Jirô Tamiya

A yakuza film epic about a man and a woman establishing a family of longshoreman, centering on their love and struggle.Read More »

Quote:
Misumi directs an adaptation of a famous novel written by Yamasaki Toyoko, writer whose works were adapted numerous times for TV (Shiroi Kyotō is a sort of cult here in Japan) and for the big screen.
Kyō Machiko, Wakao Ayako and Takada Miwa star in a story about a wealthy family and the greed and selfishness of his three daughters, and relatives, after the passing of their old father. The movie casts a dim light on family relationships and money, where the only ray of hope seems to come from the younger generations.
Cinematography, music and editing are top-notch, the manner in which Misumi and his editor cut from one scene to the following in many passages of the film is really mesmerizing.Read More »

Quote:
Few novels were filmed as many times as Shiro Ozaki’s famous Theatre of Life . So rich and appealing is this roman fleuve about chivalrous yakuza that, over the decades, it was rendered in “youth”and animated versions, as a lavish epic or omnibus film (including one by Kinji Fukasaku), and indeed was initially made by Uchida in 1936 as a highly regarded “social tendency” film. But Uchida’s later version is considered the gold standard, partly because of his mastery at visual storytelling, partly because of his superb ensemble cast. The yakuza Hishakaku kills someone in a dispute over a barmaid, but turns himself in at the urging of Kiratsune, an old gangster who has just returned from eight years in Shanghai and has become his protector.When he gets out of prison, Hishakaku finds himself once again torn between his sense of duty to his gang and his sense of humanity, and is drawn back into the bloody clan feuds.Read More »

Synopsis:
Two car manufacturers spy on each other to try to find out details and prices of a new sports car each is about to launch.

Review:
Yasuzo Masumura’s 1962 spy thriller Black Test Car pits rival agencies against each other in an escalating game of theft, deceit, and sabotage. And no, the title isn’t a mistranslation. The movie opens with the Tiger corporation suffering through a disastrous test run for its latest sports-car model, the Pioneer.Read More »

Director Satsuo Yamamoto wields his sarcastic scalpel in this message movie that takes jabs at the practices of the medical profession. Zaizen Goro may only be an assistant professor but he has already made a name for himself. His superior, however, does not approve of his attitude towards their profession, and is at odds over who to nominate as his successor. The selection of the new professor reveals a rich and complex political world inside Naniwa University.Read More »