Tag Archives: Japan
Fe AKA Hagane (1994) Kanji Nakajima, Fumiko Kawahara, Eiji Maruyama, Reina Oshibe
Near the remains of an iron factory, an old painter faces the challenges of creation Read More »
Forest of Oppression AKA Assatsu no mori (1967) Shinsuke Ogawa
The Oppressed Students focuses on the phenomenon of the struggle of university students Read More »
Elegy of the North AKA Banka (1957) Heinosuke Gosho, Yoshiko Kuga, Masayuki Mori, Mieko Takamine
A young woman falls for a middle aged business man, but things get complicated when she also starts having feelings for his wife. Read More »
The Descendants of Taro Urashima AKA Urashima Tarô no kôei (1946) Mikio Naruse, Susumu Fujita, Nobuo Nakamura, Haruko Sugimura
Reputedly based on Frank Capra’s 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, A Descendant of Tarô Urashima is about a repatriated soldier Read More »
Horse and Woman and Dog AKA Uma to onna to inu (1990) Hisayasu Satô, Kanako Kishi, Kazuhiro Sano, Yuri Sasaki
Three social outcasts who live near the seaside interact with each other in increasingly disturbing ways. Read More »
The Domain: The Naniwa Story AKA Nihon Kyokaku-den: Naniwa-hen (1965) Masahiro Makino, Ken Takakura, Hideo Murata, Asao Uchida
Osaka, 1920. A sailor returns from several years at sea to see his brother Read More »
Tokyo Drifter AKA Tôkyô nagaremono (1966) Seijun Suzuki, Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawachi
Tokyo Drifter stands with Branded to Kill as one of the best-known and most acclaimed films of Seijun Suzuki, one of Japan’s most talented maverick directors. Read More »
Spring on Leper’s Island AKA Kojima no haru (1940) Shirô Toyoda, Shizue Natsukawa, Ichirô Sugai, Haruko Sugimura
Based on actual events, taken from a woman doctor’s story of life in a remote leper colony. Read More »
Skull AKA Dokuro (1927) Sentarô Shirai, Utaemon Ichikawa, Kokuten Kôdô, Ritsuko Niizuma
A rare film which depicts the tragic fate of a Christian lord who fought for his fate in the Edo period. Read More »
The 47 Ronin AKA Chûshingura (1962) Hiroshi Inagaki, Yûzô Kayama, Chûsha Ichikawa, Tatsuya Mihashi
A young lord attempts to combat the corruption endemic to the Shogunate bureaucracy Read More »
The Water Was So Clear AKA Gaki zoshi (1973) Yôichi Takabayashi, Yûtarô Ban, Akira Nitta
Romance, rape, tension, repression and death: these are the quintessential themes explored in this dialogue-free Japanese black-and-white movie. Read More »
Souls in the Moonlight 2 AKA Daibosatsu tôge – Dai ni bu (1958) Tomu Uchida, Kusuo Abe, Harue Akagi, Chiyonosuke Azuma
The Dai-bosatsu toge saga (a trilogy) is based on Kaizan Nakazatos unfinished long series of novels (41 books, written from 1913 to 1941). Read More »
The Warrior and the Wolf AKA Lang zai ji (2009) Zhuangzhuang Tian, Joe Odagiri, Maggie Q, Tsung-Hua To
The disillusioned general of an ancient Chinese army regiment finds himself stranded in a village populated by a strange clan with mystical connections to wolves. Read More »
The Champion AKA Shôri-sha (1957) Umetsugu Inoue, Yûjirô Ishihara, Keiji Itami, Mie Kitahara
Intersecting circles of obligation link a former boxer, the youth he vows to make a champion Read More »