The Catch 飼育 (1961) : Based on a prize-winning novella by Kenzaburo Oe -– Oshima removes the homoeroticism of the source but adds his typical touch of incestuous desire –- The Catch is set during the final days of World War II. A black GI is captured in a remote Japanese farming village, and becomes a pawn in a power struggle between various factions. As the villagers squabble over their “catch,” Oshima explores subjects that would become his hallmarks – Japanese hypocrisy, racism, xenophobia, insularity, scapegoating – with detached ferocity.Read More »
Rentarô Mikuni
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Nagisa Ôshima – Shiiku AKA The Catch (1961)
1961-1970AsianDramaJapanNagisa Oshima -
Ji-shun Duan & Jun’ya Satô – Mikan no taikyoku AKA The Go Masters (1982)
1981-1990DramaJapanJi-shun DuanJun'ya SatôQuote:
“The Go Masters” begins and ends with the same game of Go, but 32 years separate the opening and closing moves. In between, there is war and heartbreak, death and disease, doomed lovers, families separated by fate and united by chance. The movie is a melodrama on an epic scale, an Asian “Gone With the Wind,” filled with romance and action but built on a foundation of Eastern philosophy.Read More » -
Shôhei Imamura – Kamigami no fukaki yokubô AKA Profound Desire of the Gods (1968)
Drama1961-1970ArthouseJapanShohei ImamuraQuote:
The culmination of Shôhei Imamura’s extraordinary examinations of the fringes of Japanese society throughout the 1960s, Profound Desires of the Gods [Kamigami no fukaki yokubô] was an 18-month super-production which failed to make an impression at the time of its release, but has since risen in stature to become one of the most legendary — albeit least seen — Japanese films of recent decades.Read More » -
Satsuo Yamamoto – Zatôichi rôyaburi AKA Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967)
1961-1970ActionJapanMartial ArtsSatsuo YamamotoSynopsis:
When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free. But it’s really all just a plot to enlist Ichi’s aid in eliminating the competition. Once that’s been attended to, the master of the surviving house of chance grabs more and more power – and more cash from the hapless farmers. Even a blind man can see that justice must be done.Read More » -
Satsuo Yamamoto – Niguruma no uta AKA Song of the Cart-Pullers (1959)
1951-1960ClassicsDramaJapanSatsuo YamamotoSynopsis:
In Song of the Cart-Pullers (Niguruma no uta, 1959) one of his most visually captivating works, Satsuo Yamamoto resurrected, through the struggles of three-generation family in rural Hiroshima Prefacture, an intimate history of Japanese peasant life, from the harsh late Meiji years to the Taisho Rice Riots and the tragedies of the pacific war.Read More » -
Shôhei Imamura – Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari AKA Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
1971-1980CrimeDramaJapanShohei ImamuraSynopsis:
Vengeance Is Mine is the come-back feature of master Shohei Imamura after a 10 year hiatus. The film is based on a real-life serial killer who went on a killing spree across Japan in the 60s.Read More » -
Kazuo Mori – Zatôichi goyô-tabi AKA Zatoichi at Large (1972)
1971-1980ActionJapanKazuo MoriMartial ArtsSynopsis:
Blind masseur and master swordsman Zatoichi finds a robbed and fatally wounded pregnant woman, whose baby he delivers before she dies. He takes the baby in search of its father and finds the child’s aunt, who is about to be forced into prostitution for want of a payment the dead mother was bringing. Zatoichi determines to save the woman from her fate.Read More » -
Shinji Sômai – Sêrâ-fuku to kikanjû AKA Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981)
1981-1990ActionCultJapanShinji SômaiSynopsis:
High school student Hoshi Izumi (Yakushimaru Hiroko) is just a normal teenaged schoolgirl, except for the fact that her father is a yakuza boss. When her father suddenly dies, Izumi inherits his position as the clan head. Pulled into the wheeling, dealing, and fighting of the mob world, Izumi slowly comes into her own as she leads the gang in search of her father’s murderer.Read More » -
Hiroshi Inagaki – Sengoku burai AKA Sword For Hire (1952)
1951-1960ActionAsianHiroshi InagakiJapanSynopsis:
Set in the civil wars of the 1570s, the film follows three samurai, Hayate, Jurata, and Yakeiji after the fall of their castle. Jurata escapes by pretending to be Hayate and escorting Hayate’s love Kano to safety, while the other two survive the fighting despite their wounds. Yakeiji becomes the leader of a bandit group while Hayate is saved by Oryo, the daughter of the leader of a different set of bandits. Jurata falls in love with Kano, but she leaves him to search for Hayate, just missing him several times, and Oryo also falls in love with Hayate and tries to track him down after she believes he killed her father. Numerous changes of sides, adventures, and confrontations follow for all.Read More »