Tag Archives: Japan

Yume / Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990) Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda, Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baishô, Toshie Negishi, Drama, Fantasy

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Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.
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Tokugawa onna keibatsu-shi / The Joy of Torture (1968) Teruo Ishii, Teruo Yoshida, Masumi Tachibana, Fumio Watanabe, Drama, Horror, Erotic

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The Joy of Torture is an anthology that is made up three separate stories that all intersect: The first segment is about Shinza who was hurt while working when a log hit him on the head and now sister Mitsu is forced give herself to her brothers boss Mr. Mino in order to help pay for Shinza’s doctors bills. The second segment is about the arrival of mother Reiho and her servant Rintoku at the Jukuin monastery. The monastery is located new to e temple inhabited by priest and one day when one of them named Shunkei runs by Reiho he arouses something inside of her. The final segment is about a tattoo artist named Horicho who has just given Kimicho his greatest tattoo to date. While showing his work off to a group of people, a man named Lord Nambera walks by mocking the tattoo and it lack of realism.
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Tokugawa onna keizu / History of the Shogun’s Harem (1968) Teruo Ishii, Masako Arisawa, Kemi Ichiboshi, Mari Iwai, Drama, Exploitation, Erotic

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The fifth shogun searches for a woman who would love him for the person he is, and not because of his title and rank. With over a hundred women to choose from,who will bare him a son and become number one? A tragic love story involving the fifth shogun of the tokugawa dynasty and a woman who became one of his concubines.
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Orgies of Edo / Zankoku ijô gyakutai monogatari: Genroku onna keizu (1969) Teruo Ishii, Teruo Yoshida, Toyozô Yamamoto, Masumi Tachibana, Drama, Erotic

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In the tradition of JOY OF TORTURE, this film presents three stores of sadism and perversion taking place in Edo during a time of civil war. The first story is about doomed lovers, the second is about a noblewoman who likes to do it with hairy midgets and imported black slaves because of a certain incident in her past and finally the third story is about the marvel of caesarean section.
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Daichi no komoriuta / Lullaby of the Earth (1976) Yasuzô Masumura, Mieko Harada, Natsuko Kahara, Meiko Kaji, Drama

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The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world, when her grandmother dies. Notwithstanding her healthy distrust of all strangers, which her upbringing instilled in her, it is not long before a cunning racketeer finds her weak point, that temptation which she cannot resist, that weakness, different as it may be, that each of us has, and brings her into his power.
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Kono ko wo nokoshite / Children of Nagasaki (1983) Keisuke Kinoshita, Gô Katô, Yukiyo Toake, Chikage Awashima, Drama, War

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In Nagasaki, Japan, on 09 August 1945, at 11:02 AM, 80.000 dead and thousand of persons wounded or contaminated by radiation were victims of one of the most hideous crimes of the mankind history. This low-budget movie is a dramatization of this deplorable event, based on the report of one of the survivors of the ‘day after’ of Nagasaki.
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Anata-ga suki desu, dai suki desu / I Like You, I Like You Very Much (1994) Hiroyuki Oki, Chano, Kazunori Shibuya, Hisanori Kitakaze, Drama

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This groundbreaking drama, one of few to feature gay lifestyles in a Japanese context, is the work of writer, editor, cinematographer, director and co-star Hiroyuki Oki, an avant-garde filmmaker. In the liberal enclave of Kochi City, Japan, a gay college student, You (pronounced using two syllables as “Yo-ooh”), is living a contented life with his lover and classmate. Then he spies an attractive young man at a train station, and their meeting leads to a subsequent sexual encounter. Although You confesses his infidelity to his boyfriend and even seeks the advice of an ex-lover, he does not completely break off his new relationship, leading to a love triangle that forces each of the men to question his sexuality and identity. Running barely one hour long, I Like You, I Like You Very Much (1995) was short for a feature-length film but earned critical respect for tackling what remains an extremely sensitive cultural issue in its home country.
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