This story is based on the novel “Jo no mai” by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga (“picture of a beautiful woman”) that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for “pine” and “green”) from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight.
Tag: JAPAN
Mitsuko Murakami puts the passion to balloon in the hot-air balloon Circle “Airheads”. The club gathered young people holding a variety of thoughts. But “Airheads” is disbanded not too long after. Five years later, “Murakami was in a traffic accident” starts to go around between the circle members, and for that reason the members reunite and hold again a large banquet in order to remember Murakami and the days in the Club.
Marco Polo, the well known adventurer and merchant’s son from Venice in Italy, travels all through asia to find the great Khan. Once there he posesses his protection to merchandise between China and Europe but he prefers to seek out for more adventures.
A series of special situations involves a gay cop who encounters ambiguous, erotic games and sex between strangers. Filmed entirely without dialogue.
People from all walks of life (a high-school student, a middle-aged businessman, a yakuza chief, etc.) all receive mysterious messages from loved ones who were killed 3 months earlier in a shipwreck. They are instructed to go to a small island in the Inland Sea that evening. At the stroke of midnight, the lost ship emerges from the sea and they are given a brief time to say their final words to their lost loved ones, before the deceased must once again board the ship and it sinks back into the depths.
A promising post-graduate literature student is transformed into a psychotic killer following the suicide of his father and a sleazy affair by his mother with a younger man. One of the first “lonely hit-man” or “lonely killer” films.
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young girl who has a ritual of repeating “Tomorrow is my birthday” everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
Produced at the height of Japan’s economic boom of the 1980’s, Yama documents the struggles of unionised day-labourers in the San’ya district of Tokyo, on the frontlines of a violent class war. It is a film for the workers, intended to function as a weapon in their struggle – one that cost director Sato his life. On December 22 1985, during filming, he was murdered by Yakuza gangsters whom Sato intended to expose for their criminal involvement in the restructuring of the job market. A collective of directors headed by Kyoichi Yamaoka finished the film, before Yamaoka, too, was later murdered.