Tatsuya Nakamura

  • Toshiaki Toyoda – Yomigaeri no chi AKA The Blood of Rebirth (2009)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaJapanToshiaki Toyoda

    Quote:
    Based on a well-known Japanese legend, the story concerns the sage-masseur Oguri (Tatsuya Nakamura), who is summoned by ailing King Daio (Kiyohiko Shibukawa). Despite receiving superlative treatment, the king is insulted by Oguri’s casual attitude toward death, so he poisons the healer. In the afterlife, Oguri chooses to come back to this world—as an infant. Growing up quickly, he meets Terute (Mayu Kusakari), a concubine who has escaped from the king, and together they seek the Waters of Resurrection.Read More »

  • Shinya Tsukamoto – Bullet Ballet (1998)

    1991-2000AsianCrimeJapanShinya TsukamotoThriller

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    Quote:

    Carrying a gun

    If there were awards for great titles then Bullet Ballet would surely be up for a gong or two. At once suggesting both violence and elegance, it sounds like the perfect Hong Kong era John Woo film, an all-action but balletic explosion of slow-motion gunplay that became the director’s trademark. But this isn’t John Woo, this is Shinya Tsukamoto, a director whose deeply personal style is a million miles from Woo’s slickly filmed action works. Tsukamoto’s concerns are far more localised, to the city in which he lives, to his neighbourhood, to his own body, and his cinematic style is far edgier and more dangerous. Which is not to knock Woo in any way, but nowadays when Woo is making the vacuous Paycheck, Tsukamoto is making the extraordinary A Snake of June. He is one of those rare directors who has never sold out and never compromised his vision. Tsukamoto is the very personification of a great outsider film-maker.Read More »

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