The Japanese town of Yanagawa so captivated Hideo Miyazaki on his first visit that he decided to use it as the background for one of his stories. However, he entrusted Isao Takahata with directing the project. The producer of Nausicaä was so impressed with the efforts of the locals to protect the canals that run through the town that he would convert the entire film into a documentary about their peculiar history.
Tag: JAPAN
This is a film about a man without a face. His arms and legs, bound with ropes, the disabled man is still without even a shudder in a white room. A series of unusual scenes in this room expresses what lies between memories, nightmares, and violent images.
700 continuous still photographs which are re-photographed frame by frame with linear, circular, and parabolic movements going up and down. This creates a crazy roller coaster out of this peaceful gymnasium shot in the dark.
The story of a group of high school boxing team members who spend their days drinking, sailing and chasing girls, and who more often than not spend their nights getting into brawls. In particular, it focuses upon Tatsuya, a sullen young man, who falls in love with Eiko, a proud upper-class girl.
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Noburo Nakamura’s film sees Yoshie Nogami work as a factory worker by day, while moonlighting as a bar hostess at night. Seduced by regular Eiji Kitami, she begins a passionate love affair, until Eiji’s demeanor changes and she is slowly forced into a life of prostitution. Living a life of despair, she eventually meets building engineer Fujii, who urges her to go straight and run away with him. But this swooning, tragic drama has other plans in store for her. A genuine rediscovery, The Shape of the Night is one of Japan’s great female-centered melodramas, to rank alongside those of Ozu, Imamura and Naruse.
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Yuu Kamiya is an up-and-coming talent in Japanese show business. She is killed in a traffic accident. On the way to heaven, she gets a chance to transiently restore her body (to which mirrors and photos are insensitive) and comes back to this world. She starts new life as an average girl.
After the Japanese surrender to the U.S., ending World War II, the residents of a small fishing village feel great humility in the wake of the defeat. But some of the children — Ryuta and Saburo in particular — react with anger and confusion. Their uncertainty about the future is magnified when U.S. troops occupy the area and treat the villagers with kindness, adhering to Gen. MacArthur’s proclamation. Tensions ease, but profound complications still linger.