Abe Ichizoku (The Abe Clan)
Hisatora Kumagai, 1938, 106 min.
Aging in Japan: When Traditional Mechanisms Vanish
Documentary
Akira
Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988, 124 min.
Experiments on children with E.S.P. get out of hand, forcing
the government to authorize the dropping of an atomic bomb on Tokyo.
Rising from the ashes, gigantic Neo-Tokyo faces new perils as the experiments
continue. Featuring awesome animation, Akira is considered a landmark film
in Japanese cinema, animated or otherwise.
Animated
An Actor's Revenge
Kon Ichikawa, 1963, 114 min.
A female impersonator in the Kabuki tradition seeks revenge
against the villains who caused his parent's death. This complex
tale, set in 19th-century Japan, involves numerous plot twists as it blurs
the distinctions between illusion and reality. Japanese w/ English
subtitles.
An Autumn Afternoon
Yasujiro Ozu, 1952, 112 min.
This profoundly simple and moving film examines changing familial
relationships in an increasingly Americanized postwar Tokyo. With
his unmistakable and inimitable style, Ozu has created a serenely beautiful
film which tells the timeless, moving tale of a father giving up his only
daughter in marriage. Both humorous and heartbreaking, An Autumn
Afternoon was Ozu's 53rd and last film. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Bad Boys
Susumu Hani, 1960, 90 min.
Hani's first feature film was almost unanimously praised by
critics. Based on a collection of papers written by boys at a reform
school, this film was shot on location and acted by real inmates who were,
in effect, reliving their own experiences. Adding to the gritty realism
is the ex-tensive use of 8mm cameras and hand held shots to photograph
scenes as an unobtrusive observer. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Bad Sleep Well
Akira Kurosawa, 1959 135 min.
One of Kurosawa's best films, in some ways a prophetic work
set in the circles of corporate government and corporations. The
film is a black, twisted story of revenge in which a grieving son takes
on powerful business and political figures. Set up as a tantalizing
thriller, Kurosawa's melodrama is laced with irony and bitter, grotesque
humor. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Ballad of Narayama
Shohei Imamura, 1983, 129 min.
Winner of the Grand prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival,
this film is based on one of the most astonishing of all Japanese legends.
A century ago in a remote mountain village, local custom dictated that
when a person reached 70 years of age, he was taken to Mount Narayama to
die. A briliant film from director Imamura that delivers a vigorous
and beautiful affirmation of family, life, and death. Japanese w/
English subtitles.
Being Two Isn't Easy
Kon Ichikawa, 1962, 88 min.
A melancholy work about the joys and mysteries of life as experienced
by a two-year-old boy, Taro. Taro is thunderstruck by the small (the
climbing of stairs) and the significant (space travel). Ichikawa
evokes an impressionistic picture of daily life and inter-family conflicts.
The film "catches the fantasy and wonder with which a child must gaze"
(Variety). With Fujko Yamamoto, Eiji Funakoshi and Hiroo Suzuki.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Biyakuran no Uta (Song of the White Orchid)
Kunio Watanabe, 1939, 103 min.
Black Lizard
Kinji Fukasaku, 1968, 90 min.
A hilarious caper movie written originally for the stage by
Yukio Mishima; the plot concerns a female jewel thief who kidnaps nubile
youths and ferries them to a glitzoid secret island. There she turns
them into naked love statues--one of them bizarrely played by Mishima himself.
Miss Lizard is portrayed by the transvestite actor Akihiro Miwa, who flounces
around in an impossible collection of boas and chokers and turns every
flourish of her cigarette holder into an over-the-top arabesque.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Black Rain
Shohei Imamura, 1988, 123 min.
A somber, restrained, and very moving story detailing ten years
in the life of a family which survived the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima--and
the ways in which their bodies and souls were poisoned by the fallout.
Filled with haunting images. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Blind Woman's Curse
Teruo Ishii, 1970, 83 min.
Combining a historical yakuza gangster story with horror film
atmosphere makes this film a cult favorite. It follows the chain
of mysterious events that unfolds when a woman yakuza boss accidentally
blinds a woman from a rival gang. Soon violence threatens to engulf
everyone in sight. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Bunraku: Music of Bunraku
Eugene Enrico, 1991
Documentary
The Burmese Harp
Kon Ichikawa, 1956, 116 min.
A Japanese army private in Burma is so revolted by the carnage
of war that he refuses to return home. Dressed as a Buddhist monk,
he remains to bury the dead. The first Japanese film to stress pacifism,
it is remarkable for its pulsating black and white images and its humanist
fervor. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Career Escalator: Education and Job Competition
Documentary
Chikamatsu Monogatari (Crucified Lovers)
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954, 110 min.
In 17th century Japan, the illicit love between a merchant's
wife and her servant leads to tragedy. Based on a story by Chikamatsu
and derived from a Bunraku play, "it is perhaps Mizoguchi's most intense
and concentrated study of social mores in feudal Japan and among his most
visually sensuous films" (Georges Sadoul). Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Chushingura: The Loyal 47 Retainers
Hiroshi Inagaki, 1962, 207 min.
The Gone With the Wind of Japanese cinema, from the director
of The Samurai Trilogy, set in Japan in 1701. When Lord Asano is
forced by a corrupt lord to commit harakiri, 47 loyal samurai seek vengeance.
With Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Chusha Ichikawa and Koshiro Matsumoto.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Cruel Story of Youth
Nagisa Oshima, 1960, 96 min.
Oshima's second feature conveys the pent-up sexuality and disillusionment
among Japan's postwar generation. Two lovers live outside the boundaries
of their society, performing shakedowns on unsuspecting middle-aged men
and speeding away on the angry boy's gleaming motorcycle with the goods.
With seemingly disconnected details and stark framings, Oshima creates
an atmosphere akin to the French New Wave. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Dodes 'ka-den
Akira Kurosawa, 1970, 140 min.
Unforgettable: Kurosawa's blending of fantasy and reality
in the story of a group of Tokyo slum dwellers who, cheated by life, survive
on illusion and imagination. A passionate affirmaton of life, beautifully
photographed. The title of the film comes from the sound of the trolleys.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Double Suicide
Masahiro Shinoda, 1969, 104 min.
Inspired by a classic 18th-century puppet play, this film is
the heartbreaking tale of a married shopkeeper in love with a prostitute.
Bound by duty, and too poor to pay her way out of bondage, Jihei asks Koharu
to enter a suicide pact, the only way they can be free. Masahiro
Shinoda's moving adaptation is at once faithful to the original and extremely
innovative. Puppet masters and stage hands appear on screen, changing
scenery and manipulating the actors' movements. Japanese w/ English
subtitles.
Drunken Angel
Akira Kurosawa, 1948, 98 min.
Takashi Shimura plays a doctor who tries to bring about the
spiritual and physical recovery of the human debris who live in the ashes
of a poor quarter of Tokyo immediately after the war; Toshiro Mifune is
an uprooted petty gambler and black-marketeer. One of Kurosawa's
classic films in the vein of his love of Dostoevsky. Japanese w/
English subtitles.
Early Summer
Yasujiro Ozu, 1951, 135 min.
In this charming, accessible Ozu drama, a young Japanese woman
accustomed to a sense of independence is being bullied into a family-arranged
marriage. An astute study of generational conflict.
Eijanaika
Shohei Imamura, 1981, 151 min.
Called an "historical documentary," this film is "a sprawling,
superb-looking period piece charged with Imamura's characteristically fevered
eroticism and underplayed black humor. As spectacle, it's stunning
in its dynamism and the last half-hour presents one of the most libidinal
depictions of a mass uprising since Eisenstein restaged the storming of
the Winter Palace. As in Vengeance Is Mine, Imamura imbues the cruelty
with virtuoso ferocity and an appalling, visionary beauty" (J. Hoberman,
Village Voice). Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Enterprise: The Colonel Comes to Japan
Documentary
Equinox Flower
Yasujiro Ozu, 1958, 118 min.
When the daughter of a successful business man defies an arranged
marriage and runs off with a pianist, the father refuses to give consent.
A warm comedy of reconciliation, the film marks Ozu's first use of color.
With Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima and Miyuki Kuwano. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Explorer Woman Ray
Hiroki Hayashi, 60 min.
Archaeologist Ray Kizuki travels the remote spots of the world
to find a temple which contains a mysterious object that may hold the key
to a vanished civilization. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Animated
Face of Another
Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966, 110min
This film ascribes metaphysical dimensions to everyday life.
A factory worker left faceless by an accident suffers agonies of exile
and solitude until he acquires a mask of someone else's face through plastic
surgery. Having another face allows him to lead a double life and
affords him the chance to seduce his wife as a stranger. Metaphorically,
the film treats the chronic anxieties of powerlessness and the small, uniquely
Japanese terror of facelessness through nuclear devastatioin. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Family Game
Yoshimitsu Morita, 1983, 107 min
Irreverent, surreal, unpredictable, Morita's film pokes fun
at contemporary Japanese ideals--educational achievement, high technology,
urban gentility, in the story of a Japanese teenager who has everything
money can buy--except grades. Family hires Yoshimoto, a poor but cantankerous
college student, whose influence on the family is a combination of Godzilla,
Karl Marx and a marine sergeant, waging class war on his natural enemies
for the best possible incentive: profit. Japanese with English subtitles.
Fires on the Plain
Kon Ichikawa, 1959, 105 min.
Ichikawa's powerful depiction of the inhumanity of war and passionate
cry for sanity. A soldier, part of the retreating Japanese army,
is forced to hide in the Philippine jungle, where he finds disease, death,
and cannibalism. Minimal dialogue and intense visual images build
to a work of immense power.
Floating Weeds
Yasujiro Ozu, 1959, 128 min.
A group of travelling actors visits a town where the leading
actor's (Ganjiro Nakamura) ex-mistress lives with their son. Nakamura's
present lover (Machiko Kyo) is understandably jealous. Brilliant
color cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa; one of Ozu's great films.
Also known as Drifting Weeds. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Forty-Seven Ronin
Part I
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1941, 111 min.
The Forty-Seven Ronin
Part II
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1942, 108 min.
Also known as A Tale of 47 Loyal Retainers of the Genroku Era,
Mizoguchi's two-part film deals with the vengeance of the retainers of
Lord Asano in 1703 following his forced hara-kiri. Mizoguchi's film
version is based on a Kabuki version of the story by Seika Mayama.
"This is a re-discovered wartime saga of noble samurai sentiments and discreet
passions. A girding of the spirit is recommended for this wraparound
experience in the same way that the best of the long-form classics are
to be savored...", wrote Tom Allen and Andrew Sarris in The Village Voice.
"Mizoguchi has transformed a basic samurai legend of Japanese folklore
into an essential historical drama of Japanese cinema. The boxed
courtyards and formal gardens of the 18th century are tracking paradises
that Mizoguchi's dolly-and-crane shots exploit fully, and the tale of loyal
vessals avenging their lord's honor is rendered subtly throughout by a
highly disciplined Expressionism."
The Funeral
Juzo Itami, 1986, 112 min.
Itami's breakthrough Japanese film is a black comedy concerning
the rivalries and hypocrisies of a contemporary Japanese family which is
called to the funeral of their father. Itami deftly satirizes contemporary
Japanese mores and idiosyncracies. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Gate of Hell
Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953, 86 min
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,
Gate of Hell heralded a revolution in cinematic color. The screen
is steeped in fiery reds for chaotic battle scenes, then blanketed in soothing
images of white-kimonoed priests beside a calm blue sea. Kinugasa's
sublime control of color intensifies every emotion in this classic 12th-century
tale of a warrior whose love dishonors a married woman. Kazuo Hasegawa
brings a quiet fierceness to the role of Moritoh, the proud warrior who
falls in love when he guards the beautiful Lady Kesa during a palace revolt.
As the woman horrified by Moritoh's attentions, Machiko Kyo conveys a heart-wrenching
devotion to her husband. The charged performances and exquisite compositions
depict a culture dedicated to order, yet easily rocked by passion.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
A Geisha
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953, 87 min.
This film is a portrait of geisha life, a document about the
rise of feminism in post-war Japan and an examination of the evolving relationship
of two women. One is a distinguished geisha (Michiyo Kogure), the
other, a 16-year-old novice (Ayako Wakao) whom she is training. Kogure
is alarmed by the young woman's romantic delusions. "The film's charm
is the compassionate but completely unsentimental way it regards the two
women's friendship" (Vincent Canby). Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Ghost of Yotsuya
Nobuo Nakagawa, 1950, 100 min
This bizarre, spine-tingling, horrifying tale of the supernatural
deals with the psychological torture of the inner mind, and stars Shigeru
Amachi and Katsuko Wakasugi. Based on a 250-year-old legend, a masterless
samurai must shed his wife and marry a younger and wealthier maiden.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Gonza the Spearman
Masahiro Shinoda, 1986, 126 min.
A beautiful film, set in 18th century Japan. The handsome
but overly ambitious Gonza is one of the Matsue clan's most talented lancers.
Although he is already engaged to the sister of one of his fellow retainers,
Gonza agrees to wed the daughter of his lord to better his position.
The fiance's infuriated brother plots against Gonza. This classic
tale of conflicts between love and honor, duty and devotion, won a Silver
Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Graves of the Fireflies
Isao Takahata, 1988, 88 min.
Adapted from the story by Akiyuki Nosaka, this portrait of post-war
Japanese society before the American occupation deals with Seita and his
young sister Setsuko as they try to survive in the ravaged countryside.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Animated
Harikiri
Masaki Kobayashi, 1962, 135 min.
This grim and exquisite film explores the honor in death and
the death of honor venerated by the 17th-century samurai. After an
unemployed samurai is forced to commit ritual suicide before a feudal lord,
his father-in-law returns to the scene, seemingly to commit the same act.
Instead this warrior acts out against the cruelly rigid society that enforces
such harsh discipline. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Hidden Fortress
Akira Kurosawa, 1958, 139 min.
Set during Japan's feudal wars, this restored version of Kurosawa's
drama concerns a gilded princess and her loyal general who undertake a
dangerous journey to their homeland, assisted only by a pair of misfits
and pursued by warriors and bandits attempting to loot their gold and valuable
possessions. Beautifully photographed in widescreen by Ichio Yamazaki.
With Toshiro Mifune, Misa Uehara and Minoru Chiaki. Japanese w/ English
subtitles.
High and Low
Akira Kurosawa, 1962, 143 min.
Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), a wealthy manufacturer, is about
to take over the company he has worked for all his life when a mysterious
phone call informs him that his son has been kidnapped. When it is
discovered that the kidnapper has taken the chauffeur's son by mistake,
Gondo is faced with the choice of either paying the ransom and facing financial
ruin, or letting a little boy almost surely die. As the police, led
by Detective Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai), track the kidnapper through the
seedy underworld of Yokohama, full of G.I.s, prostitutes and junkies, Gondo
is slowly drawn closer to the man responsible for his ruin. Based
on Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" novel "King's Ransom," High and Low is a
classic film noir, full of breathtaking chase sequences, meticulous police
work and a shattering climax.
Himatsuri
Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1985, 120m
An independent, fortyish lumberjack (Kinya Kitaoji) is outraged
by pollution, commericial exploitation and the destruction of wildlife.
Believing he's the protector of the mountains through his divine relationship
with the goddess of the mountains, he turns to violence against his family
to voice his opposition to change and technological intrusion. Awesome
sounds and images in a daring film. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Alain Resnais, 1959, 91 min.
From the beginning, in which the love-making of a French actress
(Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) is intercut with
newsreel footage of Hiroshima's atomic holocaust and its aftermath, to
the couple's painful walk through the reconstructed city, Resnais' film
recaptures both the pain and richness of the war. French w/ English
subtitles.
Human Condition
One of the great works of Japanese cinema, "this nine and one-half
hour long humanistic anti-war fresco is magnificent, including many forceful
scenes that depict the horrors and cruelties of war. Its director,
Kobayashi, said 'I wanted to bring to life the tragedy of men who are forced
into war against their will. Kaji is both the oppressor and the oppressed
and he learns that he can never stop being an oppressor whie he himself
is oppressed. Of course I wanted to denounce the crimes of war but
I also wanted to show how human society can become inhumane.'" Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Part 1: No Greater Love
Masaki Kobayashi, 1959, 200 min.
The production at mining camps has come to a standstill.
Japan is desperate, so Kaji, who believes that war can be won through the
hearts and minds of labor, is given authority.
Part 2: Road to Eternity
Masaki Kobayashi, 1960, 180 min.
As this sequence opens, Kaji is tortured by the military police
for having mistreated the Chinese. Allowed one memorable night with
his wife, he is ordered to the front. His records brand him as a
"red," and his superiors mistreat him.
Part 3: A Soldier's Prayer
Masaki Kobayashi, 1961, 190 min.
Ravaged by hunger and thirst, Kaji awakens to a world gone mad.
Surrender? To whom? Americans? Russians? Chiang
Kai-shek? Surrendering to avoid needless slaughter, Kaji is force
marched to Siberia, whre he finds his worst enemy is now a collaboartor
who brands him a war criminal. Escaping into the wastelands of Siberia,
he continues his desperate journey into the ultimate reality of war.
I Bombed Pearl Harbor
Shuei Matsubayashi, 1960, 98 min
Toshiro Mifune, "the Spencer Tracy of Japan," stars in this
multi-million-dollar, all-Japanese, Technicolor epic that holds the record
for most ships destroyed per minute of film. Filmed 15 years after
World War II, these are the events of the war seen through the eyes of
the Japanese. The beautifully filmed battle scenes and realistic
recreations of several of the Pacific theatre's most important battles
make this especially interesting for history buffs. Dubbed in English.
The Idiot
Akira Kurosawa, 1951, 166 min.
Drawing from Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Kurosawa transposes this bitter
story to postwar Japan. Kameda, a war criminal sentenced to be shot,
has been pardoned at the last moment. The shock makes him into an
idiot and prone to epileptic fits. Upon release, he is befriended
by the strong and tenacious Akama. When they both fall for the beautiful
Takeo Nasu, madness becomes a common denominator in this grossly tragic
and haunting film. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Ikiru
Akira Kurosawa, 1952, 143 min.
Kurosawa moved outside his usual stylistic preoccupations to
make this poetic and emotionally powerful work about a gravely ill, quiet
and dignified civil servant who vows to find grace and purpose in his final
months, through the building of a public park. It's a thoughtful,
contemplative, lyrical work centered by Takashi Shimura's virtuoso performance.
With Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki and Miki Odagiri. Japanese w/ English
subtitles.
The Inland Sea
Lucille Carra, 1992, 57 min.
Carra's interpretation of critic and author Donald Richie's
memoir about growing up in Japan's islands is a private odyssey of the
inner and outer landscapes. Cinematography by Hiro Narita.
Score by Toru Takemitsu.
Documentary
Insect Woman
Shohei Imamura, 1963, 123 min.
One of Japan's finest actresses, Sachiko Hidari, plays Tome,
an impoverished country girl who escapes a brutal existence which includes
rape and incest, by fleeing to Tokyo. She proves to be an amoral
survivor who fights her way to success as a madam. A dark and often
humorous story of sexual exploitation. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
In the Realm of Passion
Nagisa Oshima, 1978, 110 min.
Oshima follows up his notorious In the Realm of the Senses with
the story of a peasant woman who, with the help of her lover, kills her
husband. Their future hopes wither, however, when the injured party
returns from the dead to haunt and endlessly torment them. This sad
tale of two lovers consumed by the very passion that they seek is presented
to the viewer amidst a somber landscape of embattled moods and emotions,
performances and superb photography of this gripping film are unified under
Oshima's remarkable lyrical style. This film earned him the aware
of Best Director at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. Starring Kazuko
Yoshiyuki, Tatsuya Fuji and Takuzo Kawatani. Japanese with English
subtitles.
In the Realm of the Senses
Nagisa Oshima, 1971, 100 min.
A scandal when it was seized by New York customs and refused
entry into the United States, and the sensation of the New York Film Festival,
this film is, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, "probably the most
thoughtful work of and on eroticism ever created." Explicit in its
depiction of sex, and a film about the literally consuming passions of
two people, the film is most infamous for its final castration sequence.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Irezumi (Spirit of Tattoo)
Yoichi Takabayashi, 1983, 88 min.
To please her eccentric lover, a young Japanese woman defies
cultural taboos and submits to having her back elaborately tattooed.
The act of love gives life to an ancient art. An experience of sensual
awakening, and liberation. The pleasure and pain of transformation.
A mystery of obsession...a film of exquisite beauty. In Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Japan on Video
Jennifer Smith, 1991, 50 min.
Video Guide
Japan Past and Present: The Age of the Shoguns (1600-1868)
Films for Humanities, 1989, 53m
Documentary
Japan: The Land and Its People -- Japanese Society
Nippon Steel Corp., 1989 23 min.
Documentary
Japan: The Land and Its People -- The Japanese and Nature
Nippon Steel Corp., 29 min.
Documentary
Japan: The Land and Its People -- The Taste of Japan
Nippon Steel Corp., 1989, 30 min.
Documentary
Japan: The Land and Its People -- The Japanese Family
Nippon Steel Corp., 1989, 35 min.
Documentary
Japanese Pilgrimage: The Pilgraimage to the Eighty-eight Sacred
Places of Shikoku
Oliver Statler, 30 min.
Documentary
The Japanese Version
Kolker and Alvarez, 1991, 56 min.
Documentary
Kagemusha
Akira Kurosawa, 1980, 159 min.
A masterpiece. Set in 1531 Japan torn by civil strife,
this film deals with a mighty Japanese warlord and his commoner look-alike
who, after the warlord's death, is used to keep his clan together.
Tatsuya Nakadai is superb in the dual role of the war lord and his double,
both caught up in the swirl of history as the mighty powers clash in fierce
battles and political intrigue. Winnter of the Grand Prize at Cannes.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Kwaidan
Masaki Kobayashi, 1964, 161 min.
Four terrifying tales of the supernatural filmed with visual
sensitivity. This is no Japanese monster movie. Rather, it
creeps up on you by appealing to human emotions and fears. An Academy
Award nominee, this distinctive work is filled with graceful camera movement,
unusual colors, haunting sound effects and music. Japanese w/ English
subtitles.
Late Chrysanthemums
Mikio Naruse, 1954, 101 min.
In this adaptation of three Fumiko Hayashi stories, four retired
geishas contemplate their past lives and their continuing unequal relationships
with men.
Late Spring
Yasujiro Ozu, 1949, 107 min.
In this film, a father feels he is keeping his daughter from
marriage; when she is erroneously told that her father is thinking of re-marrying,
she agrees to an offer. Late Spring, wrote Donald Richie, is "one
of the most perfect, most complete, and most successful studies of character
ever achieved in the Japanese cinema." With Setsuko Hara, Chishu
Ryu. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Life of Oharu
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952, 136 min.
An enduring masterpiece of world cinema, from the director of
Ugetsu. Life of Oharu is a poignant, exquisitely filmed portrait
of a woman victimized by the brutal strictures of 17th century feudal Japan.
Mizoguchi shows remarkable insight into the psychology of his female protoganist,
and photographs her with slow, graceful, hauntingly beautiful camera movements.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Living Treasures of Japan
National Geographic, 1980, 60 min
Documentary
The Lower Depths
Akira Kurosawa, 1957, 125 min.
Kurosawa's masterful reworking of the classic play by Maxim
Gorky, using foundations of Japanese Noh theatre, set in Edo during the
last Tokugawa period. A rare ensemble effect is achieved from the
actors in this moving story of a group of destitute people living in a
rooming house. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Makioka Sisters
Kon Ichikawa, 1983, 130 min.
This film chronicles the life and affairs of four sisters in
1920's Japan. An older, conservative sister tries to continue family
traditions and pretensions to status, while the younger sisters discover
the new freedoms becoming available to them. This battle over traditional
ways is set in marked contrast to social and political changes going on
in Japan. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Matsushita Electric (Coming from Japan)
PBS Frontline, 1992
Documentary
Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
Akira Kurosawa, 1945, 60 min.
A very offbeat film, an adaptation of a popular Kabuki drama
about a 12th-century lord who is forced to flee his estate with only six
dedicated samurai to guard him. He is hunted by his brother, the
Shogun, and is ultimately saved by his chief vassal through a clever disguise.
The wartime Japanese government banned the film because it didn't extol
the concepts of feudalism and obedience; after the war, the Allied Occupation
forces banned it for being pro-feudal. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Nagisa Oshima, 1983, 124 min.
David Bowie delivers a strong performance in Oshima's apocalyptic
tale of a Japanese prison camp during World War II. The film also
features To Conti and Ryuichi Sakamoto. English dialogue.
Minbo, or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion
Itami Juzo, 1994, 123 min.
Itami turns his acid humor to Japan's infamous institution--the
Yakuza gangs--in this film about a courageous attorney who rallies all
of the employees at a hotel in an effort to resist the Yakuza blackmail.
After the film was completed, thugs viciously attacked the director, forcing
him to go into hiding. A brilliant, satirical look at the underbelly
of Japanese modern life. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Paul Schrader, 1985, 121 min.
On November 25, 1970, an abortive attempt to overthrow the Japanese
government led to the ritual suicide of a writer who cast a global shadow.
He was Yukio Mishima, Japan's finest postwar author, and a tortured modern
man struggling to find his future in his homeland's imperial past.
Schrader's haunting, lyrical Mishima vividly depicts this most paradoxical
of men. Mishima was a weakling who became a fanatical bodybuilder,
a devoted family man, a sensitive artist and leader of his own army--at
ease in Western ways but reinventing himself in the militarism of feudal
Japan. The film's visual style shifts between a documentary-like
recreation of Mishima's last day, black-and-white flashbacks of his early
years and intoxicatingly colorful episodes from three of his novels.
The result is a true cinematic original: an unforgettable portrait
of sensual and intellectual passion.
The Mistress
Shiro Toyoda, 1953, 106 min.
A deeply moving exploration of love, betrayal and destiny.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Mother (Okaasan)
Mikio Naruse, 1952, 98 min.
Naruse's portrait of silent sacrifice and secret strength, the
moving story of the Fukuhara family whose business is in ruins, and whose
lives are filled with tragedy. But Naruse focuses on the resilience
and determination, the inner moral strength of the Japanese during the
post-war era, "a gripping image of a nation rising from the ashes."
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
In the Name of the Emperor
Choy & Tong, 1995, 52 min.
Documentary
Nessa No Chikai (Oath of the Hot Sands)
Kunio Watanabe, 1940, 123 min.
No Regrets for Our Youth
Akira Kurosawa, 1946, 111 min.
An unusual feminist epic saga which focuses on a charming, talented
and self-absorbed Japanese woman, Yukie, who is preparing herself for the
role of a spoiled, cultured wife. She flirts with two suitors, one
a disaffected leftist, the other a right-wing careerist, though she has
no personal interest in politics. The earliest personal and first
great film by Kurosawa, with a commanding performance by Setsuko Hara as
the complex woman whose life unfolds against the backdrop of Japanese militarist
society. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Odd Obsession
Kon Ichikawa, 1960, 96 min.
An elderly Japanese man with a beautiful young wife finds it
difficult to reconcile his feelings of desire with his decreasing potency
in this "new interpretation of the love-death theme in which some of the
most sordid of human actions are captured by means of the sheerest physical
beauty...Erotic obsession is presented with such near-claustrophobic intensity
that one longs for outdoor scenes...everything is hidden, secreted away"
(Donald Richie). Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Okoge
Takehiro Nakajima, 1992, 120 min
Misa Shimuzu gives a great performance as the lead character
Sayoko, a young women who becomes entwined with two gay men having an affair.
The lovers, played by Takehiro Murata and Takeo Nakahara, cannot work out
their differences despite the best efforts of Sayoko. It is a story
that catalogs the sexual politics of contemporary Japan without moralizing.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
One Wonderful Sunday
Akira Kurosawa, 1947, 108 min.
This beautifully realized, stylistically adventurous, early
film from Akira Kurosawa is marked by both its sentimentality and subtle
irony. A young, poor couple does their best to enjoy a Sunday afternoon
in bustling Tokyo, even as their lack of funds and lousy weather conspire
against them. Their main goal is to somehow attend a costly performance
of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, but the music manages to find them on
their romantic day together. Balancing realism with eternal optimism, Kurosawa
crafts an indelible vision of young love. Japanese with English subtitles.
Onibaba
Kaneto Shindo, 1964, 103 min.
A stylish Japanese ghost tale, set in medieval Japan.
A peasant woman and her daughter manage an existence by impersonating demons--sexually
luring soldiers away from their comrades and murdering them. A warrior
manages to save his life by seducing the daughter, but the mother's sorcery
conjures up a hideous revenge. Mixing graphic violence with sex,
Onibaba is an exotic, terrifying, supernatural fantasy. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Osaka Elegy
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936, 84 min.
"In 1936 Mizoguchi made his most brilliant pre-war film, Osaka
Elegy, shot in 20 days and banned after 1940 for 'decadent tendencies,'
a euphemism barely concealing the military government's fear of the radicalism
of Mizoguchi's satire of the ruthless, all-pervasive Osaka capitalism.
In this film the mature Mizoguchi style emerges for the first time as he
creates, entirely through visual means, a balance between the fate of the
heroine Ayako and the corrupt, degenerate values of Osaka. The plot
concerns the seduction of Ayako, a switchboard operator, by her boss" (Joan
Mellen, The Waves at Genji's Door). Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Postwar Japan: 40 Years of Change
Documentary
Princess Yang Kwei Fei
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955, 91 min.
Set in 8th century China, Princess Yang Kwei Fei tells the story
of the last T’ang emperor and the servant girl he falls in love with and
makes his princess. Yang Kwei Fei is the most dazzling beauty in
the history of China, a born enchantress and a great musician and dancer.
Her tale has been sung and dramatized by countless poets and authors of
the East and is one of the most beautiful love stories ever filmed.
Mizoguchi filmed this Cinderella story at the height of his powers, just
one year before his death, as a testament to his lifelong commitment to
the celebration of women. Part fairy tale, part ghost story, indescribably
beautiful, Mizoguchi’s film is a full-bodied romance set against an unyielding,
shadowy world of political corruption, chaos and revolt.
Ran
Akira Kurosawa, 1985, 160 min.
Kurosawa has created a masterpiece with his own "King Lear"
that brilliantly mixes Japanese history, Shakespeare's plot and Kurosawa's
own feelings about loyalty. Set in 16th century Japan, an aging ruler,
Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), attempts to peacefully divide his hard-won
kingdom among his three sons. Instead, they turn against each other
and betray their father. Then ruthless ambition, evil plots woven
by scheming advisors and Hidetora's own past savagery combine to spawn
a whirlwind of chaos. It ultimately drives the old man insane, shatters
his kingdom and destroys his family.
Rashomon
Akira Kurosawa, 1951, 89 min.
A cinematic landmark, a brilliant study of the nature of truth.
Set in the 12th century. A samurai and his wife are traveling through
the woods near Kyoto. They are attacked by a bandit, the wife raped
and the husband killed. Four different versions of the incident are
told by the participants and a woodcutter who was a witness. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Record of a Living Being (a.k.a. I Live in Fear)
Akira Kurosawa, 1955, 105 min.
An elderly and wealthy industrialist becomes obsessed with a
fear of the atomic bomb. In an attempt to save his family, he pressures
them to leave Japan. Their refusal brings about his madness and ruin.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Record of a Tenement Gentleman
Yasujiro Ozu, 1947, 73 min.
One of Ozu's most wonderful films, a bittersweet comedy about
an abandoned child who manages to create a new surrogate family in an unlikely
setting from a very unlikely candidate. The surprise ending only
reinforces how carefully this film depicts human emotions. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Red Beard
Akira Kurosawa, 1965, 185 min.
An offbeat, virtually unaccountable work from the Japanese master
Kurosawa, mixing the stylizes soap and the action flick, concerns the legendary
doctor called Red Beard who attempts to influence his disciples to turn
away from private practice to use their skills on the poor and sick.
"The film bowls along magnificently in a weird mixture of genuine emotion,
absurdity and poetic fantasy" (Time Out). With Toshiro Mifune as
Dr. Gillespie, Yuzo Kayama, Yoshio Tsuchiya.
Rice Ladle (The Changing Roles of Women)
Documentary
Rikisha-man
Kiroshi Inagaki, 1958, 105 min.
A classic film of unrequited love, starring Toshiro Mifune as
a feisty rikisha puller who helps raise a young boy after the father has
died, loving the boy's mother from a distance that class cannot cross.
Winner of the Venice Film Festival Grand Prize. Japanese with English
subtitles.
Rikyu
Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1990, 116m
Teshigahara presents a poignant film exploring the struggle
between art and power. Drinking tea was once a casual ritual around
which social and diplomatic relationships were practiced. In the
16th Century, Sen-no Rikyu refined the art of the tea ceremony to aesthetic
and spiritual heights. His revolutionary ideas brought him to the
forefront of Japanese politics when war lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi confided
in him as Tea Master, and together they sought what to each was most high:
For Rikyu, it was beauty, for Hideyoshi, power. Thoughtful performances
from Rentaro Mikune, Tsutomu Yamazaki and Yoshiko Mita bring this historical
allegory to its tragic close. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Ripples of Change
Nanako Kurihara, 1995, 57 min.
Documentary
Rising Sun
Philip Kaufman, 1993, 129 min.
Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel about
two Los Angeles cops, special liaisons to the Japanese, who are investigating
the murder of a party girl in the American headquarters of a Japanese conglomerate.
Sean Connery plays a mysterious, enigmatic expert on Japan who counsels
junior partner Wesley Snipes in the art, skill and traditions of the notoriously
insular Japanese society.
Samurai Rebellion
Masaki Kobayashi, 1967, 121 min.
This samurai classic, set in 18th-century Japan, combines great
acting and thrilling action with thoughtful writing and direction. The
magnificent Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai, The Samurai Trilogy) stars as
Isaburo, a renowned swordsman who takes a heroic but deadly stand for individual
freedom. Isaburo is the essence of samurai loyalty until his daughter-in-law
is commandeered as mistress for his overlord. The injustice moves him toward
a revolt he can never win. Kobayashi creates a bloody climax raging with
power and emotion.
Samurai Trilogy 1: Musashi Miyamoto
Hiroshi Inagaki, 1954, 92 min.
The first part of this trilogy about Japan's most notorious
17th century swordfighter, Mushashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune), details
his odyssey from farmer to disaffected killer. Having fought on the
losing side during the civil war, he returns as a manic outlaw caught between
his feelings for a beautiful village girl and a sympathetic Buddhist priest.
With Rentaro Mikuni, Karuo Yashigusa and Koji Tsurato. Japanese w/
English subtitles.
Samurai Trilogy 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Hiroshi Inagaki, 1955, 102 min.
In the second part, Miyamoto's technical sills are perfected
and his transformation to savage warrior is complete. He undergoes
a mythic spiritual quest for inner harmony, disrupted by the presence of
a rival samurai and the loss of the woman he loved. With Toshiro
Mifune, Koji Tsurata and Sachio Sakai. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Samurai Trilogy 3: Duel at Ganryo Island
Hiroshi Inagaki, 1956, 105 min.
In the final part of this samurai trilogy, Miyamoto resolves
the personal and professional tensions in his life, confronting the emotional
pain of the two women who love him and the roguish swordsman who challenges
his domain. With Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Uashigusa and
Takashi Shimura. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Sanjuro
Akira Kurosawa, 1962, 92 min.
The hero of Kurosawa's Yojimbo returns to help a group of very
earnest, very green, very young samurai get their clan rid of corruption.
As in Yojimbo, much of the comic effect comes from imaginative composition
and incongruous movement. With Toshiro Mifune. Japanese w/
English subtitles.
Sanshiro Sugata
Akira Kurosawa, 1943, 80 min.
Sugata, like so many of Kurosawa's characters, champions principles
against a hostile, established order. In his first film, Kurosawa
was already unconventional in style, as the hero advocates the newer art
of judo against the traditional and well-entrenched jujitsu masters.
Before proving himself, Sanshiro undergoes the long ordeal of learning
judo as a discipline in a strikingly visual film extraordinary also for
its explosive martial arts choreography. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa, 1954, 208 min.
Set in medieval Japan, Kurosawa's epic centers on a group of
impoverished peasants who enlist the protection of seven unemployed samurai
to defend their property and harvest from the brutal bandits who terrorize
their village. The film is groundbreaking for its visual intensity,
stylistic command of movement, space and action, and its expressive emotional
range and social criticism. The battle sequences are frightening,
devastating and eerie. Cinematography by Asaichi Nakai. With
Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba and Toshiro Mifune. Japanese w/ English
subtitles.
Shin Heiki Monogatari (Taira Clan Saga)
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955, 90 min.
The last great color film by Mizoguchi. Set in the 12th
century as the center of power in Japan shifted from feudal nobility to
the Buddhist clergy, the story centers on Kiyomori, scion of the Taira
clan of swordsmen. At the beginning of the film he quietly acquiesces
to his father's authority; at the end he is in open revolt against it.
Mizoguchi describes and analyzes this change in a film that is the work
of a major artist in full authority. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Shina No Yoru (Night in China)
Osamu Fushimizu, 1940, 89 min.
Shinto: Festival Music
Enrico & Smeal, 1994
Documentary
Shinto: Nature, Gods, and Man in Japan
Japan Society, 1977, 50 min.
Documentary
The Sisters of the Gion
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936, 69 min.
Often considered to be the best pre-war Japanese film, and Mizoguchi's
masterpiece, Sisters of Gion is set in the red-light district of Kyoto.
The film tells of two sisters--the older trained as a geisha in the old
tradition, the younger an apprentice devoted to the more progressive ideas.
This conflict between the old and the new, wrote Donald Richie in The Japanese
Film, has become "the protest symbol of modern Japan."
Sorekara
Shohei Imamura, 130 min.
Spaceketeers
1992, 46 min.
In Aurora Accepts the Challenge, the young heroine discovers
she's the key in preserving the galaxy from the evil Dekos energy.
She teams with the cyborg Jesse Dart, her first spacekeeter, to vanquish
their enemy. The Invincible Warrior reveals Jesse's origins and how
he devolved into a cyborg.
Animated
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939, 115 min.
Mizoguchi's chronicle of a Kabuki actor. As the son of
a prominent Kabuki family, the young man would be assured eventual fame,
but he runs afoul of his father by falling in love with a servant girl,
and sets out to make it himself on his own. Contains some of Mizoguchi's
most ethereal imagery, as well as some fascinating use of compositions
suggestive of Cinemascope before the widescreen process was invented.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Stray Dog
Akira Kurosawa, 1949, 122 min.
A first-rate thriller in which Kurosawa has acknowledged his
debt to Georges Simenon. Toshiro Mifune plays rookie Detective Murakami,
who loses his gun only to discover that it has fallen into the hands of
a killer. Terrified of losing his job, his search takes him into
the Tokyo underworld, full of postwar shortage, "divinely hellish under
Kurosawa's odd-angled lensing and staccato editing...Stray Dog is a Dostoevskian
saga of guilt, and expiation, by association" (Pacific Film Archive).
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Street of Shame
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1956, 88 min.
The last film by the great Mizoguchi, the story of the dreams
and problems of a group of prostitutes living in one gaudy Tokyo brothel,
with a remarkable performance by the legendary Machiko Kyo. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Struggle and Success: The African-American Experience in Japan
Reggae Life, 1993, 85 min.
Documentary
Summer Vacation 1999
Shusuke Kaneko, 1988, 90 min.
Romantic and beautifully realized, this film tells the story
of four boys who experience the adolescent birth pangs of romantic love,
sexual awareness and jealousy. Left behind at boarding school during
their vacation, the teenagers' summer idyll is disrupted by the arrival
of another youth who seems to reincarnate a dead friend. Delicate
and provocative, Kaneko's film creates a haunting image of youth suspended
between innocence and experience, androgyny and sexual maturity.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Sun's Burial
Nagisa Oshima, 1960, 87 min.
Oshima's most blatantly amoral and extravagantly violent version
of the juvenile delinquency drama, set in a world of rival teenage gangs,
pimps and prostitutes. Set in a hellish Osaka where an exquisitely
cruel femme fatale vies for control of the area's most profitable business
with the gangs. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
The Tale of Genji
Gisaburo Sugii, 1987, 110 min.
Murasaki Shikibu's novel of the Heian era in Japan has been
turned into an animated film. It follows the adventures of Genji,
the emperor's son, who was made a commoner. His gift for poetry and
music ensured he led a truly uncommon life. His loves were legendary
for the genuine emotion and depth.
Tampopo
Itami Juzo, 1987, 114 min.
One of the funniest, most enjoyable, satirical comedies is this
treasure of a movie the plot of which, loosely, concerns the quest for
the perfect Japanese noodle. A mixed-bag of noodle-obsessed men help
the heroine of Tampopo run the best noodle restaurant in Tokyo, a plan
which involves a lot of hilarious madness. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Tatakau Heitai (The Fighting Army)
Fumio Kamei, 1939, 66 min.
Taxing Woman
Itami Juzo, 1987, 127 min.
Itami's satiric comedy of ambition, greed and the battle of
the sexes. A disarming and dedicated woman tax collector meets her
match in a millionaire "love hotel" tycoon and tax-evader extraordinaire.
Winner of nine Japanese Academy Awards. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Taxing Woman's Return
Itami Juzo, 1989, 127 min.
In this rousing follow-up to his 1987 hit, Itami brings back
his resourceful and charming heroine, tax inspector Ryoko Itakura for another
battle of wits against the fat cats and swindlers who thrive in Japan's
booming economy. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Teahouse of the August Moon
Daniel Mann, 1956, 124 min.
Marlon Brando stars as Sakini, an Okinawan interpreter for the
U.S. military in this postwar comedy about tradition, progress and red
tape. Glen Ford is the officer in charge of building a schoolhouse
but the villagers would really prefer a new teahouse instead. Based
on the Broadway play by John Patrick. With Eddie Albert, Paul Ford, Harry
Morgan, Machiko Kyo and Nijiko Kiyokawa as Miss Higa Jiga.
Tear-Stained Memories (Omoide Poro Poro)
Takada Teru
Animated
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989, 67 min.
A post-punk, Japanese film about a man attacked by a feral woman
with a metal hand and his bizarre mutation into a perverse combination
of man and machine. It's like Godard remaking Blue Velvet.
With Tomoroh Taguchi, Nobu Kanaoka and Shinya Tsukamoto. Japanese
w/ English subtitles.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Shinya Tsukamoto, 1991, 78 min.
This Japanese answer to Blade Runner and The Terminator is a
stunning follow-up to the cult classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man. The
action in this post-industrial world centers around a stereotypical Tokyo
businessman whose body transforms into a gun when seized by his own uncontrollable
rage. He is rivaled by "the Guy" (played by director Shinya Tsukamoto),
who is the leader of a gang of indoctrinated street thugs. "A delirious
ride into surreal and subversive territory. Should not be missed
by any sci-fi or horror fan" (Clive Barker). Japanese with English
subtitles.
Throne of Blood
Akira Kurosawa, 1957, 110 min.
Kurosawa's brilliant interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth
shifts the action to 16th century feudal Japan, where a samurai is motivated
by his ambitious wife and spirit to kill his friend. The movie balances
stylized action and movement of the Noh theater with the intensity of the
American western. Kurosawa and cinematographer Asaichi Nakai create
a foreboding atmosphere in the castles and landscape. With Toshiro
Mifune, Isuzu Yamada and Minoru Chiaki. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Tokyo Decadence
Ryu Murakami, 1991, 112 min.
Japanese novelist and filmmaker Murakami adapts his novel Topaz,
about a prostitute's (Miho Nikaido) search for rdemption. Ai falls
under the spell of a charismatic dominatrix and tries desperately to reverse
her slide into cocaine dependency and sexual slavery. With Sayoko
Amano, Tenmei Kanou and Masahiko Shimada. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Tokyo Story
Yasujiro Ozu, 1953, 139 min.
One of the legendary classics of humanist cinema, Tokyo Story
tells the simple, sad story of an elderly couple who travel to Tokyo to
visit their two married children, only to find themselves politely ushered
off to a hot springs resort. "Ozu's technique, as spare and concentrated
as a haiku master's verse, transforms the very banalities of the subject
into moments of intimacy and beauty seldom captured on film. As always,
the themes go beyond the obvious and are conveyed so gently that only afterwards
are many apparent." Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Traditional Japanese Architecture
Documentary
Traffic Jam
Mitsuo Kurotsuchi, 1991, 108 min
A young Tokyo couple are at the center of this dark, comic satire.
They take their children to visit the husband's faraway parents, but the
long road trip proves to be filled with disastrous incidents. Their
journey becomes a metaphor for the gap between young Japanese people and
their ancestral roots. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Twenty-four Eyes
Keisuke Kinoshita, 1954, 116 min.
The cost of war is counted in wrecked hopes and wasted human
potential in Kinoshita's powerful denunciation of a system that stifles
individual growth and transforms personal ambition into unflinching devotion
to the state. The film begins in 1928, and follows Miss Oishi, a
shockingly modern and progressive Japanese woman, who begins her tenure
as an elementary school teacher. To her, the future seems to hold
limitless possibilities for her 12 first-grade teachers. But when
the story ends, in the late 1940's, this promise has been wrecked by war,
poverty, and restrictive tradition. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Ugetsu
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953, 96 min.
Mizoguchi's poetic film is set in feudal, war-ravaged, 16th-century
Japan and focuses on the opposite fortunes of two peasants who abandon
their families to accumulate wealth and prestige and find emptiness and
despair. The film is remarkable for its expressive photography, diagonal
compositions and uninterrupted takes. With Machiko Kyo and Masayuki
Mori. "Scenes of everyday life alternate with those of a dreamlike,
erotic intensity. At the end it is difficult to remember where reality
stops and hallucination begins" (Newsweek). Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Utamaro and His Five Women
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1946, 89 min.
Mizoguchi's exquisite portrait of the artistic life of Tokyo
of the 18th century is a portrait of Edo artist Utamaro (Minnosuke Bando)
and his relationship to women. Utamaro stands at the center of the
lives of five women who compete for his attention in a film which is remarkably
modern for its attitude toward the rights of women. The scenarist,
Yoshikata Yoda, stated that the film was an unconscious portrait of Mizoguchi
himself. With Kinuyo Tanaka, Kotaro Bando, and Hiroko Kawasaki.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Vengeance Is Mine
Shohei Imamura, 1979, 112 min.
One of the most strikingly original films of the modern cinema,
this is an "eclectically horrifying portrait of a psychopathic criminal
named Iwao Enokizo...(the film) makes every other film on the In Cold Blood
theme look like child's play," wrote Tom Allen in The Village Voice.
Enokizu becomes suspect in the murder of two men who work for the government
tobacco monopoly. A nationwide dragnet is set up to capture him,
but for 78 days he travels throughout Japan committing fraud, cheating
women and taking numerous lives. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Violence at Noon
Nagisa Oshima, 1966, 100 min.
After investigating the case history of a rapist, Oshima created
one fo the most effective crime films while transcending the genre.
The story unfolds through the recollections of two women--the criminal's
wife and one of his transcending the genre. The story unfolds through
the recollections of two women--the criminal's wife and one of his victims--strangely
united in an effort to protect the rapist from capture. Their despair
is linked to that of the rapist himself, and ultiately to the failure of
the socialist movement in postwar Japan. Oshima masterfully demonstrates
the ways in which the compulsion to crime and self-destruction reflects
the pathology of the society in which the criminal and victim lives.
With Saeda Kawaguchi, Akiko Koyama, Kei Sato and Matsuhiro Toura.
Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Watashi No Uguisu (My Nightingale)
Yasujiro Shimazu, 1943, 99 min.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Mikio Naruse, 1960, 110 min.
Hideko Takamine and Tatsuya Nakadai star in this beautiful,
ornate drama about a Ginza bar hostess on the eve of her 30th birthday.
The films of Japanese master Mikio Naruse were virtually unknown in the
United States until the writings of Donald Ritchie and Audie Bock heralded
his contributions as the equal of Kurosawa, Ozu, or Mizoguchi.
Woman in the Dunes
Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964, 123m
A woman, confined to a deep pit in the sand dunes, where she
is fed by neighbors and forced to clear her house of the threatening sands,
is joined by a passing photographer whom the villagers have trapped into
sharing her work and bed--forever. This is the situation of Teshigahara's
great symbolic and sensual adaptation of Kobo Abe's novel, in which he
"builds up the erotic tension...with extreme close-ups that transform the
human body into landscape..." (Oxford Companion to Film). With Eiji
Okada and Kyoko Kishida. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
Yojimbo
Akira Kurosawa, 1961, 110 min.
Kurosawa's first full-length comedy. Toshiro Mifune is
the unemployed samurai warrior who comes to a small village torn apart
by two warring factions where he is hired first by one side, then by the
other. Japanese w/ English subtitles.
CHINA
Ah Shih Ma
95 min.
Army Nurse
95 min.
As You Wish
Jianzhong Huang, 105 min.
A Back-lit Picture
Yinnan Ding, 1988, 122 min.
Black Cannon Incident
Jianxin Huang, 1986, 96 min.
Black Snow
Fei Xie, 1992
The Blue Kite
Tian Zhangzhang, 1993, 138 min.
Banned by the Chinese government, this film provides a unique
window into contemporary Chinese life and politics. During the Cultural
Revolution in China, a man called Teitou, his family, and his friends all
experienced the political and social upheavals that shook a continent.
This scathing indictment of life under Chairman Mao was banned along with
the filmmaker. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
Border Town
Zifeng Ling, 1984, 102 min.
Chilly Night
Wen Que, 103 min.
China, My Sorrow
Dai Sijie, 1989, 86 min.
An awestruck 13-year-old boy is arrested by Mao's cultural police
for propagating obscene records during the Cultural Revolution. (He
composed a love song for a 13-year-old girl.) Isolated in mountain
corridors, the young boy befriends another teenage "terrorist" and an elderly
Buddhist monk. He imparts on them the need to preserve their family
structures and create a greater sense of self. "A deft and oddly
lighthearted tribute to the traditions and the spirit of freedom that survived
the Cultural Revolution" (Caryn James, The New York Times). With
Guo Liang Yi and Tieu Quan Nghieu. Mandarin and Shanghaiese with
English subtitles.
Country Couple
Crows and Sparrows
Zheng Junli, 1949, 111 min.
The most renowned of China's social commentary films of the
1940s. Jay Leyda called it "a milestone in Chinese film history,
worthy to be shown alongside the best of international cinema." The
tenants of a Shanghai boarding house struggle valiantly to keep their homes,
triumphing when the greedy landlord is forced to flee the advancing Red
Army. Completed on the eve of the Communist Revolution, the film
was saved from Kuyomintang confiscation by being hidden in the film studio
ceiling. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
Drunken Master
Woo Ping Yuen, 1978, 90 min.
Dust in the Wind
Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1987, 109 min.
A young man sets out to find work in the big city of Taipei
so that he can make money to send home and eventually marry his childhood
sweetheart. Marked with great sympathy and understanding for its
characters and a spare, unhurried style, Dust in the Wind becomes an atmospheric
statement on the generation gap and the divide between the village and
the city in contemporary Taiwan. From the director of The Time to
Live and the Time to Die and A City of Sadness. Taiwanese dialect
w/ English subtitles.
Eat Drink Man Woman
Ang Lee, 1994, 104 min.
Ang Lee's (The Wedding Banquet) winning blockbuster of a movie
about food, sex, and independence. Master Chef Chu is Taipei's legendary
chef whose extraordinary culinary creations are the center piece of the
film. His three beautiful daughters are both sexy and rebellious,
but Master Chu holds the family together with his Sunday ritual dinners.
But as the generations clash, and Master Chu retires, it's the experienced
generation that has the final word in a film that's original, funny, surprising--and
delectable. Chinese w/ English subtitles.
Evening Bell
Ziniu Wu, 1986, 90 min.
Evening Rain
Yigang Wu, 1980, 86 min.
The Filmmakers
Yinnan Ding, 96 min.
The Gate of Heavenly Peace
Carma Hinton, 150 min.
During the spring of 1989, nightly news accounts filmed in Tiananmen
Square enthralled viewers worldwide as they watched the largest popular
demonstration in modern Chinese history unfold. The Gate of Heavenly
Peace, a riveting and explosive three hour documentary, revisits these
events and explores the complex political process that led to the protests
and eventual Beijing massacre of June 4th. Short version.
Documentary
Girl From Hunan
Xie Fei, 1986, 99 min.
A sweeping portrait of a remote village in turn-of-the-century
China struggling to hang on to its feudal traditions. Wedding brings
a 12-year-old girl and a breast-fed, two-year-old boy together. As
the girl matures, she challenges outlandish ideas of freedom and ends up
with an illegitimate child. Her reality is made increasingly complicated
as her boy is prepared to marry a few years later, according to tradition.
A heightened criticism of feudal attitudes toward women, with a mysterious
and affecting focus on the workings of nature; an example of recent Chinese
cinema at its finest. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
The Girl in Red
Xiaoya Lu, 1988, 108 min.
The Go-Masters
J. Sato & D. Jishun, 1982, 134m
A first co-production between Japan and the People's Republic
of China, this amazing historical film is the story of a Chinese go player
who travels to Japan in the 30's, but becomes disillusioned and attempts
to escape back home. Set during 1924-1956, the go-master's love with
a Japanese master's daughter is doomed as Sino-Japanese hostilities break
out, and World War II begins. Grand Prize Winner at the Montreal
Film Festival. Japanese and Chinese w/ English subtitles.
He Shang 1-6 (River Elegy)
1990, 240 min.
Documentary
Hibiscus Town
Jin Xie, 1987, 126 min.
Horse Thief
Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1987, 88 min.
The setting is the harsh, barren landscape of Tibet, which on
film has a stark beauty not unlike the landscapes of American westerns.
Here, amidst a series of tribal and Buddhist rituals captured wordlessly
and in great detail, unfolds a tribal drama of theft, ostracism, and terrible
retribtuion. A film of mystical dimensions, The Horse Thief is a
breathtaking 'Scope epic which concentrates on a primitive way of life
and manages to capture it with a surprising degree of sophistication.
Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
Huang Tu Di (Yellow Earth)
Kaige Chen, 1984, 89 min.
Ju Dou
Zhang Yimou, 1989, 98 min.
The erotic thriller that China didn't want you to see is now
on video. An exquisitely photographed and smartly performed drama
of secret love and hidden faces. Trouble closely follows passion
when a beautiful young bride is drawn to the handsome, strong nephew of
her new husband, an ancient and disagreeable owner of an isolated dye factory.
With excellent performances by Gong Li, Li Bao-tan, Li Wei and Zhang Li.
Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
Kawashima Yoshiko
Ping He, 106 min.
The Killer
John Woo, 1991, 110 min.
Life on a String
Chen Kaige, 1990, 110 min.
Set in a distant, mythological past, this visually impressive
film tells the story of a young boy's search for a possible cure for his
blindness. He devotes his life to music and to breaking one thousand
strings on a banjo. Chinese w/ English subtitles.
Lin Tse-hsu
Junli Zheng, 1959, 107 min.
Mao's Little Red Video
30 min.
Propaganda shown to the Chinese population during China's Cultural
Revolution, intending to encourage the following behind Chairman Mao.
Propaganda
My Memories of Old Beijing
Yigong Wu, 1983, 96 min.
Myriads of Lights
Fu Shen, 1990, 124 min.
Old Well
Kena Dong, 1986, 125 min.
One and Eight
Junzhao Zhang, 1984
Painted Faces
Alex Law, 1988, 100 min.
Plunder of the Peach and Plum
1990, 110 min.
Raise the Red Lantern
Zhang Yimou, 1991, 125 min.
The third feature of Zhang Yimou stars the beautiful Gong Li
as a 20-year-old college student who leaves school to become the fourth
wife of a wealthy, powerful aristocrat. Her presence occasions a
series of bitter jealousies and disputes with the three other wives.
A fascinating work about sex, oppression and patriarchy. Mandarin
w/ English subtitles.
The Red Detachment of Women
1970, 110 min.
Red Sorghum
Zhang Yimou, 1987, 91 min.
A visually spectacular film which is a sweeping modern-day fable.
The first part tells of a nervous young bride's arrival at a remote provincial
winery and her takeover of the family business when her older husband is
mysteriously murdered. The second half is a heroic and harrowing
drama focused on the brutality of the Japanese during their occupation
of China, and on partisan resistance. "The film's exoticism is palpable,
almost intoxicating" (David Edelstein, The Village Voice). Mandarin
w/ yellow English subtitles.
The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus
Clara Law, 1989, 99 min.
Rouge
Stanley Kwan, 1987, 99 min.
Samsara
Song of China
Mu Fei, 1936, 75 min.
A rare film, produced in China during 1936, dealing with a cavalcade
of families through three generations. The film is timely in that
it deals with the universal problem of the generation gap with great sensitivity.
Featuring a native Chinese cast and authentic Chinese music on the soundtrack.
With English subtitles.
Documentary
Song of the Exile
Ann Hui, 1990, 100 min.
A memorable film about cultural divisions and alienation.
Hueyin is a young Chinese student living in London in 1973. After
graduation she returns to Hong Kong because of the job-discrimination she
faces in England based on her heritage. Further emotional tensions
surface in this touching film after the reunion with her own fragmented
family. With Maggie Cheung and Shwu-Fen Chang. Chinese w/ English
subtitles.
Spring in Autumn
Chen Bai, 1988, 123 min.
The Story of Qiu Ju
Zhang Yimou, 1993, 100 min.
In this comedy, a woman seeks justice for a simple slight against
her husband. Along the way, she encounters a welter of bureaucracy
and politesse in this well-observed portrait of contemporary Chinese life.
Chinese w/ English subtitles.
This Life is Mine
Hui Shi, 1950, 111 min.
Three Women
Liting Chen, 110 min.
Tibetan Pilgrimage: The Real Tibet
Alice Moss, 1997, 42 min.
Documentary
The True Story of Ah Q
Fan Chen, 1981, 125 min.
Two Actresses
Jin Xie, 1991, 116 min.
White-Haired Girl: A Filmed Ballet
110 min.
Woman, Demon, Human
Shuqin Huang, 1989, 108 min.
Women From the Lake of Scented Souls
Xie Fei, 1993, 106 min.
At the center of this moving intergenerational family drama
is an old legend about two girls. They drowned themselves in a local
lake and were said to have flown away as beautiful birds. A contemporary
entrepreneur succeeds in business despite her drunken, abusive husband.
Now she faces the chore of putting another woman into an unhappy arranged
marriage because her mentally ill son desires a wife. Can this older,
wiser woman prevent another drowning? Co-winner of the Golden Bear
at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
Xiao Hua
Zheng Zhang, 1980, 105 min.
ASIAN-AMERICAN
Broken Blossoms
D.W. Griffith, 1919, 90 min.
Chan Is Missing
Wayne Wang, 1981, 80 min.
Chinatown 91
Chih-I Alex Chiang, 1992, 15 min.
Documentary
Come See the Paradise
Alan Parker, 1990, 135 min.
Doubles: Japan and America's Intercultural Children
Regge Life, 1995, 58 min.
Documentary
Doubles: Japan and America's Intercultural Children
Regge Life, 1995, 83 min.
Documentary
Eat a Bowl of Tea
Wayne Wang, 1989, 104 min.
From Hawaii to the Holocaust: A Shared Moment in History
Judy Weightman, 1993, 53 min.
Documentary
The Good Earth
Sidney Franklin, 1937, 138 min.
Living on Tokyo Time
Steven Okazaki, 1986, 85 min.
Meeting at Tule Lake
Scott Tsuchitani, 1994, 33 min.
Documentary
Shadow of China
Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1991, 100m
Sunrise on Mulberry Street
Tom Tam, 1998, 100 min.
Shocked by the news of two teenage sisters' suicide in Chinatown,
Tom Tam wrote a fictionalized account about the conflict between parents
and children that led to the destruction of an immigrant family in its
members' pursuit of freedom and happiness. Tam is a long-time Chinatown
moviemaker. This is the first feature written, produced and directed
by him. Armed with a mini-digital video camera, and joined by an
enthusiastic volunteer corp of cast and crew, Tam has succeeded in creating
a minor miracle: a full feature movie made with practically no budget.
Thousand Pieces of Gold
Nancy Kelly, 1991, 105 min.
Threads of Remembrance: The Story of Japanese-American Women
State of Illinois, 1995
Documentary
Tokyo Pop
Fran Rubel Kuzui, 1988, 90 min.
KOREA
Korea '92 and "Kaya" the Ancient Kingdom
1992, 40 min.
Documentary
Korean History: Professor Peterson's Lecture
1992, 60 min.
Documentary/Lecture
Morae Shige, (Hourglass), I-IV
1995, 8 hours
TV Drama
Seoul 1988 (Beyond All Barriers) & Korean Treasures
Documentary
ASIA
The Pacific Century 1:
The Two Coasts of China: Asia and the Challenge of the West
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 2:
Meiji: Asia's Response to the West
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 3:
From the Barrel of a Gun
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 4:
Writers and Revolutionaries
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 5:
Reinventing Japan
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 6:
Inside Japan, Inc.
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 7:
Big Business and Ghost of Confucius
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 8:
The Fight for Democracy
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 9: Sentimental Imperialists: America in Asia
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary
The Pacific Century 10:
The Future of the Pacific Basin
Pacific Basin Institute, 1992, 60m
Documentary