Yoshishige Yoshida

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Until 1973 Kijû Yoshida had made sixteen feature films in thirteen years. Having just completed his trilogy on Japanese history “Eros + Massacre” (1969), “Heroic Purgatory” (1970) and “Coup d’Etat” (1971) in which he achieves the form of artistic independence he was striving for and creates his own radical visual and narrative style, the stress of fundraising, producing, writing and directing at the same time takes its toll on him. Yoshida breaks down and falls seriously ill. He has to undergo surgery, but recovers only slowly. In this situation Yoshida receives and accepts the offer of a Japanese TV channel to produce a documentary series on art entitled “The Beauty of Beauty”, which will be broadcasted every Saturday night on Channel 12 from 1974 to 1978. Yoshida left Japan in the fall of 1973 for Europe and works on this series for the next four years producing 94 episodes in total, a project of a truly monumental scale, which can only be compared to the television work of Rossellini after he abandoned cinema.Read More »

Synopsis:
The film’s narrative follows three leading actresses, all appearing in the same movie (but not appearing in the same shot until the end of the film), and all undergoing their own personal crises. It’s very formally worked out, through a series of carefully balanced dialogues with confessors, synchronized confrontation scenes, and staggered flashbacks. If Farewell was Yoshida’s self-conscious Resnais tribute, this is him in Bergman mode (Mariko Okada’s story even begins with her experience hysterical mutism, à la Persona), though the finished product is much livelier and more pungent than anything Bergman would have come up with (maybe Zetterling’s The Girls is a more apposite reference point). On another level, it’s also referencing a big old Hollywood melodrama, pastel panoramas in various shades of bitch (there are also nods to All About Eve).Read More »

Beautiful young Oriko (Mariko Okada) has an unhappy marriage. Her husband Takashi (Tadahiko Sugano), owner of a securities company, has been having an affair and comes home only once in a week at most. In a poetry party, Oriko meets sculptor Mitsuharu (Isao Kimura), who was one of the lovers of Oriko’s deceased poetess mother…Read More »

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‘Escape from Japan’ chronicles the misadventures of Tatsuo Ihara, a small-time criminal who dreams of seeking his fortune away from Japan. Timed to coincide with the Tokyo Olympiad and released on July 4, Escape From Japan can be safely assumed to have something to say about Japan’s place in the world and its relations with the U.S. in particular. It also proves less an imitation than a black-comic send-up of the sort of sordid crime stories that Seijun Suzuki and others specialized in.Read More »

Plot: An ambitious department store worker endeavors to improve his station in life
by manipulating women to get what he wants – money that is.Read More »

This erotic and violent story taken from Emily Bronte’s classic novel, and Georges Bataille’s analyzes, takes place in medieval Japan instead of 19th-century Yorkshire. Onimaru (Yasaku Matsuda) is an orphan boy taken in by a group of priests who worship the Mountain Of Fire and try to appease the gods of anger. He loves Kinu (Yuko Tanaka), the beautiful daughter of a local family. When she marries an heir to a rival family, his heart is broken. When she dies in childbirth, Onimaru loses what is left of his mind.Read More »

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Ikka Kita is a revolutionary, who suffers when he is brought his younger brother’s clothes, still smeared with his blood. Ikka’s brother followed the revoltionary’s precept and acted, attempting on the life of a finantial group manager and then, unable to escape, killing himself. Now, Ikka is more determined than ever to take his own teachings to the ultimate end, the «coup d’etat».Ikka Kita is a revolutionary, who suffers when he is brought his younger brother’s clothes, still smeared with his blood. Ikka’s brother followed the revoltionary’s precept and acted, attempting on the life of a finantial group manager and then, unable to escape, killing himself. Now, Ikka is more determined than ever to take his own teachings to the ultimate end, the «coup d’etat»Read More »

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Little exists, critically speaking, on the subject of Yoshishige Yoshida’s “Heroic Purgatory”. It is a singular experience in that it has never been the subject of much acclaim or criticism. Film sites boast very few, if any, reviews. You will not find its name amongst the more famous Japanese cinematic works. Once one has seen the film, that is all there is. There is no chance to read a critical evaluation and put the pieces together with the help of a more wise, trusted and noted critic. The film extrapolates no farther than itself and its viewer.Read More »

Synopsis:
In the 20’s, the anarchist revolutionary Sakae Osugi is financially supported by his wife, journalist Itsuko Masaoka. He spends his time doing nothing but philosophizing about political systems and free love and visiting with his lovers Yasuko and the earlier feminist Noe Ito. He conveniently defends three principles for a relationship between a man and a woman: they should be financially independent (despite the fact that he is not); they should live in different places; and they should be free to have intercourse with other partners. In 1969, twenty year-old student, Eiko Sokuta, has an active sexual life, having sex with different men. Her friend, Wada, is obsessed with fire and they usually play weird games using a camera while they read about Osugi and Ito.Read More »