Set in Japan during the last month of World War II in June 1945, this grim neorealist account of the political oppression during the reign of Imperialist Japan follows the adventures of a class of school children as they are fiercely indoctrinated to become pilots for the Japanese airforce.
Tag: JAPAN
Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She’s the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family’s son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He’s tended by his sister Yuko who’s angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and her family loses their home. Complications arise when Shimamura doesn’t come back as promised.
The son of a prominent member of a fishing community returns home after a stint with the yakuza to find his father has died under orders of a local gang leader. He sets out to avenge his father, keeping his plans secret from his mother who is cold to him since his perceived abandonment of the family. This wonderful, if little-seen, Fulasaku gem deals with family, community and what it means to do right by both.
A young girl and a man struggle to understand their place in urban Japan, all the while holding dark secrets.
An old man has settled in Kenya, in a remote cabin, with his adult granddaughter and several of her “animal friends”. They live an idyllic life amongst the wildlife, unseen by all except a tribe of nomads, with whom they trade. But when a plane crashes in the nearby forest and its lone passenger is left an amnesiac, he stumbles into their lives and sets in motion a chain of unexpected events.
Miyashita, a former low-level yakuza member, has tracked down and kidnapped his daughter’s murderer with help of his friend Nijima. But others are soon implicated in the death, leading the pair further down a violent path of revenge.
Chuji Kunisada, a farmer turned gambler and outlaw, is a legendary romantic hero of the late Edo period. Ito’s version of his story made Denjiro Okochi one of the immortal jidai- geki stars. Diary of Chuji’s Travels is a masterpiece because of Ito’s brilliant handling of violence, his startling camerawork, and his total spiritual and emotional commitment to the passionate character and tragic predicament of his hero. Originally released in three feature-length parts, the film was believed lost until 1991, when a re-edition of scenes from the second and third part of the trilogy were discovered.
Impecunious samurai Iemon and his conniving servant Naosuke commit multiple murders to secure the affections of two sisters, Iwa and Sode. Iemon soon tires of Iwa, and given the opportunity to marry a wealthy man’s daughter, he removes the inconvenience of an existing wife by poisoning her and slashing to death the masseur he’d bribed to seduce her. The two bodies are nailed to opposite sides of a shutter and sunk in a pool. Both victims’ disfigured ghosts return to haunt the two murderers, leading them to further crimes and, ultimately, retribution.