Japanese Female Directors

Rouven Linnarz wrote:
Although she would go on to make feature films as an actress, Kinuyo Tanaka’s last project as a director would be the 1963 jidaigeki “Love Under the Crucifix”, a work based on the novel “Ogin-sama” by Toko Kon. At the same time, given her development as a filmmaker, this is truly an interesting climax to a career which saw her progressing more and more, developing her skills, especially when it comes to cinematic storytelling. Additionally, the themes that defined her previous works such as “Love Letter” and “Forever a Woman” also found a fitting conclusion in a feature that, even though it was not set in the present as her other movies, it certainly made a very relevant point about gender roles within Japanese society as well as the conflict between duty and desire as expressed in the story of the main characters.Read More »

Mariko Miyagi was an actress who had also written screenplays, produced, and directed films. She was also the director of Nemunoki Gakuen, a school for disabled children – the first ever such school in Japan. The school was founded by Miyagi in Shizuoka Perfecture in April 1968 using her own money. At Nemunoki, children and young adults with physical, intellectual or familial difficulties are gently encouraged to discover and develop their talents through such activities as painting, music, tea ceremony and dancing. The Silk Tree Ballad was the first in a series of documentaries, initially distributed by the ATG.Read More »

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Shinnosuke (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) and Misawa (Keishi Nagatsuka) are joint managers of a Bonsai shop. Suddenly Shinnosuke’s childhood friend Haruko (Mami Nakamura) turns up. She has split up with her boyfriend and finds herself out on the streets. Shinnosuke starts to like Haruko and really wants to cheer her up, but he can’t manage to express his real feelings or stop picking up other women. Misawa is dumbfounded by Shinnosuke’s behavior but also has complex feelings of love for his friend. Haruko realizes that Shinnosuke is falling in love with her but she pretends not to notice in order to keep the peace between the friends. Then one day Shinnosuke suddenly blurts out his feelings for Haruko, but she has just hooked up with another man. Haruko moves out of the shop and in with the man, but then his wife returns and Haruko finds herself out on the streets again. Shinnosuke has to start cheering her up all over again.Read More »

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Miyuri Obara (Moeka Hoshi) is a quiet outsider among the mean girls at her provincial school, opting to keep to herself — and to tackle her angst through tentative self-harm — rather than fight back. Her only companion is, in fact, a silkworm.Read More »

Misaki’s husband Ken’ichi dies in a car accident soon after their marriage. He had managed the Sunrise Villa apartments, which his parents have managed after his death. A psychic claims to have received word from Ken’ichi’s spirit that he wants the apartments to be kept running responsibly.Read More »

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n April 24, 2004, Kawase Naomi had a son, Mitsuki. Following Japanese tradition, she gave birth on a tatami mat, assisted by a midwife and surrounded by all her family. As soon as the umbilical cord was cut, she tools up her camera and films every day her child and her ninety-year-old grandmother. With this highly emotionally affecting «docu-diary» the filmmaker continues to reflect on the world around her, her origins and the future. Although she initially wanted to describe only the life she carried within her for nine months, Kawase Naomi eventually extended the scope of her film to include Mitsuki’s interaction with those around him. By deliberately breaking with any notion of linear temporarily, she creates, with gentleness but also with harshness and violence, a pendulum like movement between moments, past and present feelings. Read More »

One of the most radical and influential works of experimental television produced by the famous couple of the late 60s, Yoko Ono and John Lennon.

In November 1968 work began on one of one of John & Yoko’s most ambitious film ventures, a 75-minute mini-feature called Rape. It starred Eva Majlata, a 21 year old Hungarian actress who couldn’t speak English. She cannot escape the prying attentions of the camera which follows her around the streets of London, through a park, allowing her no privacy and almost causing her to walk into the path of a truck. She attempts to escape in a taxi, but is still followed. She is eventually cornered in an apartment from which she apparently cannot escape and her tearful pleas to the camera remain ignored. Rape was shot when John and Yoko were both at Great Charlotte Street Hospital following Yoko’s miscarriage. The cameraman was Nick Knowland, who worked on most of John and Yoko’s productions.Read More »

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Mariko-Mother is the second film in a four-part documentary film, directed depicting the children of Nemunoki Gakuen, a nursing home for the physically handicapped. It is a video poetry that spells out the daily life of the school on a beautiful screen.Read More »

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The fourth film in a four-part documentary film depicting children of a nursing home for the physically handicapped, Nemunoki Gakuen, which celebrated its 45th anniversary. Projecting friendship through music and dance between Nemoki children and New York Harlem children.Read More »