Tadashi Imai

  • Tadashi Imai – Bushidô zankoku monogatari AKA Cruel Tales Of Bushido (1963)

    Tadashi Imai1961-1970AsianDramaJapan
    Bushidô zankoku monogatari (1963)
    Bushidô zankoku monogatari (1963)

    PLOT:
    The attempted suicide of his fiancée prompts a Japanese salary-man to read his family chronicles and look back at the life of his ancestors. They were samurai, the military nobility caste who carried out acts of violence at the behest of feudal lords, but suffered even more so under their cruelty, often forced into ritual suicide (seppuku). The women were under constant threat of kidnapping and rape, and the men subjected to arbitrary disfigurement and homosexual slavery … In a radical departure from the usual romanticisation of the samurai, director Tadashi Imai – using period sets and sometimes graphic images – made a film fundamentally critical of medieval Japan’s feudal system and the inhumane samurai code called bushido. In addition, the final two of the eight episodes in the film draw parallels between that and kamikaze pilots of World War II, as well as Japan’s modern achievement-oriented society. Bushido zankoku monogatari was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1963 Berlin International Film Festival.Read More »

  • Tadashi Imai – Yoba AKA The Possessed (1976)

    Tadashi Imai1971-1980DramaHorrorJapan
    Yoba (1976)
    Yoba (1976)

    Oshima, a rich girl married Shinzo, and her cousin girl Sawa has been jealous of Oshima deeply. Sawa cursed Oshima so Shinzo could not hold her and do anything at all. Shinzo hated Oshima, and he made love with Sawa.Read More »

  • Tadashi Imai – Bôrô no kesshitai AKA Suicide Troops of the Watchtower (1943)

    1941-1950ClassicsJapanTadashi ImaiWar

    Summary from IMDb:
    The story centres around a border security team in 1935 Korea. Upon receiving new recruits they hold a welcome party including a restaurant owner and his daughter. The border’s commander has a wife (Hara Setsuko) who helps deliver a neighbour’s baby. One day a border guard is killed by a Chinese bandit who is hiding in the area. The dead man’s sister comes to visit and is given help to further her studies. The film was shot in Korea featuring many Korean actors and crew.Read More »

  • Tadashi Imai – Kome AKA Rice (1957)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaJapanTadashi Imai

    Quote:
    Everyday, 12 April 2006
    Author: sharptongue from Sydney, Australia

    The style is equivalent to the kitchen sink dramas which came to prominence in the 1950s. No kitchen sinks here, but plenty of the gritty (or, more accurately, muddy) details of everyday life on rice farms and fishing boats, where the only labour-saving device is a cow to pull a rotary hoe – and the cow is only on hire. Much screen time is devoted to planting and harvesting the rice, and catching fish and eels on the lake. Punishing work, liked by no-one.Read More »

  • Tadashi Imai – Himeyuri no Tô AKA Tower of the Lilies (1953)

    1951-1960DramaJapanTadashi ImaiWar

    Quote:
    Tower of the Lilies is the true story of a group of high school girls on the island of Okinawa, who were mobilized into military service as nurses in the closing months of World War II.

    The girls, around 200 in all, were thrust into the Battle of Okinawa, one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles in the Pacific. Known as the Himeyuri Corps, they were ordered to join the medical units in large bunker caves where injured soldiers received treatment.Read More »

  • Tadashi Imai – Adauchi AKA Revenge (1964)

    1961-1970DramaJapanTadashi Imai

    Quote:

    This tragic drama shows a young man fettered by Bushido, the way of the Samurai, who tried to escape the chains of his position, but was being forced to die. When the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the land, Tatsuno castle in Wakisaka Clan’s home of Harima held an established custom, the inspection of the arms warehouse. The Government Inspector Okuno Magodayu found a slight bit of dirt on the point of a spear and mentioned it with disdain. Ezaki Shinpachi heard it and started an argument with him. Magodayu then sent a a letter of challenge to him because he felt insulted by a low-ranking underling without a title. Read More »

  • Tadashi Imai – Bushidô zankoku monogatari AKA Cruel Tales Of Bushido [+Extras] (1963)

    1961-1970AsianClassicsJapanTadashi Imai

    Quote:
    Kinnosuke Nakamura plays seven roles in consecutive generations of Iikukuras: (Jirozaemon, Sajiemon, Kyutaro, Shuzo, Shingo, Osamu, Susumu), from medieval warrior Jirozaemon to modern day salary-man Susumu.

    He is essentially playing his own descendants, each generation bound by a glorious ancestor’s oath of vassalage for himself & his family to a castle lord.Read More »

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