Near the turbulent end of the Edo era, a man returning to Japan after exile in America Read More »
Tag Archives: Shôhei Imamura
Stolen Desire AKA Nusumareta yokujô (1958) Shôhei Imamura, Osamu Takizawa, Shin’ichi Yanagisawa, Hiroyuki Nagato
A rambunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki theatre with strip shows. Read More »
The Ballad of Narayama AKA Narayama bushikô (1983) Shôhei Imamura, Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari
In a poor 19th century rural Japanese village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 has to climb a nearby mountain to die. Read More »
Nishi Ginza Station AKA Nishi Ginza ekimae (1958) Shôhei Imamura, Frank Nagai, Shin’ichi Yanagisawa, Hisano Yamaoka
This Japanese comedy is bookended by Frank Nagai’s title song, and Nagai keeps cropping up throughout the film Read More »
Zegen (1987) Shôhei Imamura, Ken Ogata, Mitsuko Baishô, Chun-Hsiung Ko
The award-winning director of such esteemed films as Black Rain and The Ballad of Narayama has chosen here to tell the decidedly dicey true tale of Iheiji Muraoka Read More »
A Man Vanishes (1967) Shôhei Imamura, Yoshie Hayakawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
Plastics salesman Oshima disappeared without a word to anyone, and has been missing for two years. Read More »
Intentions of Murder (1964) Shôhei Imamura, Masumi Harukawa, Kô Nishimura, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
A housewife living under her tyrannical husband has her life stressfully turned upside down after getting raped by a burglar. Read More »
The Pornographers: Introduction to Anthropology (1966) Shôhei Imamura, Shôichi Ozawa, Sumiko Sakamoto, Ganjirô Nakamura, Comedy, Drama
Mr. Ogata lives a complicated life: he is a pornographer making two skin flicks per day and trying to stay beneath the radar screen of the local mob Read More »
Kuroi Ame / Black Rain (1989) Shôhei Imamura, Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Drama
Mr and Mrs Shizuma, and their niece Yasuko, make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, just after the atomic bomb has dropped. Read More »
Warm water under a red bridge (2001) Shôhei Imamura, Kôji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baishô, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Nippon konchuki / The Insect Woman (1963) Shôhei Imamura, Emiko Aizawa, Setsuko Amamiya, Tomio Aoki, Drama
Amorality in Japan. Tome is born into poverty in rural Japan, in the late 1910s. Chuji, her father, dotes on her; her mother is less faithful. Read More »
Nianchan / My Second Brother (1960) Shôhei Imamura, Hiroyuki Nagato, Kayo Matsuo, Takeshi Okimura, Drama
Being a faithful ‘company man’, Yoshikawa moves steadily ahead within the Toho corporation. But Kaji, his old friend, makes his way through the dark side of the social world, working for a power broker who is plotting to take over Toho. Read More »
Karayuki-san / The Making of a Prostitute (1975) Shôhei Imamura, Kurahachi Fukuda, Tora Hirano, Documentary
It is a documentary on one of the Japanese “karayuki-san,” who were women that were taken from their homes in Japan and used as prostitutes in the post-war period. Read More »
Postwar History of Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970) Shôhei Imamura, Chieko Akaza, Etsuko Akaza, Tami Akaza, Documentary
The star of this documentary is a quintessential Imamura heroine: a hard-nosed, ruthless survivor, with a sense of loyalty and an earthy sense of humor. Read More »
Buta to gunkan / Pigs and Battleships (1961) Shôhei Imamura, Hiroyuki Nagato, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Masao Mishima, Drama, Comedy, Crime
Kinta is caught in the mesh of poverty and opts out by joining the local yakuza gang. His greed draws him into the drug dealing, pimping, and racketeering that fill the gang’s coffers. Read More »