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Tezuka’s animated short film is an allegorical gem in which a boy, in a country where the freedom to daydream is prohibited, is sectioned when he tells his parents of his sightings/imaginings of the titular (fictional?) character. Iain.Stott
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
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Atomic clouds mutate into glasses of beer, and aliens with drawers for mouths tell tales about how the (now extinct) human race used to worship toilet bowls, in this silly, irreverent, and (unsurprisingly) rather lightweight yet very entertaining look at the role that memory plays in our everyday lives, from Japanese animator Tezuka. Iain.Stott
Monday, 28 September 2009
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Marxist Shindō’s entertainingly visceral film – following the day-to-day lives of a pair of war widows in feudal Japan, who, left to fend for themselves, are forced to resort to murder and theft in order to survive – is a distinctive, well-made, metaphor laden work that takes well-aimed pot-shots at capitalism, war, and religion. Iain.Stott
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Japan
Feature Film
Original Title: 怪談
Director: Kobayashi Masaki
Writers: Mizuki Yōko, Lafcadio Hearn
Cinematographer: Miyajima Yoshio
Composer: Takemitsu Tōru
Cast: Mikuni Rentarō, Aratama Michiyo, Watanabe Misako, Nakadai Tatsuya, Kishi Keiko, Nakamura Katsuo, Tanba Tetsurō, Shimura Takashi , Nakamura Kanemon, Takizawa Osamu
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With its incredibly bold use of colour, unsettlingly original use of sound and music, and wonderfully expressive production design, Kobayashi’s remarkable, painterly film – an anthology of ghost stories, encompassing tales of samurais and musicians, woodcutters and lords – is a work of great power and breathtakingly sensual beauty. Iain.Stott
Friday, 25 September 2009
Feature Film
Original Title: 回路
Writer/Director: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Cinematographer: Hayashi Junichirō
Composer: Haketa Takefumi
Cast: Katō Haruhiko, Aso Kumiko, Koyuki, Arisaka Kurume, Matsuo Masatoshi, Takeda Shinji
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Although marketed as a horror film, Kurosawa’s enigmatic piece – in which members of the populace begin to commit suicide for no apparent reason – is designed more to stimulate the brain than the viscera; but whilst he clearly has something to say, quite what that is is never really clear, (but numerous scenes and images do stick in the mind). Iain.Stott
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Japan
Feature Film
Original Title: 他人の顔
Director: Teshigahara Hiroshi
Writers: Abe Kōbō
Cinematographer: Segawa Hiroshi
Composer: Takemitsu Tōru
Cast: Nakadai Tatsuya, Hira Mikijirō, Kishida Kyōko, Irie Miki, Ichihara Etsuko, Kyō Machiko
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With its evocative photography, unsettling score, inventive production design, and top-notch performances, Teshigahara’s distinctive, dreamlike film – an enigmatic, sort-of adaptation of Abe’s (seemingly) unfilmmable novel, depicting a horribly disfigured man’s attempts to rejoin society with the aid of a very life-like mask, provided by a rather mischievous doctor – is an excellent follow-up to his previous work, the masterpiece Woman of the Dunes (1964). Iain.Stott
Monday, 3 August 2009
Japan
Feature Film
Original Title: Yoru no onnatachi
Director: Mizoguchi Kenji
Writers: Yoda Yoshikata, Hisaita Eijirō
Cinematographer: Sugiyama Kōhei
Composer: Osawa Hisato
Cast: Tanaka Kinuyo, Takasugi Sanae, Tsunoda Tomie, Nagata Mitsuo
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Mizoguchi’s post-war melodrama – depicting the bleak fates of a trio of women struggling to survive in the rubble-strewn streets of Osaka, detailing the losses and cruelties that they suffer as they are shepherded towards a life of prostitution – is a distressing, pessimistic work, but one brimming with great performances and unforgettable images. Iain.Stott
Friday, 24 July 2009
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Aoyama’s elegiac, sepia-toned, three-and-a-half hour examination of grief and post-traumatic stress in a small Japanese town – depicting the curious behaviour of the three survivors of a bus-jacking that ended bloodily, two years previously – is a beautiful, moving, and uncompromising film, which certainly won’t suit all tastes, but those willing to commit their time and attention to its sensual rhythms will be richly rewarded. Iain.Stott
Sunday, 19 July 2009
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Yang’s exquisite, sprawling family drama – exploring the ups and downs of an extended Taipei family, comparing and contrasting teenaged and middle-aged heartbreak, spiritual & financial & moral crises, and the universality of human emotion and feeling – is an elegiac yet warm and funny minor masterpiece, and a fitting end to the great Taiwanese film-maker’s career. Iain.Stott
Friday, 26 June 2009
Feature Film
Original Title: 沈黙
Director: Shinoda Masahiro
Writers: Endo Shusaku, Shinoda Masahiro
Cinematographer: Miyagawa Kazuo
Composer: Takemitsu Tōru
Cast: David Lampson, Don Kenny, Matsuhashi Noboru, Kato Yoshi, Iwamatsu Mako
Shinoda’s film about humanism’s battle against the evils of religious fanaticism, religious persecution, and martyrdom - in which a pair of Portuguese Jesuit priests land on the shores of 17th century Japan, where Christianity is banned, attempting to spread the word of Jesus, but end up captured by the authorities - is a fascinating, harrowing, and uncompromising work. Iain.Stott
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Writers: Miyazaki Hayao, Kadono Eiko
Animators: Kondō Katsuya, Kondo Yoshifumi, Otsuka Shinji
Cinematographer: Sugimura Shigeo
Composers: Sydney Forest, Hisaishi Jō
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Janeane Garofolo, Matthew Lawrence, Debbie Reynolds, Tress MacNeille, Edie McClurg, Kath Soucie
In this mildly diverting Studio Ghibli production, which promotes the more attractive of human traits, a 13-year-old witch, as tradition dictates, sets out into the world to make it on her own, deciding to settle in an idyllic seaside city, where she meets a kindly baker, who offers her a place to stay and work as a delivery girl, and gets into various scrapes. Iain.Stott
In this mildly diverting Studio Ghibli production, which promotes the more attractive of human traits, a 13-year-old witch, as tradition dictates, sets out into the world to make it on her own, deciding to settle in an idyllic seaside city, where she meets a kindly baker, who offers her a place to stay and work as a delivery girl, and gets into various scrapes. Iain.Stott
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Writer: Abe Kōbō
Cinematographer: Segawa Hiroshi
Composer: Takemitsu Tōru
Cast: Okada Eiji, Kishida Kyōko
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Teshigahara’s enigmatic, allegorical magnum opus – chronicling the escape attempts of an insect fancying school teacher, mysteriously imprisoned in a sandy dungeon with a taciturn woman by unscrupulous villagers, and forced into back-breaking manual labour – is, with its erotically charged performances, Segawa’s striking photography, and Takemitsu’s unsettling score, perhaps Teshigahara’s finest film and something of a masterpiece. Iain.Stott
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Feature Film
Original Title: 麦秋
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō
Cinematographer: Atsuta Yuuharu
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Hara Setsuko, Ryū Chishū, Awashima Chikage, Miyake Kuniko, Sugai Ichirō, Higashiyama Chieko, Sugimura Haruko, Ikawa Kuniko, Nihonyanagi Kan, Shirosawa Isao, Murase Zen
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Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Feature Film
Original Title: 晩春
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Hirotsu Kazuo, Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō
Cinematographer: Atsuta Yuuharu
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Ryū Chishū, Hara Setsuko, Tsukioka Yumeji, Sugimura Haruko, Aoki Hohi, Usami Jun
Original Title: 晩春
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Hirotsu Kazuo, Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō
Cinematographer: Atsuta Yuuharu
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Ryū Chishū, Hara Setsuko, Tsukioka Yumeji, Sugimura Haruko, Aoki Hohi, Usami Jun
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Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Feature Film
Original Title: ひとり息子
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Ozu Yasujirō, Arata Masao, Ikeda Tadao
Cinematographer: Sugimoto Shojiro
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Iida Chouko, Himori Shinichi, Hayama Masao, Tsubouchi Yoshiko, Yoshikawa Mitsuko, Ryū Chishū
Original Title: ひとり息子
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Ozu Yasujirō, Arata Masao, Ikeda Tadao
Cinematographer: Sugimoto Shojiro
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Iida Chouko, Himori Shinichi, Hayama Masao, Tsubouchi Yoshiko, Yoshikawa Mitsuko, Ryū Chishū
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Saturday, 28 March 2009
Feature Film
Original Title: 秋刀魚の味
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō
Cinematographer: Atsuta Yuuharu
Composer: Saitō Kojun
Cast: Ryū Chishū, Iwashita Shima, Sada Keiji, Okada Mariko, Yoshida Teruo, Maki Noriko, Mikami Shinichirō, Nakamura Nobuo, Tōno Eijirō
Original Title: 秋刀魚の味
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō
Cinematographer: Atsuta Yuuharu
Composer: Saitō Kojun
Cast: Ryū Chishū, Iwashita Shima, Sada Keiji, Okada Mariko, Yoshida Teruo, Maki Noriko, Mikami Shinichirō, Nakamura Nobuo, Tōno Eijirō
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Friday, 27 March 2009
Writers: Kawaguchi Matsutarō, Yoda Yoshikata
Cinematographer: Miyagawa Kazuo
Composer: Saitō Ichirō
Cast: Kogure Michiyo, Wakao Ayako, Naniwa Chieko, Kawazu Seizaburō, Koshiba Kanji, Shindō Eitarō
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Mizoguchi's beautifully crafted film introduces us to a world where east & west and traditional & modern make uncomfortable bedfellows, movingly chronicling the struggles of a geisha and her teenaged apprentice, as their noble world becomes horribly tainted by big business. Iain.Stott
Sunday, 8 March 2009
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A shit-smeared, metaphor-laden film from Meirelles, with excellent production values and convincing performances, Blindness chronicles a pandemic that leaves its victims without sight, and in the process paints a portrait of humanity in all its naked shame (and glory). Iain.Stott
Monday, 23 February 2009
UK/USA/France/Belgium/Japan/The Netherlands/Sweden/Norway/Canada/Australia/Finland/Poland/Iran
Television Documentary Mini-Series
Directors: Dai Richards, Delphine Jaudeau, Paul Mitchell
Cinematographers: Emyr Jenkins, Farzin Khosroshahi, David Niblock, Richard Numeroff, Sheila Smith, Vladamir Trivic
Composer: Samuel Sim
Narrator: Tony Gardner
A fascinating, even-handed look at the continuously tortuous relationship between Iran and the West since the Islamic revolution of 1979, boasting a fabulous array of interview subjects from both sides of the divide, including a number of former presidents. Iain.Stott
Television Documentary Mini-Series
Directors: Dai Richards, Delphine Jaudeau, Paul Mitchell
Cinematographers: Emyr Jenkins, Farzin Khosroshahi, David Niblock, Richard Numeroff, Sheila Smith, Vladamir Trivic
Composer: Samuel Sim
Narrator: Tony Gardner
A fascinating, even-handed look at the continuously tortuous relationship between Iran and the West since the Islamic revolution of 1979, boasting a fabulous array of interview subjects from both sides of the divide, including a number of former presidents. Iain.Stott
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