Quote:
Commencing well-respected Nippon director Kazuo Kuroki’s sixth decade behind the camera, “A Boy’s Summer in 1945” (literally “A Beautiful Summer in Kirishima”) is a lyric, novelistic drama set in the countryside in the last days before Japan’s surrender ending WWII. Striking a welcome retro note in its languid pacing and delicate handling of seriocomic ensemble threads, handsome production is a natural for fests. It might also prove a cornerstone for retrospectives or ancillary releases of works by a helmer (“Preparation of the Festival,” “Ronin-gai”) who’s long been appreciated at home but has won just limited attention abroad.

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Japan in the painful aftermath of World War II. The film centres on 15-year-old Yasuo and the adults around him as they go through their usual routines during this unusual time. Yasuo feels guilty for surviving when so many of his classmates were killed. He witnessed the death of his best friend during the bombing and the memory of it tortures him. The others, too, have their own crosses to bear. Meanwhile, a poor widow and a wounded soldier meet surreptitiously, a beautiful wife bids farewell to her first lover, and a maidservant marries a veteran who has returned home without his leg. So many lives, so many loves… Yasuo is gradually losing control of himself…

1.74GB | 1h 58m | 860×366 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/8ABC08BC32E61C6/A_Boy’s_Summer_in_1945.mkv

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:None

The post Kazuo Kuroki – Utsukushii natsu kirishima AKA A Boy’s Summer in 1945 (2002) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Summer vacation is nearly over and Korean undergraduate SanjunIm (Japanese name: Hayashi) is returning to his school in Tokyo from his home in Hokkaido. On the way he stops in Morimachi, in Hakodate, to visit Sunchun Jong (Japanese name: Akio Matsumoto), his father’s best friend. It has been 10 years since Sanjun has seen Matsumoto, in Sakhalin. He is married to a Japanese named Toshi and has a stepdaughter named Kayako. Kayako is now a junior high school student. Sanjun was born in Japan, the son of Korean immigrants. After Japan lost the war, Sanjun, with his father and brothers, remained in Japan. As a nisei (second generation), Sanjun lacks the sense of his Korean roots that the first generation of Koreans who came to Japan possess. In Tokyo, Sanjun lodges in a tiny room and has to work as a part-time laborer to support himself. He talks with other Koreans and visits friends living in a Korean area. He gradually becomes aware of his heritage. One day he finds himself thinking about Kayako in Hokkaido. In May of the next year Sanjun visits Morimachi again and goes boating on a lake with Kayako. On the boat Kayako tells him the secret of her life. According to her story, her actual name is Miwako and she was abandoned as a child in the confusion following the war. Left by Japanese parents, she was rescued by a Korean and was named Kayako after the musical instrument kayagumu, a Korean harp. Sanjun and Kayako start exchanging letters. Meanwhile Toshi, Kayako’s stepmother, has increasingly come to regret marrying a Korean. In the difficult home atmosphere created by her quarreling stepfather and stepmother, Kayako begins to feel confused and unwanted; she finally decides to leave home. In the fall of that year, Kayako suddenly disappears. Sanjun arrives from Tokyo to look for Kayako. He finally locates her in a small town in Eastern Hokkaido. The two begin living together in Tokyo. They are happy but their destinies are not yet resolved. Early one morning Kayako’s stepfather and stepmother come to their lodgings. They lament that they have been robbed of Kayako, whom they so cherished. Sanjun has no words to comfort them. Late that night, Sanjun and Kayako lie down on the street trying to hear the sound of the water running underground. There are tears in Kayako’s eyes. Ten years have passed. Sanjun goes back to Morimachi because he has heard that Matsumoto has died. But when he arrives he finds out that the person who died was not Matsumoto but Toshi. Sanjun sadly tells his father’s friend, “Kayako left me 10 years ago. I have looked for her ever since.” Matsumoto then tells him that Kayako lives not far from his house and that she visits him every day. Leaving his house, Sanjun finds a girl playing in the snow. She is three years old; her name is Miwako.

1.64GB | 1h 57m | 716×537 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/9533D89D80A07EB/Kayako_no_tameni_(For_Kayako)_(1985)_–_Kohei_Oguri.mkv
https://nitroflare.com/view/8E9EE99C92E1F0F/For_Kayako_-_02.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kôhei Oguri – Kayako no tameni AKA For Kayako (1985) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

“What secrets lie deep in the buried forest? Veteran filmmaker Oguri Kohei, the director of such films as The Sting of Death and Sleeping Man, helms The Buried Forest (a.k.a. Umoregi), one of a select group of Japanese films entered in competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. With a cinematic look seemingly pulled straight from yesteryear, the film kicks off by focusing on a high school girl named Machi (Karen). To break up the monotony of summer, Machi decides that she and her friends should have some fun and start telling each other stories. Machi begins the game by telling a story about a camel coming to town and, soon after, the other two girls join in, each weaving their own intriguing tales. In the meantime, the town rebel San-chan (Asano Tadanobu, from Last Life in the Universe and Ichi the Killer) spends his time cruising around town in his red sports car and hanging out with his biker punk pals. Even so, the wildest thing they’ve ever done is hold up the town’s sole convenience store. Then there’s the package from Brazil that holds an enormous egg that supposedly came from a beast that’s been extinct for years. And what of the old woman (Sakamoto Sumiko) who’s being sent to a nursing home while hoping for a cure for her ailments? Even stranger, thanks to a torrential rainfall, the villagers discover an underground cavern containing fossilized trees buried in a volcanic eruption. How will all these seemingly unrelated narrative strands be tied together? Find out in The Buried Forest, Oguri Kohei’s beautiful, masterfully crafted motion picture!”

1.74GB | 01h 32m | 1200×720 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/FD980D666803C1E/Umoregi.2005.720p.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

or
https://nitroflare.com/view/6EB11AF5B6095F9/Umoregi.2005.720p.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-SbR.part1.rar
https://nitroflare.com/view/B78CB88037F31A4/Umoregi.2005.720p.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-SbR.part2.rar

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kôhei Oguri – Umoregi AKA The Buried Forest (2005) first appeared on Cinema of the World.