Masaki Kobayashi

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Ningen no jôken AKA The Human Condition: II. Road to Eternity (1959)

    Masaki Kobayashi1951-1960DramaJapanWar
    Ningen no jôken (1959)
    Ningen no jôken (1959)

    Quote:
    Masaki Kobayashi’s six-part magnum opus, The Human Condition, based on Junpei Gomikawa’s postwar novel, bears the imprint of Kobayashi’s tutelage under legendary filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita at Shochiku’s Ofuna studio, a critical, introspective, and deeply personal account of wartime Japan framed from the perspective of an idealistic everyman (and Kobayashi’s alterego), Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai). Opening to the ironic image of lovers Kaji and Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) meeting under an archway auspiciously called the Southern Gate of Peace in Manchuria as Imperial troops march in the street, Kobayashi presents an incisive image of 1930s Japanese society that is morally consumed—and ravaged—by increasingly extremist values of militarism, occupation, and nationalism.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Kaseki (1975)

    Masaki Kobayashi1971-1980ArthouseDramaJapan

    This drama is adapted from a Japanese television mini-series. In the story, an industrialist learns of a medical condition which will greatly shorten his life. He is on a trip to Europe at the time, and a glimpse of a Japanese woman in that setting causes him to fantasize about her as the personification of his impending death. As his dialogue with his imagined mortality continues, he actually meets the living woman who is the template for his fantasy, and together they tour rural churches. Gradually he comes to some kind of peace about the diagnosis. When he returns to Japan, he is met with a series of challenges which profoundly test the lessons he has learned.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Nihon no seishun AKA Hymn to a Tired Man (1968)

    Masaki Kobayashi1961-1970DramaJapanWar

    Kobayashi Masaki’s 1968 Toho film about a man beaten to the point of deafness by his superior officer during WWII. He meets him again through his work as an inventor, and struggles through the challenge of his son’s romantic interest in the Officer’s daughter.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Kono hiroi sora no dokoka ni aka Somewhere Beneath The Wide Sky (1954)

    1951-1960DramaJapanMasaki KobayashiRomance

    SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE WIDE SKY (1954, aka KONO HIROI SORA NO DOKOKA NI) came near the end of Masaki Kobayashi’s formative period as a director — scripted by the sister of his mentor Keisuke Kinoshita (and scored by Kinoshita‘s brother), this drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Seppuku aka Harakiri (1962)

    1961-1970ActionAsianJapanMasaki Kobayashi

    Quote:
    Following the collapse of his clan, an unemployed samurai (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to be allowed to commit ritual suicide on the property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for a new position, try to force his hand and get him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his beliefs and his personal brand of honor. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Harakiri, directed by Masaki Kobayashi is a fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Seppuku AKA Harakiri (1962) (HD)

    1961-1970ActionArthouseJapanMasaki Kobayashi

    New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
    Following the collapse of his clan, an unemployed samurai (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to be allowed to commit ritual suicide on the property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for a new position, try to force his hand and get him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his beliefs and his personal brand of honor. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Harakiri, directed by Masaki Kobayashi is a fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system.Read More »

  • Charlotte Zwerin – Music for the Movies: Toru Takemitsu (1994)

    USA1991-2000Charlotte ZwerinDocumentary

    Documentary about Toru Takemitsu, composer of the extraordinary scores for such films as Kwaidan, Woman In the Dunes, Ran, and many others. Illustrated with scenes from these films and others, and with interviews with Takemitsu and various directors. Includes studio recording sessions. In English and Japanese, with burnt in English subtitles.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Inochi bô ni furô aka Inn of Evil (1971)

    1971-1980AsianDramaJapanMasaki Kobayashi

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot Synopsis [SamuraiDVD.com]
    This is another masterpiece from filmmaker KOBAYASHI Masaki, noted director of HARA KIRI, KWAIDAN, and SAMURAI REBELLION. The Japanese title is actually translated as “We give our lives for nothing”, and is the true heart and soul of this story. Based on a novel by YAMAMOTO Shugoro, who also wrote the books upon which SANJURO, KILL, and AFTER THE RAIN, were based, it tells the tale of a group of thieves and murderers who find it within themselves to sacrifice their lives with no hope of personal gain. NAKADAI Tatsuya stars as Sada, an expert with knives, whose mysterious past comes to light as he leads a group of fugitives in their last-ditch battle to save their home, a dilapidated inn, which does not welcome strangers in its doors. KATSU Shintaro plays against type in a pivotal role as one of the only outsiders ever allowed to drink at the inn. Tension and suspense lead up to a conclusion like no other. A magnificent motion picture, and a true work of art.Read More »

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