by Mehdi Achouche
Watching “Night River” (also known with the better title of “Undercurrent”), you understand why director Kozaburo Yoshimura (1911-2000) has so often been compared to Kenji Mizoguchi – although that has often been at Yoshimura's expense. Both delivered post-war melodramas often centering on strong, independent-minded female characters being repressed by their families and the social order. Yoshimura (who started as Ozu's assistant director) even took over from Mizoguchi after the latter's death and directed “An Osaka Story” in 1957. The year before, he made “Night River”, penned by feminist screenwriter (and frequent Naruse collaborator) Sumie Tanaka, and adapted from a novel by Hisao Sawano. The story is set in Kyoto and can be seen as part of an informal set of melodramas that Yoshimura directed in the 1950s. These films follow the lives of hard-working women in a rapidly modernizing post-war Kyoto, including the powerful “Clothes of Deception” (1951), “Sisters...
Watching “Night River” (also known with the better title of “Undercurrent”), you understand why director Kozaburo Yoshimura (1911-2000) has so often been compared to Kenji Mizoguchi – although that has often been at Yoshimura's expense. Both delivered post-war melodramas often centering on strong, independent-minded female characters being repressed by their families and the social order. Yoshimura (who started as Ozu's assistant director) even took over from Mizoguchi after the latter's death and directed “An Osaka Story” in 1957. The year before, he made “Night River”, penned by feminist screenwriter (and frequent Naruse collaborator) Sumie Tanaka, and adapted from a novel by Hisao Sawano. The story is set in Kyoto and can be seen as part of an informal set of melodramas that Yoshimura directed in the 1950s. These films follow the lives of hard-working women in a rapidly modernizing post-war Kyoto, including the powerful “Clothes of Deception” (1951), “Sisters...
- 5/15/2024
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
However hard it is to expand the canon, legwork must always be done. In my own time I’ve seen the understanding of mid-century Japanese cinema expand, however marginally, from Kurosawa alone to Ozu and Mizoguchi; it may be now that we place room for their contemporary Hiroshi Shimizu, whose films are subject of a two-part, cross-borough retrospective beginning next week. On May 4, Queens’ Museum of the Moving Image launches Part I: The Shochiku Years; May 16 will bring Part II: The Postwar and Independent Years to Manhattan’s Japan Society. In total the series spans 27 films, all shown on 35mm prints “imported from collections and archives in Japan.” We are accordingly thrilled to debut its trailer.
Here’s the series’ synopsis: “An unsung master of Japanese cinema, Hiroshi Shimizu (1903–1966) was highly regarded by contemporaries Yasujirō Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi for his seemingly effortless formal ingenuity, distinguished by his signature linear traveling shots and his naturalistic,...
Here’s the series’ synopsis: “An unsung master of Japanese cinema, Hiroshi Shimizu (1903–1966) was highly regarded by contemporaries Yasujirō Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi for his seemingly effortless formal ingenuity, distinguished by his signature linear traveling shots and his naturalistic,...
- 4/26/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“Why is it that only those who have never fought in a battle are so eager to be in one?” Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) asks at one point in FX’s Shōgun. It’s a question that resonates not only with the show’s characters but may strike at the heart of our long-standing fascination with samurai.
Its resonance is all the more profound because Shōgun is loosely — very loosely — based on real events from the end of Japan’s Warring States period that pushed the nation into a new era. Taking historical events and crafting drama from them is something the show has in common with many Chanbara or samurai films. The riveting and often bloody history has provided fodder for countless films, including Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy, Sekigahara, Samurai Assassin, and The 47 Ronin.
However, these narrative films can obscure the complex history behind the events. Fortunately,...
Its resonance is all the more profound because Shōgun is loosely — very loosely — based on real events from the end of Japan’s Warring States period that pushed the nation into a new era. Taking historical events and crafting drama from them is something the show has in common with many Chanbara or samurai films. The riveting and often bloody history has provided fodder for countless films, including Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy, Sekigahara, Samurai Assassin, and The 47 Ronin.
However, these narrative films can obscure the complex history behind the events. Fortunately,...
- 4/23/2024
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Floating Weeds Sitting inside his Tokyo home, surrounded by stacks of books and photos of John Ford and Jean-Luc Godard pinned to the wall, the venerated film and literary critic, writer, and scholar Shiguéhiko Hasumi admitted with a wry smile that he was not really in the mood to talk about Ozu. We were gathered for an interview about a new English translation of his book Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, but he had old Hollywood on his mind. As he spoke, he switched between Japanese and French-accented English. “This book was written 40 years ago,” he said. “My last monograph is about John Ford. And this is my latest book. I greatly admire the films of Don Siegel.” He pointed to What is a Shot?. “So, I am so far from Ozu.” Indeed, Hasumi, who turns 88 this month, remains prolific. Spread out on the coffee table in front of him by...
- 4/16/2024
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDahomey.Mati Diop’s Dahomey (2024), a documentary about the repatriation of artifacts plundered by French colonists to the present-day Republic of Benin, won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It is only the second film from the African continent to take the festival’s top prize.The Berlinale has filed criminal charges against activists who hacked the festival’s Instagram account on Sunday to post calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which the festival deemed “anti-Semitic.”The festival has also released a statement disavowing the acceptance speeches of award winners who used their platform to speak out against the occupation and war. Such speeches included those by Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau, whose Direct Action won Best Film in the Encounters section, and by Yuval Abraham,...
- 2/29/2024
- MUBI
Under the old political regime in Taiwan it was difficult to make features, given the thematic and narrative constraints producers and directors had to obey. However, as these began to shift somewhat in the 1970s, the career of filmmakers such as Lee Hsing truly flourished as he began to tackle current issues, for example, in his Vertigo-esque “The Young Ones” or the drama “The Story of a Small Town”. Arguably one of his most well-known projects from that era is “Execution in Autumn”, a period drama set on the brink of the 1900s. Hsing has gone on record, stating this is his favorite film of his career, perhaps not only due to the nods at the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi, but also due to its universal and political themes.
Execution in Autumn is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
Throughout his life Pei Gang (Ou Wei), the...
Execution in Autumn is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
Throughout his life Pei Gang (Ou Wei), the...
- 2/9/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
A restored, curated collection of Japanese silent films are going on an international tour courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s The Art of the Benshi 2024 World Tour. The Art of the Benshi 2024 will open at Bam in Brooklyn, and then travel to Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and Tokyo throughout the month of April. The tour, presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, will run from April 5 through 26 across 12 dates at six venues in the aforementioned five cities.
The exhibit centers on films with Benshis, a term derived from “katsudō benshi” or “movie orator.” Benshi were the captivating live narrators of Japan’s silent film era. Benshi are artists that introduced films and provided live narration, portraying characters and articulating the onscreen action to theater-going audiences. More than 7,000 benshi were employed at the peak of the industry’s silent era.
The exhibit centers on films with Benshis, a term derived from “katsudō benshi” or “movie orator.” Benshi were the captivating live narrators of Japan’s silent film era. Benshi are artists that introduced films and provided live narration, portraying characters and articulating the onscreen action to theater-going audiences. More than 7,000 benshi were employed at the peak of the industry’s silent era.
- 2/1/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Le chinoise.Most serious writing about Jean-Luc Godard tends to be both high-flown and forbidding, rather like the films it’s discussing. Translations from French to English or vice versa can make things even dicier. But according to the literary scholar Fredric Jameson, who contributes an enthusiastic preface and afterword, Reading with Jean-Luc Godard—a compendium of 109 three-page essays by 50 writers from a dozen countries, announced as the first in a series—launches “a new form” and “a new genre.”The brevity of each entry tends to confirm Jameson’s claim. The book can be described as an audience-friendly volume designed to occupy the same space between academia and journalism staked out by Notebook while proposing routes into Godard’s work provided by his eclectic reading—a batch of writers ranged alphabetically and intellectually from Louis Aragon, Robert Ardrey, Hannah Arendt, and Honoré de Balzac to François Truffaut, Paul Valéry,...
- 1/30/2024
- MUBI
When we think of the great director-actor pairings throughout Asian cinema history, at the top is Kurosawa and Mifune. But we can’t forget Kenji Mizoguchi and Kinuyo Tanaka or Wong Kar-wai and Tony Leung. But for many of us, we were straight up introduced to international action movies through the teamings of John Woo and Chow Yun-fat, chiefly The Killer and Hard Boiled. But the pair hasn’t worked together in more than 30 years – unfortunately, that may have been the last time.
Despite their place as one of the best director-actor duos in all of action, we only ever got five movies directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-fat, two of the most recognizable figures of Hong Kong cinema. As the 77-year-old Woo recently told HK01 (via Yahoo!), “We are getting older and it would be hard to find the right script…[But] I still want to be like...
Despite their place as one of the best director-actor duos in all of action, we only ever got five movies directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-fat, two of the most recognizable figures of Hong Kong cinema. As the 77-year-old Woo recently told HK01 (via Yahoo!), “We are getting older and it would be hard to find the right script…[But] I still want to be like...
- 12/9/2023
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
Based on Ueda Akinari's tales “The House in the Thicket” and “The Lust of the White Serpent”, “Ugetsu” is set in Japan's civil war torn Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1600) and is probably Kenji Mizoguchi's most celebrated work, and a definitive part of the Golden Age of Japanese films. The movie was restored in 2016 by The Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation, in the version we watched in Thessaloniki.
“Ugetsu Monogatari“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival
On the shores of Lake Biwa in the Omi Province, Genjuro, husband of Miyagi and father of an infant son, has his first break with selling his pottery in Nagahama, making a small fortune in the process. His brother-in-law, Tobei, is eager to become a samurai, and during the same trip is utterly disgraced, eventually agreeing to help Genjuro with his pottery instead of chasing his crazy dreams. Right before the next batch is made,...
“Ugetsu Monogatari“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival
On the shores of Lake Biwa in the Omi Province, Genjuro, husband of Miyagi and father of an infant son, has his first break with selling his pottery in Nagahama, making a small fortune in the process. His brother-in-law, Tobei, is eager to become a samurai, and during the same trip is utterly disgraced, eventually agreeing to help Genjuro with his pottery instead of chasing his crazy dreams. Right before the next batch is made,...
- 11/4/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The mythology around Japan as a nation of everyday ghosts — where the living and the dead share space, occasionally in view of each other — can lead certain western filmmakers into dubious territory: If you don’t recall how Gus van Sant floundered with the mawkish, condescending exoticism of “The Sea of Trees,” trust that it’s best forgotten. Centered on a long-grieving Frenchwoman who finally makes peace with her husband’s death over the course of a Japanese work trip, “Sidonie in Japan” risks similar pitfalls — but Élise Girard’s droll, bittersweet romance mostly dodges them with grace and good humor, plus a pointed awareness of the limitations of its outsider perspective.
Premiering in the Venice Days sidebar at this year’s Venice Film Festival, this is a sweetly unassuming affair that is given some vinegary oomph by the presence of Isabelle Huppert in the lead — which will doubtless secure...
Premiering in the Venice Days sidebar at this year’s Venice Film Festival, this is a sweetly unassuming affair that is given some vinegary oomph by the presence of Isabelle Huppert in the lead — which will doubtless secure...
- 9/4/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The 80th annual Venice Film Festival launches on the Lido on August 30. This edition features a slew of Oscar hopefuls including Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Yorgas Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Michael Mann’s “Ferrari.” They’re all vying for the top prize, the Golden Lion.
Seventy years ago, there were four now-classics in competition: William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday,” for which Audrey Hepburn would win Oscar, John Huston’s “Moulin Rouge,” Samuel Fuller’s “Pickup on South Street” and Vincente Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful,” which had recently picked up five Oscars. But the Golden Lion didn’t roar at the 14th edition of the international film festival.
The jury headed by future Nobel Prize laureate in literature Eugenio Montale just couldn’t decide on the best of the fest because according to the New York Times “the quality...
Seventy years ago, there were four now-classics in competition: William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday,” for which Audrey Hepburn would win Oscar, John Huston’s “Moulin Rouge,” Samuel Fuller’s “Pickup on South Street” and Vincente Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful,” which had recently picked up five Oscars. But the Golden Lion didn’t roar at the 14th edition of the international film festival.
The jury headed by future Nobel Prize laureate in literature Eugenio Montale just couldn’t decide on the best of the fest because according to the New York Times “the quality...
- 8/29/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The Daughters of Fire.Three square images, placed side by side on the screen. The full frame is as wide as CinemaScope, which Fritz Lang famously said was only suitable for snakes and funerals. On the left, a woman stares forward as she stalks, like a Jacques Tourneur character, toward no certain destination; as she does so—singing, half her face shrouded in shadow—she passes through a seemingly endless corridor of ash, an ever-rotating carousel of clay streaked with wisps of fire. In the center frame, another woman lies prone, bent over on the shores of a volcanic beach. The sea laps in apocalyptic, dusky light behind her, the horizon stretches out to the limits of vision; uncertainly, she heaves her body upright to sit as she sings. In the far-right frame, another woman peers out from around a doorframe, staring into the camera, also singing in direct counterpoint with the other two women,...
- 6/14/2023
- MUBI
The story of the forty-seven ronin of Ako avenging their fallen master is a significant historical event in Japanese history that has practically gone down as a legend. The events that transpired have frequently been retold in media, most notably in literature through the fictionalized accounts known as “Chushingura.” In addition, many retellings of the vengeful retainers' plot for revenge have been depicted in traditional theater and in cinema. Filmmakers that have directed their depictions include Kenji Mizoguchi, Kunio Watanabe, and Hiroshi Inagaki. Of the countless cinematic renditions, one of the more underrated and unique is Kon Ichikawa's “47 Ronin.”
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Director Kon Ichikawa, who had directed a fair share of period pieces beforehand like “An Actor's Revenge” and “The Wanderers,” had expressed interest in adapting “Chushingura” for quite some time. He was finally given the opportunity towards the approaching end of his career.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Director Kon Ichikawa, who had directed a fair share of period pieces beforehand like “An Actor's Revenge” and “The Wanderers,” had expressed interest in adapting “Chushingura” for quite some time. He was finally given the opportunity towards the approaching end of his career.
- 5/4/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.REMEMBRANCERyuichi Sakamoto: Coda.Ryuichi Sakamoto died last week at the age of 71. He was the keyboardist for Yellow Magic Orchestra, who revolutionized techno in the early ’80s, and later became a pioneering composer for film—notably Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), in which he stars. It is impossible to sum up his impact in a bullet point, but we offer up a few finds: below, a clip from the 1985 film Tokyo Melody, in which Sakamoto shows us how to compose on the then-state-of-the-art Fairlight Cmi. Here, a 2018 New York Times piece about his quest to create the ideal background playlist for a beloved restaurant. “If I was an architect, I would be a bad one,...
- 5/3/2023
- MUBI
It’s been a four-year long wait, but Ari Aster has finally made his return. The director’s third film “Beau is Afraid” journeyed into theaters April 14, bringing surrealist comedy to audiences through the auteur’s famously punishing perspective. The film, which is as loved as it is disliked by critics and audiences, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character: a repressed man making a grueling odyssey back home to see his mother.
The film’s title and premise comes from Aster’s 2011 short film “Beau.” One of several shorts he made as a student at the American Film Institute Conservatory — the most infamous being the viral incest drama, “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons” — the original “Beau” was a much smaller production than the director’s latest, focusing on the title character (played by the late Billy Mayo) as he’s locked in his apartment following the disappearance of his keys.
The film’s title and premise comes from Aster’s 2011 short film “Beau.” One of several shorts he made as a student at the American Film Institute Conservatory — the most infamous being the viral incest drama, “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons” — the original “Beau” was a much smaller production than the director’s latest, focusing on the title character (played by the late Billy Mayo) as he’s locked in his apartment following the disappearance of his keys.
- 4/28/2023
- by Alison Foreman, Christian Zilko and Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa is best known for his epic historical pieces like "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon," but the most fun he ever had on a film set wasn't even his own. Before he became a globally acclaimed director, Kurosawa worked as an assistant director on Japanese productions like the 1941 film "Horse." Thanks to director Kajirō Yamamoto's hands-off approach, the film has quite a bit of Kurosawa's influence.
Despite being credited as an assistant director, Kurosawa would often be put in charge of entire scenes on the set of "Uma," translated as "Horse" or "Horses." It might sound a little bit exploitative, but the young filmmaker saw Yamamoto's trust as an honor, an opportunity for him to learn.
"In order to give us experience with directing actors, Yama-san often had assistant directors take charge of second-unit shooting," he recalled in his memoir Something Like An Autobiography. "Sometimes he...
Despite being credited as an assistant director, Kurosawa would often be put in charge of entire scenes on the set of "Uma," translated as "Horse" or "Horses." It might sound a little bit exploitative, but the young filmmaker saw Yamamoto's trust as an honor, an opportunity for him to learn.
"In order to give us experience with directing actors, Yama-san often had assistant directors take charge of second-unit shooting," he recalled in his memoir Something Like An Autobiography. "Sometimes he...
- 3/5/2023
- by Shae Sennett
- Slash Film
In a 1960 interview with Donald Richie, printed in the 2008 book "Akira Kurosawa: Interviews" edited by Bert Cardullo, Kurosawa admitted to a notable weakness he possessed as a filmmaker: he didn't make movies about women. Looking over the master's filmography reveals scant few notable female characters, and none occupying lead roles. Even "Ran," his 1985 adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear" gender-swapped the play's three central sisters into brothers. Kurosawa, it seems, was more interested in -- or simply only capable of discussing -- the foibles and weaknesses of men and male-kind.
Kurosawa'a moment of introspection came during a conversation about the filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi. Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Yasujiro Ozu, between them, represent one of the greatest waves of cinema the world has ever seen, sometimes called the Golden Age of Japanese cinema by critics. The latter two filmmakers frequently made films about women and the middle class. Mizoguchi in particular often told operatic tales of fallen women,...
Kurosawa'a moment of introspection came during a conversation about the filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi. Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Yasujiro Ozu, between them, represent one of the greatest waves of cinema the world has ever seen, sometimes called the Golden Age of Japanese cinema by critics. The latter two filmmakers frequently made films about women and the middle class. Mizoguchi in particular often told operatic tales of fallen women,...
- 2/10/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
[Editor’s note: The following list was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated multiple times since.]
It’s been more than three years since Ari Aster unleashed the skull-cracking terror of “Midsommar” unto unsuspecting audiences. The writer/director’s sophomore outing from 2019 — a cult film starring Florence Pugh that’s best remembered for its fiery finale and lush production design — echoed and exploded the finesse of his first: a nasty and spare possession flick starring a career-best Toni Collette and the dauntless Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro.
Aster’s breakout feature debut “Hereditary” turned the writer/director into one of the hottest indie filmmakers of 2018. Formerly known for his stomach-churning short “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons,” the AFI graduate became the face of A24’s burgeoning art house of horrors just as his work came to shape the so-called “elevated horror” moment of the late 2010s. It’s a fitting arc for a filmmaker who has described a lifelong love affair with the horror genre.
It’s been more than three years since Ari Aster unleashed the skull-cracking terror of “Midsommar” unto unsuspecting audiences. The writer/director’s sophomore outing from 2019 — a cult film starring Florence Pugh that’s best remembered for its fiery finale and lush production design — echoed and exploded the finesse of his first: a nasty and spare possession flick starring a career-best Toni Collette and the dauntless Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro.
Aster’s breakout feature debut “Hereditary” turned the writer/director into one of the hottest indie filmmakers of 2018. Formerly known for his stomach-churning short “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons,” the AFI graduate became the face of A24’s burgeoning art house of horrors just as his work came to shape the so-called “elevated horror” moment of the late 2010s. It’s a fitting arc for a filmmaker who has described a lifelong love affair with the horror genre.
- 1/14/2023
- by Zack Sharf and Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Hirokazu Kore-eda infuses the world of the Japanese geisha with his signature gentle humanism in The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, his first drama series for Netflix, launching worldwide this week.
Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.
Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...
Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.
Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...
- 1/13/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mikio Naruse solidified himself as one of Japan’s most admirable filmmakers. His work is known for the pessimistic yet raw outlook on life, showing that the world is not a perfect place while focusing on human vulnerability. Much like Kenji Mizoguchi, he frequently gave women a voice in his work, notably working with beloved actress Hideko Takamine throughout his career. In addition, Naruse would sometimes create premises for narratives that sound surreal on paper yet would be executed wonderfully on film. Look no further than his final masterpiece, “Scattered Clouds,” also known as “Two in the Shadow.”
Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...
Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Actor / Filmmaker Alex Winter joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss movies featuring a cog in the machine – the individual struggling to exist within the system.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
- 10/11/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
After her directorial debut “Love Letter” in 1953, Kinuyo Tanaka had received some international recognition, with the feature being a contestant at Cannes Film Festival in 1954. It also marked the end of her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi, with whom she had collaborated on “Oharu” and “Sansho the Bailiff”, which cemented her reputation as one of the leading ladies of Japanese cinema. However, while the famous filmmaker was against this next step in her career, the experience of her first directorial effort encouraged her to continue working behind the camera as well. Her next project would be “The Moon Has Risen”, a family drama/ light comedy, which was co-written by Yasujiro Ozu, who originally had planned to direct it himself. While Ozu’s signature themes are still quite obvious, Tanaka proved her growth as a visual storyteller, making her sophomore feature a remarkable development in her career.
“The Moon Has...
“The Moon Has...
- 8/10/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Miyamoto Musashi has been solidified in history for his phenomenal skills as a swordsman. As such, he’s been depicted in cinema for decades. His story has been shown as a hopeful journey in Hiroshi Inagaki’s “Samurai Trilogy” or as a Zen-seeking quest in Tomu Uchida’s five-part film series. The ronin would even be used as a symbol of patriotism in the propaganda feature “Miyamoto Musashi,” directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Yet, the famed warrior was far from perfect, and there was more to him besides his sword skills. He was also a human and one with imperfections for that matter. These complexities are showcased in Tai Kato’s gritty but human jidaigeki epic “Miyamoto Musashi.” An alternative title for the picture is “Sword of Fury.”
Like many adaptations, the film is based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s epic novel “Musashi,” a fictionalized account of the famous ronin with touches...
Like many adaptations, the film is based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s epic novel “Musashi,” a fictionalized account of the famous ronin with touches...
- 7/29/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
After his first feature “Munyarangabo”, shot in Rwanda, director Lee Isaac Chung returned to the United States to make his second film, this time inspired by the poem “Lucky Life”, written by Gerald Stern. In interviews, the filmmaker mentions how he found himself captivated by the emotional journey of the poem, which reminded him of his life, witnessing several of his friends battling cancer, as he tells Indiewire. Many of the techniques he had used in his previous work, he utilized again in this production, for example, letting the actors and actresses improvise some of their dialogue, thus creating a more natural flow and rhythm to the narratives and the overall development of their characters. In the end, “Lucky Life” managed to manifest his reputation as one of the leading figures withing US-American indie cinema, with the movie premiering at Tribeca Film Festival in 2010 and from then on, being screened at many international festivals.
- 7/16/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
When looking at the landscape of Japanese cinema, it is hard to imagine it without the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujiro Ozu, which, much due to their re-discovery and evaluation by European critics and film festivals, have gained a reputation of being part of the quintessential cinematic canon. However, when the boutique label Criterion announced their release of an edition of the first “Godzilla”-features, the event was met with both excitement from cinephiles, but also criticism, since many though there were many other titles more deserving of a treatment such as this. Among many other features, what this discussion highlighted was the narrow scope of many filmfans and so-called connoisseurs of the medium, but also the fact that Ishiro Honda, despite being highly regarded among his peers, most notable Kurosawa himself, never truly received the kind of acceptance his colleagues did. If there is any feature...
- 7/4/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Kenji Mizoguchi was a brilliant and influential filmmaker. Besides his movies being visual marvels, he was a master of emotional storytelling. The projects of Mizoguchi were also vey much ahead of their time, especially regarding the themes and issues they often tackled. Much of the artist’s work is character studies of women forced into suffering and pushing through struggles in Japanese society. He frequently worked with brilliant actress Kinuyo Tanaka who starred in a substantial amount of his filmography. Gender inequality and sexism in Japan date far back in history and remain an issue there to this day. An advocate of equality, Mizoguchi would be one of the first Japanese directors to raise awareness of these issues while tearing down the facade that Japanese society is perfect, all while giving a voice to those forced to comply with social injustices. Such matters are brought to the forefront in one...
- 6/28/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
by Cláudio Alves
Ever since I started following the Oscars, I've liked to come up with dream ballots. Indeed, it's become something of a hobby to write down such ideal Academy Awards, whether following eligibility rules or not. Lately, through Letterboxd and the influence of an Excel-addicted friend, those lists have graduated from notebooks to an array of overcomplicated multicolored spreadsheets with which I horrify whoever is unlucky enough to see them. All this to say that, when Gabe Guarin asked me to be part of his Alternate Oscars podcast, I was ecstatic. At long last, I've found an opportunity to make good use of those spreadsheets!
On the latest episode of Alternate Oscars, Gabe and I discuss 1955 and come up with our ideal ballots in a podcast awards ceremony full of cinephile gushing and Kenji Mizoguchi-love. Take a listen:
What do you think of our choices? Share your choices,...
Ever since I started following the Oscars, I've liked to come up with dream ballots. Indeed, it's become something of a hobby to write down such ideal Academy Awards, whether following eligibility rules or not. Lately, through Letterboxd and the influence of an Excel-addicted friend, those lists have graduated from notebooks to an array of overcomplicated multicolored spreadsheets with which I horrify whoever is unlucky enough to see them. All this to say that, when Gabe Guarin asked me to be part of his Alternate Oscars podcast, I was ecstatic. At long last, I've found an opportunity to make good use of those spreadsheets!
On the latest episode of Alternate Oscars, Gabe and I discuss 1955 and come up with our ideal ballots in a podcast awards ceremony full of cinephile gushing and Kenji Mizoguchi-love. Take a listen:
What do you think of our choices? Share your choices,...
- 4/23/2022
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
After her first two features as a director, “Love Letter” and “The Moon Has Risen”, actress Kinuyo Tanaka, best known for her roles in Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu” and “Life of Oharu”, would continue her exploration of femininity, especially within focus of the Japanese society and tje traditional concepts of sexuality and marriage. Based on the life and works of Japanese poetess Fumiko Nakajo, “The Forever Woman” or “The Eternal Breasts”, which it was also called, would cement her status as someone with talents before and behind the camera. While Tanaka is mostly known for being an actress, current retrospectives focusing on her directing career shed some light onto this aspect of her life, showing a person well aware of the contradictions within the traditions of her home country, while also following paths which might constitute some kind of escape from these ideas.
“Forever a Woman” is screening at the...
“Forever a Woman” is screening at the...
- 4/22/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
After a successful career as an actress, starring in such features like “Oharu”. “Ugetsu” and “Sansho the Bailiff”, perhaps Kinuyo Tanaka thought she would receive support from Kenji Mizoguchi, the director whose work she had been a part of for so many years. However, when a recommendation from the Director’s Guild came to hire her as a director, Mizoguchi was against it, marking the end of their collaboration, and the start of a new part in Tanaka’s career, which would begin with her debut “Love Letter” entering the competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954. Within the context of Japan’s post-war cinema, the story of two lovers who became separated during the war is quite special, telling a story from a perspective which is rarely seen, even nowadays.
“Love Letter” is screening at the 11th Sdaff Spring Showcase
At the beginning of the feature, we meet Reikichi...
“Love Letter” is screening at the 11th Sdaff Spring Showcase
At the beginning of the feature, we meet Reikichi...
- 4/21/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Kinuyo Tanaka on the set of The Moon Has Risen (1955) Directed between 1953 and 1962, six newly restored features by Kinuyo Tanaka are the subject of a historic retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Tanaka was already a preeminent actress of international renown when she turned to directing, a decision that made her Japan’s second female filmmaker and the only woman making pictures during the nation’s postwar era. Tanaka’s relationship with major studios ensured that her directorial works would be mainstream productions with high-profile talent and skilled crews. As Irene González-López and Michael Smith state in Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity, the first English-language book on Tanaka: “Only a few others, including the actress Ida Lupino (1918–95) in America and Jacqueline Audry (1908–77) in France, worked in commercial cinema.” The retrospective, however, calls for a reappraisal of her filmmaking career as much more than the sum of these important but gendered accomplishments,...
- 3/18/2022
- MUBI
The November 12, 1958 edition of The Village Voice featured the first installment of the column “Movie Journal” by Jonas Mekas.
“Movie Journal” would become what the Underground Film Journal would argue was the most significant organizing tool of avant-garde cinema created by Jonas, even more so than the Film-makers’ Cooperative and the Anthology Film Archives he helped found. But what was the column like before it gained such notoriety?
Well, we don’t have to guess. The book collection Movie Journal doesn’t start reprinting Jonas’s columns until 1959, but the entire archives of the Voice are online.
As a weekly publication, the Voice only published twelve “Movie Journal” columns in 1958. The Underground Film Journal has read all twelve and extracted what films Jonas reviewed each week; as well as made notes of significant avant-garde film happenings.
Jonas reviewed only a few avant-garde films those first two months, including Maya Deren...
“Movie Journal” would become what the Underground Film Journal would argue was the most significant organizing tool of avant-garde cinema created by Jonas, even more so than the Film-makers’ Cooperative and the Anthology Film Archives he helped found. But what was the column like before it gained such notoriety?
Well, we don’t have to guess. The book collection Movie Journal doesn’t start reprinting Jonas’s columns until 1959, but the entire archives of the Voice are online.
As a weekly publication, the Voice only published twelve “Movie Journal” columns in 1958. The Underground Film Journal has read all twelve and extracted what films Jonas reviewed each week; as well as made notes of significant avant-garde film happenings.
Jonas reviewed only a few avant-garde films those first two months, including Maya Deren...
- 11/28/2021
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The BFI today announces highlights of the UK-wide programme for BFI Japan 2021: 100 Years Of Japanese Cinema, coming to cinemas from October – December 2021. Highlights of the celebration will include a BFI re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), a BFI Japan Tour, featuring classics from Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, alongside cult titles from Kon Ichikawa and Toshio Matsumoto, which will feature many new 4K restorations and visit cinemas across the UK. For audiences who cannot attend a screening in their local cinema, there is a vast BFI Japan programme online on BFI Player Subscription. The BFI is also working closely with the National Lottery funded BFI Film Audience Network (Fan) to enable cinemas across the UK to host special screenings and events as part of BFI Japan.
Seasons and events will include Day For Night’s Urban, Natural, Human – exploring Japan on screen programme, showing at Home, Manchester, Close-Up...
Seasons and events will include Day For Night’s Urban, Natural, Human – exploring Japan on screen programme, showing at Home, Manchester, Close-Up...
- 10/6/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
After graduating from Tokyo’s Rikkyo (St. Paul’s) University, in 1982 Masayuki Suo established a movie-production company, Unit 5, that specialized in adult films. He acted as assistant director of 60 such films before making his directorial debut in 1983 with the soft-porn movie Hentai kazoku: aniki no yomesan (Abnormal Family: My Brother’s Wife). In 1989 Suo crossed over into mainstream cinema with Fanshī dansu (Fancy Dance), the story of a musician in a big-city band who, having learned that he must succeed his father as a Buddhist priest, encounters joy and sorrow while undergoing training at a Zen temple.
One of the major influences on Suo was the Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu. Suo emulated Ozu’s style through the use of such techniques as setting cameras at ground level and giving actors long pauses in conversation. In the 1990s he concentrated on making entertaining movies about people who lived outside the mainstream of Japanese society.
One of the major influences on Suo was the Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu. Suo emulated Ozu’s style through the use of such techniques as setting cameras at ground level and giving actors long pauses in conversation. In the 1990s he concentrated on making entertaining movies about people who lived outside the mainstream of Japanese society.
- 7/22/2021
- by Martin Lukanov
- AsianMoviePulse
Philip Yung’s Where The Wind Blows and Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong will open the festival.
The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced it will open with the world premiere of Philip Yung’s Where The Wind Blows and the gala premiere of omnibus Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong.
However, Where The Wind Blows is being announced as “Tbc” suggesting that it still needs to finalise mainland China censorship clearance. Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung Chiu-wai star in the big-budget crime drama, based on the true stories of two notoriously corrupt Hong Kong police officers...
The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced it will open with the world premiere of Philip Yung’s Where The Wind Blows and the gala premiere of omnibus Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong.
However, Where The Wind Blows is being announced as “Tbc” suggesting that it still needs to finalise mainland China censorship clearance. Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung Chiu-wai star in the big-budget crime drama, based on the true stories of two notoriously corrupt Hong Kong police officers...
- 3/9/2021
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Kenji Mizoguchi, along with Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, is considered one of the three masters of Japanese cinema. Furthermore, and as his life story is equally interesting as his cinematic one, which can also be perceived as the history of Japanese cinema itself, a book by an insider, Japanese critic Tadao Sato, held much interest from the get go. “The art of Japanese Cinema” never, actually, disappoints.
To begin with, the book, although it retains a somewhat linear path regarding Mizoguchi’s life, nevertheless, it mixes the timeline with a number of back-and-forths, occasionally seeming like a collection of different essays put together, although the individual chapters are pretty clearly “entrenched” if occasionally somewhat repetitive.
In that regard, the book begins with his life from birth in 1898 into a wealthy family, his father’s failure with his business ventures, the death of his mother and his...
To begin with, the book, although it retains a somewhat linear path regarding Mizoguchi’s life, nevertheless, it mixes the timeline with a number of back-and-forths, occasionally seeming like a collection of different essays put together, although the individual chapters are pretty clearly “entrenched” if occasionally somewhat repetitive.
In that regard, the book begins with his life from birth in 1898 into a wealthy family, his father’s failure with his business ventures, the death of his mother and his...
- 11/5/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The legend of the 47 ronin executing their revenge on the man responsible for the suicide of their master has been told and re-told a myriad of times in Japan in various art forms so it became a genre with its own name: Chushingura. There were several movie versions, too, from the 1941 classic directed by Kenji Mizoguchi to the atrocious 2013 Hollywood version starring Keanu Reeves. The newest version, “The 47 Ronin in Debt” directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura that premiered at the last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival and is now screened at Toronto Japanese Film Festival, at least offers a new angle to the whole story – the financial one.
“The 47 Ronin in Debt” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The legend tells us that the feudal lord Naganori Asano of Ako had attacked his rival and court official Yoshinaka Kira for reasons believed to be of corruption. Kira survived,...
“The 47 Ronin in Debt” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The legend tells us that the feudal lord Naganori Asano of Ako had attacked his rival and court official Yoshinaka Kira for reasons believed to be of corruption. Kira survived,...
- 10/5/2020
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
by Cláudio Alves
Last time we talked about Japanese cinema, we were looking at the history of the Best Costume Design Oscar. Among the five pictures from Japan nominated for that awards, we find Ugetsu, the only Kenji Mizoguchi film to ever receive any sort of recognition by the Academy. Considering some of the director's best films are currently available online thanks to platforms like the Criterion Channel, Kanopy, and HBO Max, it seems like a good time to highlight more of his cinematic mastery. After all, there's much greatness in Mizoguchi's exquisite cinema beyond the sartorial splendor of Ugetsu…...
Last time we talked about Japanese cinema, we were looking at the history of the Best Costume Design Oscar. Among the five pictures from Japan nominated for that awards, we find Ugetsu, the only Kenji Mizoguchi film to ever receive any sort of recognition by the Academy. Considering some of the director's best films are currently available online thanks to platforms like the Criterion Channel, Kanopy, and HBO Max, it seems like a good time to highlight more of his cinematic mastery. After all, there's much greatness in Mizoguchi's exquisite cinema beyond the sartorial splendor of Ugetsu…...
- 5/31/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
by Cláudio Alves
The Academy has always had a certain difficulty in recognizing excellence from films made in any language other than English. When it comes to Asian cinema, that is especially true. Parasite's recent grand victory may be a sign that times are a-changing, but there are still branches of AMPAS that remain quite closed-off and insular.
Thankfully that hasn't been the case with thee design branches. For a long time they were the only place where you could hope to find any sort of honor given to the works of masters like Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. Japanese cinema, in particular, has found success in the Costume Design category. Overall, five pictures from Japan have been nominated for the prize and two have won. Since all those films are currently available online, most of them streaming on the Criterion Channel, it's a good time to take a look...
The Academy has always had a certain difficulty in recognizing excellence from films made in any language other than English. When it comes to Asian cinema, that is especially true. Parasite's recent grand victory may be a sign that times are a-changing, but there are still branches of AMPAS that remain quite closed-off and insular.
Thankfully that hasn't been the case with thee design branches. For a long time they were the only place where you could hope to find any sort of honor given to the works of masters like Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. Japanese cinema, in particular, has found success in the Costume Design category. Overall, five pictures from Japan have been nominated for the prize and two have won. Since all those films are currently available online, most of them streaming on the Criterion Channel, it's a good time to take a look...
- 5/21/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Wes Anderson was expected to attend the Cannes Film Festival this month to world premiere his new movie, “The French Dispatch.” The director last attended Cannes for the world premiere of “Moonrise Kingdom,” which opened the 2012 edition of the festival and remains Anderson’s first and only trip to the Croisette. Anderson took part in The New York Times’ Cannes survey to share a memory about the world’s most prestigious film festival, and in doing so he also dropped an update about how he’s been spending his quarantine.
“I have a 4-year-old daughter so, like so many others in our situation, I am now a part-time amateur schoolteacher,” Anderson said. “Much of what I am reading has to do with ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, insects and the Amazon rainforest. But also: Patricia Highsmith, James Baldwin, Elmore Leonard and a book about plagues.”
Anderson also dropped an 11-film quarantine watch list.
“I have a 4-year-old daughter so, like so many others in our situation, I am now a part-time amateur schoolteacher,” Anderson said. “Much of what I am reading has to do with ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, insects and the Amazon rainforest. But also: Patricia Highsmith, James Baldwin, Elmore Leonard and a book about plagues.”
Anderson also dropped an 11-film quarantine watch list.
- 5/13/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is one of the latest film festivals to announce its cancellation, as it will be moving its edition to July 2021. The Oscars have announced changes to the rules of next year's Awards ceremony, including "temporarily" eased restrictions on films debuting through streaming or VOD. Recommended VIEWINGSofia Bohdanowicz's new short, The Hardest Working Cat in Showbiz, adapts the essay of the same name by critic and filmmaker Dan Salitt. The film, which explores the filmography of the prolific cat actor Orangey, also stars Salitt and his cat Jasper. You can now watch parts of Ilya Khrzhanovsky's controversial Dau online. The massive project, which is divided into twelve chapters that follow residents of a scientific community in Soviet Russia, can be viewed with an online ticket. Read our review of two Dau chapters,...
- 4/29/2020
- MUBI
Mubi’s retrospective, Spotlight on Kenji Mizoguchi, is showing in France until May 22, 2020.Above: Kenji Mizoguchi and Kyōko Kagawa on the set of The Crucified Lovers (1954).On multiple occasions, Kenji Mizoguchi was said to have compared himself to Vincent van Gogh, even calling the painter his "artistic model" in conversation with actress Kinuyo Tanaka. One has good reason to take Mizoguchi's word for such self-identification, considering his former aspirations to become a painter. On set, he was a notoriously stringent perfectionist and, if displeased at all with the technicalities of a production, rather cruel towards those with whom he worked. What does it mean to refer to Mizoguchi's films as "painterly," as is so often done? Indeed, the filmmaker wanted to be a painter in his youth, and was an ardent student of the craft: In Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi and the 1930s, Donald Kirihara writes that Mizoguchi even "wept before the Mona Lisa.
- 4/28/2020
- MUBI
“The Burmese Harp” (1956), “Fires on the Plain” (1959), “An Actor’s Revenge” (1963). Those are only a few of the internationally critically acclaimed feature films of Japanese director Kon Ichikawa. His movies depict wide-ranging topics of Japan’s society in the twentieth century and represent a versatile filmmaker that often falls short in comparison to other masters like Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu or Kenji Mizoguchi.
“Youth” is screening at Japan Society
Primarily known for his fictional works, Ichikawa also produced a handful of documentaries, that had a striking impact especially in the field of sports documentary. Most significant are “Tokyo Olympiad” (1965), “Visions of Eight” (1973), and “Youth” (1968). Ichikawa uses the same approach for all of these documentaries. Focusing on the event itself and the athlete’s endurance during the competition, Ichikawa follows a melodramatic concept of pain and glory.
Three years after the monumental “Tokyo Olympiad” about the Tokyo Olympic Games, the director...
“Youth” is screening at Japan Society
Primarily known for his fictional works, Ichikawa also produced a handful of documentaries, that had a striking impact especially in the field of sports documentary. Most significant are “Tokyo Olympiad” (1965), “Visions of Eight” (1973), and “Youth” (1968). Ichikawa uses the same approach for all of these documentaries. Focusing on the event itself and the athlete’s endurance during the competition, Ichikawa follows a melodramatic concept of pain and glory.
Three years after the monumental “Tokyo Olympiad” about the Tokyo Olympic Games, the director...
- 4/3/2020
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Already the sixth entry in the series in three years (and the first of four in 1964), one would wonder if “Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold” would have anything new to offer to the series but right from the credits at the very start, director Kazuo Ikehara has a resounding “hell yes, it does” for you!
On his way back from paying his respects at the grave of a man he regrets killing in a fight from a previous chapter, Zatoichi meets the villagers of the deceased’s village Itakura who are in the midst of a celebration. They are rejoicing the fact that after a long period of hardships, they have finally been able to gather the one thousand ryo to pay their taxes to the local magistrate. However, on the way to the magistrate, the entourage with the chest containing the tax money is pounced upon by three samurais,...
On his way back from paying his respects at the grave of a man he regrets killing in a fight from a previous chapter, Zatoichi meets the villagers of the deceased’s village Itakura who are in the midst of a celebration. They are rejoicing the fact that after a long period of hardships, they have finally been able to gather the one thousand ryo to pay their taxes to the local magistrate. However, on the way to the magistrate, the entourage with the chest containing the tax money is pounced upon by three samurais,...
- 3/27/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
by Vikram Zutshi
When Akira Kurosawa passed away in 1998, the tributes poured in endlessly. He had been a major influence on some of the most important directors in the history of cinema. It is not enough to say that Kurosawa was a legend. At the time of his demise, he was a colossus whose myth had inspired a number of artists considered legends in their own right. Roman Polanski, Werner Herzog, Andrei Tarkovsky, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Coppola and George Lucas have all cited Kurosawa as one of their greatest influences.
“Let me say it simply” declared Martin Scorsese, “Akira Kurosawa was my master, and … the master of so many other filmmakers over the years.” Federico Fellini called him “the greatest example of all that an author of cinema should be” and Steven Spielberg declared “I have learned more from him than from almost any other filmmaker on the face of the earth.
When Akira Kurosawa passed away in 1998, the tributes poured in endlessly. He had been a major influence on some of the most important directors in the history of cinema. It is not enough to say that Kurosawa was a legend. At the time of his demise, he was a colossus whose myth had inspired a number of artists considered legends in their own right. Roman Polanski, Werner Herzog, Andrei Tarkovsky, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Coppola and George Lucas have all cited Kurosawa as one of their greatest influences.
“Let me say it simply” declared Martin Scorsese, “Akira Kurosawa was my master, and … the master of so many other filmmakers over the years.” Federico Fellini called him “the greatest example of all that an author of cinema should be” and Steven Spielberg declared “I have learned more from him than from almost any other filmmaker on the face of the earth.
- 3/23/2020
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Kelly Reichardt’s signature minimalism permeates “First Cow,” a good-natured friendship tale — enmeshed with a subtle critique of capitalism — set in the mid-19th-century Oregon Territory. Based on Jonathan Raymond’s novel “The Half-Life,” the adaptation follows John Magaro’s recluse chef Cookie and Orion Lee’s immigrant runaway King Lu, two dreamers who launch a mischievously lucrative business, frying up biscuits made with milk stolen from the region’s first cow, owned by a wealthy Englishman.
Reichardt entrusted prior collaborators Dp Christopher Blauvelt and costume designer April Napier, to help deliver the film’s look. They drew inspiration from Reichardt’s references, such as “Ugetsu,” Kenji Mizoguchi’s mystery-drama about wartime profiteers, and “The Apu Trilogy,” Satyajit Ray’s coming-of-age classics.
The film shot in cold and wet terrain, but Blauvelt was well-equipped for the elements, having shot Reichardt’s other Pacific Northwest-based pictures, “Certain Women,” “Night Moves” and “Meek’s Cutoff.
Reichardt entrusted prior collaborators Dp Christopher Blauvelt and costume designer April Napier, to help deliver the film’s look. They drew inspiration from Reichardt’s references, such as “Ugetsu,” Kenji Mizoguchi’s mystery-drama about wartime profiteers, and “The Apu Trilogy,” Satyajit Ray’s coming-of-age classics.
The film shot in cold and wet terrain, but Blauvelt was well-equipped for the elements, having shot Reichardt’s other Pacific Northwest-based pictures, “Certain Women,” “Night Moves” and “Meek’s Cutoff.
- 3/11/2020
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Pioneering filmmaker and actress was second woman to direct a feature in history of Japanese cinema.
The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the work of Japanese director and actress Kinuyo Tanaka at its upcoming 73rd edition (August 5-15), in its first ever retrospective dedicated to a female artist.
Tanaka (1909 –1977) was a pioneering figure in Japanese cinema throughout her 50-year career, appearing in the films of legendary directors Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi before striking off to direct her own films.
“This is the first time that the festival will be dedicating its retrospective to a female director, after 73 years,” said...
The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the work of Japanese director and actress Kinuyo Tanaka at its upcoming 73rd edition (August 5-15), in its first ever retrospective dedicated to a female artist.
Tanaka (1909 –1977) was a pioneering figure in Japanese cinema throughout her 50-year career, appearing in the films of legendary directors Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi before striking off to direct her own films.
“This is the first time that the festival will be dedicating its retrospective to a female director, after 73 years,” said...
- 1/23/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
review by Levan Tskhovrebadze
Japanese director Jiro Sato regains traditions of Japanese cinema in his second feature “Brothers in Brothel” narrating a hapless story of being trapped in the patriarchal entropy of prostitution. The story and atmosphere are as mystic and unusual as in Kenji Mizoguchi, and at the same time, the director manages to draw the portrait of disaffection in a dysfunctional family in Yasujiro Ozu’s style. The allegory of being isolated and exploited is everlasting so the brothel is a metaphor that can be customized on each hopelessly vulnerable group… still, the screen is shedding hope all over the audience.
Six people are living in a brothel located in an isolated island – Tokuta (Takayuki Yamada) and Ibuki (Riisa Naka) who are also siblings of the owner Tetsuo (characterized by the director himself) and four prostitutes. Because these people have never been out of the island, their beliefs...
Japanese director Jiro Sato regains traditions of Japanese cinema in his second feature “Brothers in Brothel” narrating a hapless story of being trapped in the patriarchal entropy of prostitution. The story and atmosphere are as mystic and unusual as in Kenji Mizoguchi, and at the same time, the director manages to draw the portrait of disaffection in a dysfunctional family in Yasujiro Ozu’s style. The allegory of being isolated and exploited is everlasting so the brothel is a metaphor that can be customized on each hopelessly vulnerable group… still, the screen is shedding hope all over the audience.
Six people are living in a brothel located in an isolated island – Tokuta (Takayuki Yamada) and Ibuki (Riisa Naka) who are also siblings of the owner Tetsuo (characterized by the director himself) and four prostitutes. Because these people have never been out of the island, their beliefs...
- 11/26/2019
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Actor who played the wife of a samurai warrior in Rashomon, one of the great classics of Japanese cinema
When Rashomon won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice film festival in 1951, and was shown widely in the west, the floodgates were opened for more Japanese films to be released worldwide.
This allowed cinephiles in the west to follow the masterful career of Rashomon’s director, Akira Kurosawa, and to discover the two forceful leads Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo. Although Kyo, who has died aged 95, had appeared in a number of films previously, it was Rashōmon that enabled her to work with other greats of Japanese cinema such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu.
When Rashomon won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice film festival in 1951, and was shown widely in the west, the floodgates were opened for more Japanese films to be released worldwide.
This allowed cinephiles in the west to follow the masterful career of Rashomon’s director, Akira Kurosawa, and to discover the two forceful leads Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo. Although Kyo, who has died aged 95, had appeared in a number of films previously, it was Rashōmon that enabled her to work with other greats of Japanese cinema such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu.
- 5/27/2019
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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