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Post by manfromplanetx on Jul 20, 2018 1:28:56 GMT
Nagisa Oshima had a unique and original cinematic vision, drawing his inspiration almost entirely from within the modern setting. Towards the late 60s he produced three extraordinary films produced by the independent production company The Art Theatre Guild. Kou Shikei , Death by Hanging , Shonen , Boy and Tokyo Senso Sengo Hiwa , The Man Who Left His Will on Film.
Shonen , Boy (1969) Inspired by a notorious news headline from 1966, Boy tells the story of an itinerant, struggling Japanese couple who subsist by carefully executing traffic accidents, which enable them to extort money from alarmed & anxious drivers. Realizing the profitable benefits of using their young son, they train him up to fake injury also by jumping in front of moving cars. An absorbing tale of modern Japanese desperation, Oshima paints an intricate canvas , masterly composed with superb cinematography, a pensive screenplay, amazing location shooting, and outstanding characterizations. The film has a remarkable multi layered dimension, it is a brilliant reflective social and psychological insight of the times, of the family unit. Carrying the emotional burden of the film with an astonishing performance is 10 year old Tetsuo Abe . Absolutely perfectly cast. Oshima's crew went to great lengths to find the right boy. At first they began interviewing young actors but soon took their search to the streets, and into children’s homes where Abe was eventually found. Due to his own personal experience & situation, he himself was an orphan who had been abandoned by his stepmother, young Abe was able to express like no other, a worldly, street wise wisdom way beyond his years. A wonderful aspect is joining along with families road trip which travels the length of Japan, highlighted for me, with a stunning wintery visit to the Northern tip of Hokkaido , looking out over the Sea of Okhotsk. The transient lifestyle of the family was endured by the film crew, they travel and live the family’s vagabond life, filming in the most unlikely of situations and in all manner of environmental extremes. Highly Recommended !!
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Post by teleadm on Jul 20, 2018 15:31:45 GMT
Though I have nothing to contribute, I follow this thread with great interest! So I would like to thank all contributers and OP!
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Post by manfromplanetx on Jul 21, 2018 1:30:44 GMT
Director Nobuo Nakagawa (1905-1984) joined Makino Film Productions in 1929 as an assistant director and worked under Masahiro Makino. making his own debut as director in 1934. Throughout the 50s and into the 60s, Nobuo Nakagawa earned the reputation as the most accomplished director of the horror genre. Nakagawa's early kaidan (ghost story) films are superbly creative, the atmospheric set bound films have a dark & unsettling ambience, The Ghost of Kasane Swamp (1957), Black Cat Mansion (1958), and the highly regarded, The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959), all are drawn from traditional folklore and legends; karmic morality fables which draw upon Buddhist beliefs & principals, of retribution and the afterlife, and that our earthly sins are to be atoned for after death... However the skilled director also worked in other film genres, crafting some excellent noirish crime tales, and period dramas, his films are highly stylized, exceptionally entertaining classic Japanese Cinema. Yôen dokufu-den: Hitokiri Okatsu , Quick-draw Okatsu (1969) Do not to be fooled by the English title, this is no light-hearted adventure, it is a stunning action packed drama, of bloody revenge. Avenging swordswoman Okatsu (Junko Miyazono) learnt her skills from a young age, she is the adopted daughter of a sword play master. Okatsu's world is governed by corrupt and cruel officials who rule over the land. After witnessing a brutally staged & torturous murder, violated Okatsu enraged embarks on an unwavering, savage & bloody path of revenge. Accompanied with marvellous music, breathtaking scenery and gripping action, highlighted with some terrific characterizations, a guest appearance from Tomisaburô Wakayama, who plays a gruff but sensitive bounty hunter and Reiko Oshida as Rui a beautiful lone wanderer? who steps in to help out on occasions, with her fearsome sword fighting skills. Highly Recommend !!
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Post by petrolino on Jul 28, 2018 1:14:12 GMT
Saw a new movie worth recommending to Japanese cinema fans and edited my own modern cinema list posted here accordingly.
'Love And Other Cults' (2017) is my third picture from director Eiji Uchida who's been working a lot with film companies here in the U K. I really liked 'Lowlife Love' (2015), wasn't so keen on 'Greatful Dead' (2013). 'Love And Other Cults' is a subversive street drama that explores some of the same themes as 'Lowlife Love'.
For anybody interested, all 3 of these movies are distributed in the U K by Third Window Films, one of the leading labels for Asian cinema.
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 28, 2018 3:49:51 GMT
Saw a new movie worth recommending to Japanese cinema fans and edited my own modern cinema list posted here accordingly.
'Love And Other Cults' (2017) is my third picture from director Eiji Uchida who's been working a lot with film companies here in the U K. I really liked 'Lowlife Love' (2015), wasn't so keen on 'Greatful Dead' (2013). 'Love And Other Cults' is a subversive street drama that explores some of the same themes as 'Lowlife Love'.
For anybody interested, all 3 of these movies are distributed in the U K by Third Window Films, one of the leading labels for Asian cinema.
Thanks for adding to the list, Petrolino. I am a bit sad that I have not explored so many movies from Japan and yet happy that I have so many movies to see in the future.
I used to think that you are from Cleveland, USA and Not UK. But you seem to possess a lot of knowledge about both the countries so it's great when share your views.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 28, 2018 9:37:34 GMT
Saw a new movie worth recommending to Japanese cinema fans and edited my own modern cinema list posted here accordingly.
'Love And Other Cults' (2017) is my third picture from director Eiji Uchida who's been working a lot with film companies here in the U K. I really liked 'Lowlife Love' (2015), wasn't so keen on 'Greatful Dead' (2013). 'Love And Other Cults' is a subversive street drama that explores some of the same themes as 'Lowlife Love'.
For anybody interested, all 3 of these movies are distributed in the U K by Third Window Films, one of the leading labels for Asian cinema.
Thanks for adding to the list, Petrolino. I am a bit sad that I have not explored so many movies from Japan and yet happy that I have so many movies to see in the future.
I used to think that you are from Cleveland, USA and Not UK. But you seem to possess a lot of knowledge about both the countries so it's great when share your views.
HI Aj_june. That's awesome to hear because my heart belongs to Cleveland. Reason being I'm a Browns - Cavaliers - Indians sports fan.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Aug 5, 2018 21:43:41 GMT
The Ninja/Shinobi was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan... Shinobi no mono (1962) and Zoku shinobi no mono (1963) are two outstanding historically based political dramas, action packed Ninja films, the setting the tumultuous period of the late 1500s. Directed with incredible style by Satsuo Yamamoto , he was aided with genuine ninjutsu masters on set who served as advisors bringing authenticity to the electrifying shadow skills... The brutal Lord Oda Nobunaga is played by Tomisaburô Wakayama and folk hero Ishikawa Goemon is played by Raizô Ichikawa both brilliant performances . The actual historical background is a fascinating study well beyond the scope of this brief review. Dark and often brutal the films are exceptional entertainment Highly Recommended !! Interesting to note that, the assassination attempt , poison dripped down a string from a scene in Shinobi no mono was copied in the 67 Bond film You Only Live Twice. and Lord Oda Nobunaga carries with him and pets a cat much like the character Blofeld…
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Post by Aj_June on Aug 6, 2018 2:21:59 GMT
Just like to share my experience (it's not directly related to the topic). In 2017 I had a Japanese person come to live in my flat. I thanked my Chinese landlady that she chose a Japanese tenant for a change (She usually used to pick Indian, Thai and Chinese tenants). He was a very nice and soft-spoken guy. But what I found out is that not all of us appreciate the things that are very close to us. This guy was a beautiful and helpful human being but he did not have a great deal of respect for Japanese cinema. He hadn't heard the names of OZU and Mizoguchi (in spite of living first 24 years of his life in Japan). He wasn't aware of many famous myths and folktales from Japan. He had not seen Ballad of Narayama.
He was a totally westernised guy even if he had lived all his life in Japan. He was a massive fan of Liverpool football club. He liked movies such as "Fast and Furious" (Whatever that is) and was oblivious to the beauty of Japanese cinema. So then I thought oh it is OK. Everyone has his or her own priorities. May be this guy thinks Japanese cinema is not that great compared to western cinema (and specifically Hollywood). May be he finds lot more thrills in supporting Liverpool F.C. than in reading his motherlands history.
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Aug 10, 2018 21:21:43 GMT
Thank you for starting this excellent thread AJ. I today caught an underground Japanese Pinku: Pinku weirdness- Neigh Means Yes (1991)7. Made on how low can you go film stock, (they even keep the countdown clippings between reels) the cheapness actually adds to director Hisayasu Satô’s Pinku,via the graininess heightening the surrealist Horror nightmare atmosphere,panning across a beach with mannequin dolls laying around over the Industrial hum from composer “Wave.” Taking inspiration from the Punk film No Wave movement,Satô makes only the outline to the cast be visible, which gives the sex scenes a disembodied appearance. Thankfully showing some restrain on the sleaze, (no intercourse between humans and horses!) the screenplay by Shirô Yumeno wonderfully piles on the weirdness between the arty and the bonkers,becoming very vivid in an extended discussion over loneliness, telepathy and horse poo, as they each try to find the meaning of neigh.
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Aug 12, 2018 0:26:09 GMT
My 200th post! 7: Rasuto Furankenshutain (1991) 6 Hi all,finishing my Japanese Horrors of '91 double bill with this,I would say that if anyone is planning on watching some Uncle Jess in October,this would actually work well with The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1973)-another,more surrealist adaptation. For his lone departure from postmodern theatrical experimentation stage productions to film, writer/ director and star Takeshi Kawamura revisits his 1986 play Last Frankenstein. Taking the bare bones of Mary Shelley’s creature, Kawamura’s uses them to focus on Japanese sensibilities, with Kawamura exploring the ritual of suicide in Japan, (with the forest chillingly looking like Aokigahara) sex without love at the centre of the relationship, and the evolution of people and society. Examining themes explored in his stage work, Kawamura is sadly unable to blend the serious with shots at grisly Horror, as deep exchanges over a rise in suicide,are paused with morbid fetuses suicides. Taking advantage of the canvas offered by film, Kawamura & cinematographer Yôichi Shiga make their moments of gore stand out as ill-fitting, by making the rest of their creation stylishly surreal, via stilted shots of everyone frozen in time, and a dour bleak atmosphere covering the DR and his grotesque family bringing to life the last Frankenstein.
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Post by Aj_June on Aug 12, 2018 13:30:39 GMT
morrisondylanfanCongrats on your 2000th post! I think that Japanese takes on European stories are usually pretty nice even if they don't stick to the original. We have seen some good adaptations of European stories in Samurai Saga (1959) and Throne of Blood (1957). Of course, those were the movies of big directors. I do be interested in giving Rasuto Furankenshutain (1991) one try myself.
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Aug 20, 2018 0:34:15 GMT
Hi all,one of the things I enjoy most is looking at the credits of a famous director,and finding that it all started with a movie almost completely forgotten about. In 1991,I suspect that the main news in Japanese cinema of the year was Richard Gere following Pretty Woman by working with Akira Kurosawa on Rhapsody in August. Yet,in the underground "V-Boom" (straight to video) market,someone was taking their first directing steps. Red Hunter: Prelude to Kill (1991) 8 My first Miike film: His directing debut. With the only subtitles around being ones which feature some lines of dialogue not translated,Takashi Miike shows remarkable skill for a first time director by visually expressing what could have been lost in translation, as Miike & cinematographer Shigeru Komatsubara use neon lights and thick smoke (backed by Tomio Terada dark synch score) to give the baddies a rogue edge,and helicopter sounds to link conversations Saeko has with her partner,with their time serving on the front line.Sending the squad in to fight Saeko within minutes of the flick kicking off, the screenplay by Shinjirô Ishihama and Tatsuo Eguchi hits a slick battle of wits,with the opening 30 minutes being an explosive home invasion, and the escape from the house setting off a race against time Thriller for Saeko to keep Ricki safe. Going into (English speaking) flashbacks, the writers do very well at digging into the background of where Saeko gained her skills, which gives the twist ending a real thump. Sadly only doing one film after this, (1996’s Gakko ga abunai! ) Yoshie Kashiwabara is very good as Saeko,with Kashiwabara pulling off the cool leather clad action chick,and the compassionate care towards Ricki. Working on cheap & cheerful straight to video/”V-Boom” era, Miike displays an attention-grabbing level of ambition,with the action scenes brimming with scatter-gun panning shots over the line of bullets. Hinting at what was to come, Miike wonderfully sketches out future visual motifs with blood splatter on the camera in moments of extreme violence and cut backs to a peculiar, almost S&M scene in a hospital bed,showing in this prelude the future of Miike. The full film with Eng Subs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjWeIL2rIfI&t=947s
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Aug 20, 2018 4:25:18 GMT
Red Hunter: Prelude to Kill (1991) 8 My first Miike film: His directing debut. Cool. Miike has a very daunting filmography. I recently saw Blade of the Immortal which proudly claimed to be his 100th film. I've only seen a couple of others. His no-holds-barred approach doesn't always work for me so I doubt I'll get around to everything he's done, but I am planning on watching a few more over the coming months.
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Aug 20, 2018 13:46:10 GMT
Red Hunter: Prelude to Kill (1991) 8 My first Miike film: His directing debut. Cool. Miike has a very daunting filmography. I recently saw Blade of the Immortal which proudly claimed to be his 100th film. I've only seen a couple of others. His no-holds-barred approach doesn't always work for me so I doubt I'll get around to everything he's done, but I am planning on watching a few more over the coming months. Thanks Fox,and on Blade being his 100th film, I've been wondering if there has been a little cheating with the marketing,since IMDb list his TV credits that take Miike to 103 (which is an amazing achievement,he must be just behind Jess Franco for most prolific "genre" filmmaker.) www.imdb.com/name/nm0586281/?ref_=rvi_nm
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Aug 20, 2018 22:37:13 GMT
Hi all,whilst Red Hunter was made by Miike first,I found out that his second movie somehow was the one to get released first! Eyecatch Junction (1991) 7 Featuring the Yakuza for the first time, director Takashi Miike reunites with Prelude’s cinematographer Shigeru Komatsubara to hold back on the seriousness of his future,most famous Yakuza creations,to instead unveil his peculiar sense of humour, leaping between the legs with darting camera moves between the sexy trio and choppy jump-cuts round their high-kicks against the panties stealing Yakuza. On only his second straight to video flick, Miike shows his signature style already starting to emerge,as the perverse,sexual weirdness of a lady tied to a bed in Prelude is expanded here in a sex scene stylishly taking place wrapped in plastic. Going on to write Digimon and Sonic eps (!) Hiro Masaki is joined by Akio Takemoto in creating a delightfully cheeky, animated script,with the trio fitting half-naked gym workouts with crime solving leading to this eyecatch junction being a real eyeful. With Eng Subs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=spAPP3uXRgc
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Aug 21, 2018 8:46:28 GMT
Cool. Miike has a very daunting filmography. I recently saw Blade of the Immortal which proudly claimed to be his 100th film. I've only seen a couple of others. His no-holds-barred approach doesn't always work for me so I doubt I'll get around to everything he's done, but I am planning on watching a few more over the coming months. Thanks Fox,and on Blade being his 100th film, I've been wondering if there has been a little cheating with the marketing,since IMDb list his TV credits that take Miike to 103 (which is an amazing achievement,he must be just behind Jess Franco for most prolific "genre" filmmaker.) www.imdb.com/name/nm0586281/?ref_=rvi_nmYes, that's including all his TV and video work, so a bit of a cheat, but still pretty impressive. Based on what I've seen however I wonder if the quality control is a little lax.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Aug 28, 2018 4:13:40 GMT
For anyone in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra) the Japanese Film Festival Classics series will screen September – November. They will be playing some great classic Japanese films: Okoto and Sasuke (1935) (Yasujiro Shimazu) A Geisha (1953) (Kenji Mizoguchi) Nihonbashi (1956) (Kon Ichikawa) Crazed Fruit (Juvenile Jungle) (1956) (Ko Nakahira) Manji (1964) (Yasuzo Masumura) The Pornographers (1966) (Shohei Imamura) The Affair (1967) (Yoshishige Yoshida) Kagero-za (1981) (Seijun Suzuki) Full schedule
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Post by Aj_June on Aug 28, 2018 4:20:11 GMT
For anyone in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra) the Japanese Film Festival Classics series will screen September – November. They will be playing some great classic Japanese films: Okoto and Sasuke (1935) (Yasujiro Shimazu) A Geisha (1953) (Kenji Mizoguchi) Nihonbashi (1956) (Kon Ichikawa) Crazed Fruit (Juvenile Jungle) (1956) (Ko Nakahira) Manji (1964) (Yasuzo Masumura) The Pornographers (1966) (Shohei Imamura) The Affair (1967) (Yoshishige Yoshida) Kagero-za (1981) (Seijun Suzuki) Full scheduleThanks. I am in Melbourne. I usually do not attend movies or such events alone but if a friend agrees with me then I do love to see one of these movies.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Aug 28, 2018 4:24:22 GMT
For anyone in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra) the Japanese Film Festival Classics series will screen September – November. They will be playing some great classic Japanese films: Okoto and Sasuke (1935) (Yasujiro Shimazu) A Geisha (1953) (Kenji Mizoguchi) Nihonbashi (1956) (Kon Ichikawa) Crazed Fruit (Juvenile Jungle) (1956) (Ko Nakahira) Manji (1964) (Yasuzo Masumura) The Pornographers (1966) (Shohei Imamura) The Affair (1967) (Yoshishige Yoshida) Kagero-za (1981) (Seijun Suzuki) Full scheduleThanks. I am in Melbourne. I usually do not attend movies or such events alone but if a friend agrees with me then I do love to see one of these movies. Cool. Not sure if they are all playing in Melbourne. I've already seen A Geisha and Manji and I'd recommend both. Hoping to catch most of them in Sydney.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Aug 31, 2018 22:50:14 GMT
For anyone in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra) the Japanese Film Festival Classics series will screen September – November. They will be playing some great classic Japanese films: Okoto and Sasuke (1935) (Yasujiro Shimazu) A Geisha (1953) (Kenji Mizoguchi) Nihonbashi (1956) (Kon Ichikawa) Crazed Fruit (Juvenile Jungle) (1956) (Ko Nakahira) Manji (1964) (Yasuzo Masumura) The Pornographers (1966) (Shohei Imamura) The Affair (1967) (Yoshishige Yoshida) Kagero-za (1981) (Seijun Suzuki) Full scheduleThanks Fox in the Snow What an exciting and diverse collection of classics scheduled !! Would love to see all on the big screen , unfortunately the closet venue for me is Sydney over 800 km's away. Okoto and Sasuke (1935) with its traditional music and dance would be sensational, big screen Ayako Wakao in Manji is an exciting consideration but Sydney is a logistic nightmare for us country folk to navigate, A Brisbane venue would have been doable . will you be taking part ?
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