, using any means necessary to enforce obedience and compliance — from threats to murder. Zatoichi is finally stirred reluctantly to action, but Tendo proves to be a wily and dangerous opponent.

Shingo confessed that he had never seen Katsu’s Zatoichi films prior to taking the role — which may be heresy to the series’ fans, but at least enabled him to bring a fresh perspective to the character instead being overly influenced by Katsu’s charisma.

He plays Zatoichi with a headlong, physically risky commitment. Watching him slip and slide on the snow with his eyes closed as he battles dozens of opponents, I imagined the bumps and bruises he must have accumulated in the retakes. Emotionally, he is all there as well, minus the goofy smirks of his usual on-air persona, though his performance is on the sweaty and over-wrought side, as though he were channeling Toshiro Mifune instead of Katsu.

Meanwhile, Nakadai elevates the film beyond the genre standard with his over-sized, hollow-eyed presence. His Tendo is not only intelligent and amoral in the usual villainous mode, but also scarily remote, unknowable and capricious — more like a demon god than a man.

1.54GB | 2:12:03 | 672 x 288 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/25AA40242E51C5B/Zatoichi.The.Last.2010.DVDRip.XviD-MNAUCE.avi
http://nitroflare.com/view/C349C1ECC51B579/Zatoichi.The.Last.2010.DVDRip.XviD-MNAUCE.srt

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Junji Sakamoto – Zatôichi: The Last (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
It’s a peaceful day in Japan when a strange fountain of water erupts in the bay, causing panic to spread among government officials. At first, they suspect only volcanic activity, but one young executive dares to wonder if it may be something different; something alive. His worst nightmare comes to life when a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and begins tearing through the city, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

As the government scrambles to save the citizens, a rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster’s weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side – the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes.

Review:

It’s been 12 years since the last Japanese-produced Godzilla movie (though Gareth Edwards’ 2014 American effort in no way disgraced the franchise), and reportedly Toho Studios wanted to shake things up for their 29th effort. In hiring Hideaki Anno (creator of anime Neon Genesis Evangelion), who writes and co-directs Shin Godzilla with Shinji Higuchi (the live action Attack On Titan films) they definitely achieved that, though probably not in the way many expected. With the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and associated Fukushima nuclear disaster providing prime metaphorical material for Godzilla – originally created as a metaphor for the atomic bomb – this takes the giant monster genre in directions that may take a little getting used to.

To wit: when what seems to be a steam explosion floods a motorway tunnel running under Tokyo Bay, much of the next 30 minutes takes place in various meeting rooms as elements of the Japanese government hold meeting after meeting as they try to formulate a response (any similarity to the Japanese response in 2011 is no doubt purely intentional). Every government member has their full name and title come up on the screen even if we never see them again; one meeting has a cut to black in the middle of some underling’s speech as “following abbreviated” flashes up. Yet it’s never boring, as while all these people are trying to figure out whose responsibility the as yet-minor disaster is, slowly footage is coming in that confirms the out-of-nowhere suspicion from Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa) that what’s causing all the commotion is some kind of giant creature.

Anno takes his time revealing his monster, instead having it wade up ever narrower rivers, a solid wall of crushed boats and debris pushed ahead and spilling out onto surrounding streets. When it finally does make land, it doesn’t look much like a Godzilla we (but not the characters in the film – Shin Godzilla takes place in a world where Godzilla has never appeared before) would recognise. It turns out this version is capable of directing its own evolution, and the initially almost rat-like, bug-eyed, blood gushing creature is not its final form.

Yes, long stretches of this film are about government ministers trying to figure out whether they even have the authority to call in the military on what they initially see as a pest control problem. But in this context all the rule-following and political jockeying – Yaguchi eventually leads an ad-hoc committee of governmental misfits (nerds and biologists mostly) who come up with the only possible solution to the ever-widening destruction that doesn’t involve the US dropping a nuke on Tokyo – shows humanity as something that can only match Godzilla when acting as a group. Individuals simply don’t matter, and pretty much the entire cast are barely sketched in; when you’re up against what’s basically a god, you hang together or you hang separately.

Those used to more US-levels of movie carnage may be slightly disappointed that this doesn’t wrap up with insane levels of climactic destruction, especially after a middle sequence featuring Godzilla displaying both his ability to survive massive levels of military ordinance and his power to deal out devastation on a jaw-dropping scale. On the other hand, there are train bombs (like car bombs, only trains), and while the special effects aren’t amazing, they’re always up to the task of getting across the fact that when you get in Godzilla’s way you are going down.

The political commentary and allegory in Shin Godzilla is in no way subtle – there are actual photos of Hiroshima used at one stage – and the anti-US rhetoric is slightly hamstrung by casting the not even slightly American-seeming Satomi Ishihara as US Special Liaison Kayoko Ann Patterson. But as a giant monster movie this is gripping viewing from start to finish. Its vision of Godzilla as a remote, incomprehensible creature that barely even notices humanity, its blood-red atom heart pulsing through black rolling clouds of destruction as Japan burns, is not easily shrugged off.

http://nitroflare.com/view/9501865413C019D/Hideaki_Anno_%26_Shinji_Higuchi_-_%282016%29_Shin_Godzilla.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

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