Yasuzô Masumura

In a rural district of Tokyo, the owner of a farm is abandoned by his two daughters who are attracted to the life of the big city.Read More »

Psychological action drama about the activities of a corrupt lawyer.Read More »

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“Irezumi” (which means “tattoo” in Japanese) is an erotic costume film from one of the bad boys of ’60s Japanese cinema. Director Masumura used a full palette of primary colors (with very vivid reds) to tell us about the story of Otsuya, a beautiful young woman from a middle-class merchant family who is abducted into geisha work, and who catches one day the eye of Seikichi, a tattoo master who marks her back with a huge, monstrous spider. From that moment on, Otsuya will take her revenge with every man who shared her bed.Read More »

Fascinated with women from an early age, Yonosuke (Ichikawa Raizo) had his first sexual encounter at the age of seven. From that day on, he recklessly and forwardly pursues women, feeding his fascination and experience. As Yonosuke’s salacious behavior brings much cause for shame to the family, his father eventually breaks relations with him. Expelled from the family, 19-year-old Yonosuke embarks on a pilgrimage of lust, traveling far and wide to acquaint himself with women of all walks.Read More »

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Basically the plot revolves around an endebted entreprenor who sell his fields to a business-man who plan to build an car-factory. Instead of this factory, the fields will prove to be used for the Shinkansen line. Then, the endebted entreprenor will seek back the business-man for get much more money he deserved in this real trade.

Another not-so subtle critic of capitalism, but some good dark thriller moments and a great&painful strangulation sequence!Read More »

Synopsis:
Masumura’s 40th film, for which he collaborated on the script, shows plot irrationality perhaps due to the newspaper serial original, perhaps to the adolescent behavior he portrays. The extremes of self-sacrifice in some of the characters such as Hisayo and Sugiura contrast too sharply with the animal brutality of Sasabayashi and Namie, and the result is more caricature than realism. The harsh selfishness of Ichiro¯ and the abrupt techniques used to present his interior thoughts (double exposure of a naked Yuri as he undresses her with his eyes) prevent him in the end from winning audience sympathy. Part of a late sixties trend toward adolescent sexuality subject matter.Read More »

A yakuza member’s half-sister means much more to him, in a film that repeatedly depicts realities other than what normal societal rules allow. The overly protective and loving brother; however, soon has to contend with his sister falling for and dating her school teacher, but there is not much he can do about it if he is going to land in jail for stepping outside the bounds of the law.Read More »

Synopsis:
The young owner of the nightclub,Ishizuka(Jiro Tamiya) is attracted to
a beautiful married woman, Namiko(Ayako Wakao) and is falling in love with her. However, Ishizuka forms a plot to take over Namikos husbands company through greenmail. Masumura portayed the love ,conspiracy, betrayal between a man and a woman tenaciously. The elements of noir and melodrama are balanced in quite exquisite harmony.Read More »

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This is one of my very favorite films. I was lucky enough to see a 35 print of it at a Masumura retrospective. A near perfect pitch black comedy, the flick also has some very compelling material regarding activism (a potent topic for the student movement the film is based on). Masumura’s like the Japanese Sam Fuller, but then again, I think this film is better than any of the Fullers I’ve seen.Read More »