The film opens with the drowning deaths of farmer Yukio’s two sons. Read More »
Tag Archives: Japan
Spellbound AKA Kin’yû fushoku rettô: Jubaku (1999) Masato Harada, Kôji Yakusho, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kippei Shîna
Tapping into the economic malaise and the growing outrage against endless tawdry financial scandals Read More »
An Obsession AKA Tsumetai chi (1997) Shinji Aoyama, Ryo Ishibashi, Yôzaburô Itô, Eiko Nagashima
An Obsession is Aoyama’s remake for the 1990s of Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (“Nora inu,” 1949). Read More »
Many Happy Returns AKA Kyôso tanjô (1993) Toshihiro Tenma, Masato Hagiwara, Kôji Tamaki, Ittoku Kishibe
A young man, Kazuo, joins a new cult religion even though he sees through the initial recruitment pretense Read More »
The Geisha AKA Yôkirô (1983) Hideo Gosha, Ken Ogata, Kimiko Ikegami, Atsuko Asano
1933. 20 years before, Katsuzo was in love with a geisha who gave him a daughter. Read More »
Sword of Fury AKA Miyamoto Musashi (1973) Tai Katô, Jirô Tamiya, Keiko Matsuzaka, Mitsuko Baishô
In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war Read More »
The River with No Bridge AKA Hashi no nai Kawa (1992) Yôichi Higashi, Naoko Ôtani, Tamao Nakamura, Tetta Sugimoto
Though ethnically and culturally identical to the average Japanese, the burakumin have been an underclass in Japanese society Read More »
God’s Puzzle AKA Kamisama no pazuru (2008) Takashi Miike, Hayato Ichihara, Mitsuki Tanimura, Ken’ichi Endô
A set of twins — one a hard-working student and the other a drifter Read More »
Ninjitsu, Part II AKA Yagyû bugeichô: Sôryû hiken (1958) Hiroshi Inagaki, Kôji Tsuruta, Toshirô Mifune, Nobuko Otowa
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing Read More »
Ninjitsu AKA Yagyû bugeichô (1957) Hiroshi Inagaki, Toshirô Mifune, Yoshiko Kuga, Kyôko Kagawa
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which Read More »
Anatahan (1953) Josef von Sternberg, Akemi Negishi, Tadashi Suganuma, Kisaburo Sawamura
In June 1944, twelve Japanese seaman are stranded on an abandoned-and-forgotten Read More »
Battlefield Baseball AKA Jigoku Kôshien (2003) Yudai Yamaguchi, Tak Sakaguchi, Atsushi Itô, Hideo Sakaki
Battlefield Baseball is a tough game–it doesn’t end until all the members on the opposing team are dead. Read More »
The Assassination of Ryoma AKA Ryoma ansatsu (1974) Kazuo Kuroki, Yoshio Harada, Renji Ishibashi, Rie Nakagawa
Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), imperial loyalist Read More »
Hitokiri (1969) Hideo Gosha, Shintarô Katsu, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yukio Mishima
Izo Okada, a ronin (masterless samurai), desperately seeks a way out of his financial straits. Read More »
Appassionata AKA Jo no mai (1984) Sadao Nakajima, Mariko Okada, Yûko Natori, Morio Kazama, Kei Satô
Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Read More »