Floating Clouds.In the opening scene of Mikio Naruse’s Floating Clouds (1956), a group of repatriated Japanese civilians disembarks from a shabby boat. After two brief wide shots, Naruse cuts to a medium shot to introduce the film’s protagonist, Yukiko, singling her out from what is otherwise a crowd of anonymous faces. But the film’s screenplay elaborates on those who walk alongside Yukiko: Returnees from South Asia are getting off the ship. Among the crowd of women, which consists only of comfort women, geishas, nurses, typists, clerks and the like, there is also Kõda Yukiko, who is not outfitted with proper winter attire.“Comfort women” is a name given to women and girls forced into sexual slavery at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. According to Yoko Mizuki’s screenplay, some are present in the crowd, but it is impossible for the viewer to discern them. The...
- 4/25/2024
- MUBI
“Maborosi” is based on the novel “Maboroshi no Hikari” “by Teru Miyamoto. The title of the book and movie adaptation translates to “phantom light.” Writing the screenplay is Yoshihisa Ogita. Hirokazu Koreeda's first fictional feature would be a critical and financial success. It would be a major hit at the 1995 Venice Film Festival, winning a Golden Osella Award for Best Cinematography. Many viewers have described the feature as having the calm stillness of a Yasujiro Ozu picture with the emotional tone of a work by Mikio Naruse.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The story begins in Osaka. Yumiko is a happy young woman who embraces life and dearly loves her husband, Ikuo, and child, Yuichi. She is frequently troubled by dreams regarding the passing of her grandmother. Despite this, she finds happiness in her new life. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes when her husband dies...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The story begins in Osaka. Yumiko is a happy young woman who embraces life and dearly loves her husband, Ikuo, and child, Yuichi. She is frequently troubled by dreams regarding the passing of her grandmother. Despite this, she finds happiness in her new life. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes when her husband dies...
- 6/19/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Historically speaking, many are used to looking at Japan during World War II for the more notorious aspects, such as the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army or the dictatorship rule of a militaristic government that regularly promoted ultra-nationalistic notions. It seems unreal to some that Japanese citizens had differing mindsets during this historical period of waging aggression. Yet, it would be unwise to label every individual in Japan as standing for the same values, as there were also plenty of pacifistic perspectives that were seen as controversial at the time. One can only imagine what it must have been like for children growing up during the Showa period with constant clashing mindsets. These elements would play into the narrative of Keisuke Kinoshita's “Twenty-Four Eyes,” a beautiful film that promotes love and pacificism during a time of nationalism and war.
Twenty-Four Eyes is screening at Nippon Connection
“Twenty-Four Eyes...
Twenty-Four Eyes is screening at Nippon Connection
“Twenty-Four Eyes...
- 6/12/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
A harsh reality is that many of Japan’s earliest years of filmmaking are forever lost, most of which were destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the firebombings of World War II. Movies that merely live on as historical memories include many of the early pictures of renowned filmmakers, such as Yasujiro Ozu. Yet, thankfully a small amount of Japanese silent cinema still survives. One notable work is “Apart from You,” an early gem directed by Mikio Naruse and one of the country’s first features to show struggles and hardships from the perspective of women.
A mother named Kikue works as a geisha to earn money for a living and help support her teen son Yoshio. However, her offspring is ashamed of her work profession, which strains their relationship, all while he’s skipping classes and getting involved in gangs. Ironically, the troubled youth is...
A mother named Kikue works as a geisha to earn money for a living and help support her teen son Yoshio. However, her offspring is ashamed of her work profession, which strains their relationship, all while he’s skipping classes and getting involved in gangs. Ironically, the troubled youth is...
- 2/26/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Hirokazu Kore-eda infuses the world of the Japanese geisha with his signature gentle humanism in The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, his first drama series for Netflix, launching worldwide this week.
Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.
Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...
Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.
Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...
- 1/13/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mikio Naruse solidified himself as one of Japan’s most admirable filmmakers. His work is known for the pessimistic yet raw outlook on life, showing that the world is not a perfect place while focusing on human vulnerability. Much like Kenji Mizoguchi, he frequently gave women a voice in his work, notably working with beloved actress Hideko Takamine throughout his career. In addition, Naruse would sometimes create premises for narratives that sound surreal on paper yet would be executed wonderfully on film. Look no further than his final masterpiece, “Scattered Clouds,” also known as “Two in the Shadow.”
Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...
Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Considered one of the best Japanese movies of the 60s (and all time) Mikio Naruse’s masterpiece is an ode to realism and minimalism, as well as a rather thorough study of the role of women in the Japanese society of the 60s, stripped from any kind of disillusions.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Every afternoon, young widow Keiko leaves her small apartment to attend a bar in Ginza, where she entertains entrepreneurs after they finish work. Due to her kind nature, the younger girls at the bar call her “mama”, acknowledging her finesse and beauty as the apogee of their profession. Kenichi, the man in charge of the bar, has feelings for her, but he keeps them hidden, while retaining a respectful distance from her, as much as a meaningless relationship with a young and ambitious barwoman, Junko.
As time changes, girls...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Every afternoon, young widow Keiko leaves her small apartment to attend a bar in Ginza, where she entertains entrepreneurs after they finish work. Due to her kind nature, the younger girls at the bar call her “mama”, acknowledging her finesse and beauty as the apogee of their profession. Kenichi, the man in charge of the bar, has feelings for her, but he keeps them hidden, while retaining a respectful distance from her, as much as a meaningless relationship with a young and ambitious barwoman, Junko.
As time changes, girls...
- 9/7/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The director of Shoplifters shows naivety in trying to turn two baby kidnappers into lovable rogues. Even Parasite’s Song Kang-ho can’t make it stick
Hirokazu Kore-eda can claim to be the greatest living Japanese film director, whose family dramas have marked him out as the heir to Ozu (although in an interview with me he said he preferred to be compared with Mikio Naruse). His work, including the Palme-winning Shoplifters (2018) is rightly revered. But he has always had a sweet tooth for whimsy and sentimentality, which I thought was on display in his much admired baby-swap drama Like Father Like Son (2013).
Now he has given us a sudsy road-movie heartwarmer set in Korea and inspired by the Korean phenomenon of “baby boxes” put out by churches for unwanted newborns. But the movie is fundamentally silly, with tiringly shallow characterisation and broad streaks of crime-drama intrigue, which only underline...
Hirokazu Kore-eda can claim to be the greatest living Japanese film director, whose family dramas have marked him out as the heir to Ozu (although in an interview with me he said he preferred to be compared with Mikio Naruse). His work, including the Palme-winning Shoplifters (2018) is rightly revered. But he has always had a sweet tooth for whimsy and sentimentality, which I thought was on display in his much admired baby-swap drama Like Father Like Son (2013).
Now he has given us a sudsy road-movie heartwarmer set in Korea and inspired by the Korean phenomenon of “baby boxes” put out by churches for unwanted newborns. But the movie is fundamentally silly, with tiringly shallow characterisation and broad streaks of crime-drama intrigue, which only underline...
- 5/26/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
One can’t dig too deep in Japan’s cinematic catalogue without confronting the talents of Kinuyo Tanaka. History has chosen to favor Tanaka’s career as an actor, which is hardly surprising since she starred in 200+ film productions and appeared in timeless classics by Mizoguchi, Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita. But Tanaka bears an even more important distinction since she was the second woman in her country to direct her own feature film.
Across a span of nine years, Tanaka would direct six of her own features from 1953 to 1962.…...
Across a span of nine years, Tanaka would direct six of her own features from 1953 to 1962.…...
- 4/21/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
When an actor appears in many films of a particular director it becomes a sort of short-hand subject to define either’s work. Sometimes it feels as if one influenced the other, or vice versa, but these collaborations end up becoming a large portion of the public’s knowledge about their prowess. One of the most emblematic of those collaborations is the Akira Kurosawa-Toshiro Mifune combo, maybe only rivaled by John Ford and John Wayne—probably not a coincidence.
But what lies beyond the confines of those classic Kurosawas? The Film Forum retrospective, now underway through March 10 and co-presented by Japan Foundation, brings 33 films showcasing the wide acting range of Toshiro Mifune. While it does contain the now-classic collaborations, it gives an opportunity to look beyond. Below, five of the least-known films from their series.
Snow Trail (Senkichi Taniguchi), 1947)
Toshiro Mifune’s first film has him top-billed alongside Takashi Nimura,...
But what lies beyond the confines of those classic Kurosawas? The Film Forum retrospective, now underway through March 10 and co-presented by Japan Foundation, brings 33 films showcasing the wide acting range of Toshiro Mifune. While it does contain the now-classic collaborations, it gives an opportunity to look beyond. Below, five of the least-known films from their series.
Snow Trail (Senkichi Taniguchi), 1947)
Toshiro Mifune’s first film has him top-billed alongside Takashi Nimura,...
- 2/14/2022
- by Jaime Grijalba
- The Film Stage
“I am a person rarely impressed by actors… but in the case of Mifune I was completely overwhelmed. The ordinary Japanese actor might need ten feet of film to get across an impression. Toshirō Mifune needed only three feet,” said Akira Kurosawa.
One of the greatest talents in cinema history, Toshirō Mifune left behind a staggering body of work amassing over 150 starring roles. Born on April 1, 1920, a retrospective was planned for 2020 timed to his centennial and now, after a delay due to the pandemic, it will kick off next week at NYC’s Film Forum. Featuring 35mm rarities and rediscoveries imported from the libraries of The Japan Foundation and The National Film Archive of Japan, the series will run for a whopping four weeks, from February 11 through March 10, and feature 33 films.
Ahead of the retrospective, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer, edited by John Zhao, highlighting what is...
One of the greatest talents in cinema history, Toshirō Mifune left behind a staggering body of work amassing over 150 starring roles. Born on April 1, 1920, a retrospective was planned for 2020 timed to his centennial and now, after a delay due to the pandemic, it will kick off next week at NYC’s Film Forum. Featuring 35mm rarities and rediscoveries imported from the libraries of The Japan Foundation and The National Film Archive of Japan, the series will run for a whopping four weeks, from February 11 through March 10, and feature 33 films.
Ahead of the retrospective, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer, edited by John Zhao, highlighting what is...
- 2/4/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...
- 12/27/2021
- MUBI
Onibaba
Blu ray
Criterion
1964/ 2.39:1/ 102 Minutes
Starring Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura
Directed by Kaneto Shindô
Kaneto Shindô’s Onibaba is a campfire tale not for the faint of heart. The director was just a child when he first heard the Buddhist fable about a bewitched matriarch, told to him by his own mother in lieu of a bedtime story. That evening, the child’s perception of the world, and the women in it, took on a new dimension. The movie Shindô made from those memories is unclassifiable—a Bergmanesque allegory filmed in a graceful yet spartan style with a healthy dose of Grand Guignol to mitigate its pretensions. Produced in 1964, the film is set in the medieval era just as civil war has leveled Kyoto, sending the populace scurrying to the hinterlands.
Shindô wrote the screenplay and he leaves it to one of his characters, a deserter named Hachi, to...
Blu ray
Criterion
1964/ 2.39:1/ 102 Minutes
Starring Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura
Directed by Kaneto Shindô
Kaneto Shindô’s Onibaba is a campfire tale not for the faint of heart. The director was just a child when he first heard the Buddhist fable about a bewitched matriarch, told to him by his own mother in lieu of a bedtime story. That evening, the child’s perception of the world, and the women in it, took on a new dimension. The movie Shindô made from those memories is unclassifiable—a Bergmanesque allegory filmed in a graceful yet spartan style with a healthy dose of Grand Guignol to mitigate its pretensions. Produced in 1964, the film is set in the medieval era just as civil war has leveled Kyoto, sending the populace scurrying to the hinterlands.
Shindô wrote the screenplay and he leaves it to one of his characters, a deserter named Hachi, to...
- 10/19/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
By Raghu Pratap
Cinema in India’s geopolitically and culturally distinct region, the ‘North East’ finds its origins in the 1935 Assamese film – “Joymoti” directed by Jyoti Prasad Agarwala. In the decades hence, North East India – joined to the Indian mainland by a thin corridor of 22 kms, has seen the emergence of varied films imbued with a certain sense of realism, tracing back to the aforementioned work, with a depiction of the bleak and the everyday in a jarring contrast to the movies churned out by Bollywood. Filmmaker Jahnu Barua, best known for “Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai” or “The Catastrophe” (1987) – winner of the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Festival in 1988, establishes a distinct voice committed to realism, with his debut feature – “Aparoopa” (1982) which refers to the titular character – a lonely wife whose life within vacuous privilege, familial trauma, and unfulfilled desires of the past, plays out alongside an array of characters.
Cinema in India’s geopolitically and culturally distinct region, the ‘North East’ finds its origins in the 1935 Assamese film – “Joymoti” directed by Jyoti Prasad Agarwala. In the decades hence, North East India – joined to the Indian mainland by a thin corridor of 22 kms, has seen the emergence of varied films imbued with a certain sense of realism, tracing back to the aforementioned work, with a depiction of the bleak and the everyday in a jarring contrast to the movies churned out by Bollywood. Filmmaker Jahnu Barua, best known for “Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai” or “The Catastrophe” (1987) – winner of the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Festival in 1988, establishes a distinct voice committed to realism, with his debut feature – “Aparoopa” (1982) which refers to the titular character – a lonely wife whose life within vacuous privilege, familial trauma, and unfulfilled desires of the past, plays out alongside an array of characters.
- 3/28/2021
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
A graduate of the University of Tokyo’s cinema studies course, Atsushi Funahashi studied directing at the School of Visual Arts in New York and shot his first two films, “Echoes” (2002) and “Big River” (2005), in the United States. The March 11, 2011 triple disaster turned his thoughts decisively toward home. His next films, Nuclear Nation 1 and 2 dealt with the particular issue, while in 2016, he shot the first-ever co-production among Japan, Portugal and USA, “Lovers on Borders”, which has recently been re-cut for an international version released by Raintrail Pictures. His latest film, “Company Retreat” recently had its world premiere in Tokyo International Film Festival.
On both the aforementioned occasions, we speak with him about the new cut of Lovers on Borders, shooting a film in Portugal, Japanese society and particularly the issue of harassment, his unique way of shooting “Company Retreat”, the role of cinema, and many other topics.
Recently, you re-edited...
On both the aforementioned occasions, we speak with him about the new cut of Lovers on Borders, shooting a film in Portugal, Japanese society and particularly the issue of harassment, his unique way of shooting “Company Retreat”, the role of cinema, and many other topics.
Recently, you re-edited...
- 11/24/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
by Cláudio Alves
100 years ago in 1920, Setsuko Hara was born in the city of Yokohama, Japan. Thanks to the powers of nepotism and the influence of her brother-in-law, she got a job at the Nikkatsu Studios at the age of 15. In the next few years, she rose to prominence. By the 1940s, Hara became somewhat of a symbol of new Japanese womanhood. Curiously enough, that's not how she's best remembered today, in part thanks to her most famous directors being ones that cast her in roles typifying the conservative values of a traditional Japan. Despite multiple collaborations with such legendary filmmakers as the master of melodrama Mikio Naruse and Japan's superstar director Akira Kurosawa, it's her work in the films of Yasujiro Ozu that now most define her legacy…...
100 years ago in 1920, Setsuko Hara was born in the city of Yokohama, Japan. Thanks to the powers of nepotism and the influence of her brother-in-law, she got a job at the Nikkatsu Studios at the age of 15. In the next few years, she rose to prominence. By the 1940s, Hara became somewhat of a symbol of new Japanese womanhood. Curiously enough, that's not how she's best remembered today, in part thanks to her most famous directors being ones that cast her in roles typifying the conservative values of a traditional Japan. Despite multiple collaborations with such legendary filmmakers as the master of melodrama Mikio Naruse and Japan's superstar director Akira Kurosawa, it's her work in the films of Yasujiro Ozu that now most define her legacy…...
- 6/18/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Pioneering filmmaker and actress was second woman to direct a feature in history of Japanese cinema.
The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the work of Japanese director and actress Kinuyo Tanaka at its upcoming 73rd edition (August 5-15), in its first ever retrospective dedicated to a female artist.
Tanaka (1909 –1977) was a pioneering figure in Japanese cinema throughout her 50-year career, appearing in the films of legendary directors Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi before striking off to direct her own films.
“This is the first time that the festival will be dedicating its retrospective to a female director, after 73 years,” said...
The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the work of Japanese director and actress Kinuyo Tanaka at its upcoming 73rd edition (August 5-15), in its first ever retrospective dedicated to a female artist.
Tanaka (1909 –1977) was a pioneering figure in Japanese cinema throughout her 50-year career, appearing in the films of legendary directors Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi before striking off to direct her own films.
“This is the first time that the festival will be dedicating its retrospective to a female director, after 73 years,” said...
- 1/23/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Tatsuya Nakadai, one of Japan's greatest actors who worked with several of the country's most notable filmmakers, is set to receive the lifetime achievement award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
An icon of Japanese cinema, Nakadai's seven-decade-long career has seen him star in films that have become part of the cultural fabric in Japan and proved hugely influential internationally.
Nakadai worked with several of Japan's best-ever filmmakers, including Hiroshi Teshigahara (The Face of Another), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs), Kihachi Okamoto (Kill! and The Sword of Doom), Hideo Gosha (Goyokin), Shirō ...
An icon of Japanese cinema, Nakadai's seven-decade-long career has seen him star in films that have become part of the cultural fabric in Japan and proved hugely influential internationally.
Nakadai worked with several of Japan's best-ever filmmakers, including Hiroshi Teshigahara (The Face of Another), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs), Kihachi Okamoto (Kill! and The Sword of Doom), Hideo Gosha (Goyokin), Shirō ...
- 10/25/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Tatsuya Nakadai, one of Japan's greatest actors who worked with several of the country's most notable filmmakers, is set to receive the lifetime achievement award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
An icon of Japanese cinema, Nakadai's seven-decade-long career has seen him star in films that have become part of the cultural fabric in Japan and proved hugely influential internationally.
Nakadai worked with several of Japan's best-ever filmmakers, including Hiroshi Teshigahara (The Face of Another), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs), Kihachi Okamoto (Kill! and The Sword of Doom), Hideo Gosha (Goyokin), Shirō ...
An icon of Japanese cinema, Nakadai's seven-decade-long career has seen him star in films that have become part of the cultural fabric in Japan and proved hugely influential internationally.
Nakadai worked with several of Japan's best-ever filmmakers, including Hiroshi Teshigahara (The Face of Another), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs), Kihachi Okamoto (Kill! and The Sword of Doom), Hideo Gosha (Goyokin), Shirō ...
- 10/25/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Where the Chimneys Are Seen. Courtesy Japan Foundation.The Japanese term, Shitamachi (下町) can be literally translated to “downtown,” since shita means down and machi means town, but some translators and scholars like Edward Seidensticker have opted to use the term “low city,”1 to acknowledge that the area often referred to as shitamachi is geographically low-lying on the eastern side of Tokyo. It also differentiates it from the western notion of “downtown.” The term shitamachi in the context of Tokyo dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868), when the ruling Tokugawa shogunate of the time founded Edo (later known as Tokyo) as the capital and built Edo Castle (where today’s Imperial Palace stands) in the center, on top of a hill and placed the rest of the upper class and samurai class on the hilly land west of the castle.2 This high-lying area is known as yamanote which means “hand of the mountain.
- 10/16/2019
- MUBI
In just two weeks, a cinematic haven will launch. After the demise of FilmStruck left cinephiles in a dark depression, The Criterion Channel has stepped up to the plate to launch their own separate service coming to the U.S. and Canada on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android and Android TV devices. Now, after giving us a taste of what is to come with their Movies of the Week, they’ve unveiled the staggeringly great lineup for their first month.
Along with the Criterion Collection and Janus Films’ library of 1,000 feature films, 350 shorts, and 3,500 supplementary features–including trailers, introductions, behind-the-scenes documentaries, interviews, video essays, commentary tracks, and rare archival footage–the service will also house films from Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, IFC Films, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media, Milestone Film and Video, Oscilloscope, Cinema Guild, Strand Releasing, Shout Factory, Film Movement,...
Along with the Criterion Collection and Janus Films’ library of 1,000 feature films, 350 shorts, and 3,500 supplementary features–including trailers, introductions, behind-the-scenes documentaries, interviews, video essays, commentary tracks, and rare archival footage–the service will also house films from Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, IFC Films, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media, Milestone Film and Video, Oscilloscope, Cinema Guild, Strand Releasing, Shout Factory, Film Movement,...
- 3/25/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A marginalised band of thieves living on the poverty-stricken fringes of Japan steals the show in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s masterly drama
In his playfully apocalyptic novel Cat’s Cradle, the Us writer Kurt Vonnegut used the term “karass” to describe a group of people who are spiritually linked without having to be bound by earthly bonds, such as bonds of blood. Followers of Vonnegut’s fictional religion Bokononism (a theology based on “harmless lies”) believed members of a “karass” to be more profoundly connected than those of a family – even if they don’t realise it.
I thought a lot about Vonnegut’s idea of the “karass” while watching Shoplifters, the 2018 Palme d’Or winner from the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Over the course of a career that has drawn international comparisons with everyone from Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse to Vittorio De Sica and the Dardenne brothers, Kore-eda has...
In his playfully apocalyptic novel Cat’s Cradle, the Us writer Kurt Vonnegut used the term “karass” to describe a group of people who are spiritually linked without having to be bound by earthly bonds, such as bonds of blood. Followers of Vonnegut’s fictional religion Bokononism (a theology based on “harmless lies”) believed members of a “karass” to be more profoundly connected than those of a family – even if they don’t realise it.
I thought a lot about Vonnegut’s idea of the “karass” while watching Shoplifters, the 2018 Palme d’Or winner from the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Over the course of a career that has drawn international comparisons with everyone from Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse to Vittorio De Sica and the Dardenne brothers, Kore-eda has...
- 11/25/2018
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Shinobu Hashimoto, the screenwriter whose work is credited as being among the most influential in film history, died Thursday of pneumonia at his Tokyo home, according to Japanese media reports. He was 100.
Hashimoto was the screenwriter for some of the most important films in Japanese history, including Rashomon and Seven Samurai from director Akira Kurosawa. Rashomon was his first work made into a film, and he went on to write nearly 80 scripts, including collaborations with such Japanese cinema giants as Kurosawa, Tadashi Imai, Mikio Naruse, Kihachi Okamoto and Masaky Kobayashi.
The Hashimoto story almost ended before it began. He enlisted in the Japanese army in 1938 but caught tuberculosis and spent four years in a veterans hospital. It was while hospitalized that a chance meeting with another Japanese veteran opened his eyes to a new world. He was given a magazine on Japanese cinema that included a sample screenplay. He quickly...
Hashimoto was the screenwriter for some of the most important films in Japanese history, including Rashomon and Seven Samurai from director Akira Kurosawa. Rashomon was his first work made into a film, and he went on to write nearly 80 scripts, including collaborations with such Japanese cinema giants as Kurosawa, Tadashi Imai, Mikio Naruse, Kihachi Okamoto and Masaky Kobayashi.
The Hashimoto story almost ended before it began. He enlisted in the Japanese army in 1938 but caught tuberculosis and spent four years in a veterans hospital. It was while hospitalized that a chance meeting with another Japanese veteran opened his eyes to a new world. He was given a magazine on Japanese cinema that included a sample screenplay. He quickly...
- 7/20/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
This atmospheric film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel explores the bleak lot of an heiress in 19th-century France
Based on a novel by Guy de Maupassant and sharing themes (male treachery, suffering) as well as a title with Mikio Naruse’s 1963 drama, Stéphane Brizé’s gorgeous period piece explores the bleak lot of an aristocratic heiress in 19th-century France. Shot in boxy 1.33:1 ratio, and kissed by flickering candlelight, this a world so persuasively realised that you can almost smell the damp that rises, along with the debt. We follow Jeanne (Judith Chemla) from the clear-eyed hopefulness of youth to late middle age; it’s a performance that is so compelling that we forgive the film its fairly dispiriting trajectory and portrayal of a woman who often seems little more than a helpless chattel.
Continue reading...
Based on a novel by Guy de Maupassant and sharing themes (male treachery, suffering) as well as a title with Mikio Naruse’s 1963 drama, Stéphane Brizé’s gorgeous period piece explores the bleak lot of an aristocratic heiress in 19th-century France. Shot in boxy 1.33:1 ratio, and kissed by flickering candlelight, this a world so persuasively realised that you can almost smell the damp that rises, along with the debt. We follow Jeanne (Judith Chemla) from the clear-eyed hopefulness of youth to late middle age; it’s a performance that is so compelling that we forgive the film its fairly dispiriting trajectory and portrayal of a woman who often seems little more than a helpless chattel.
Continue reading...
- 1/14/2018
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
The Japanese auteur’s striking film centres on a murder trial, and turns convention on its head to create a captivating and unknowable puzzle
Here’s an intriguing and cerebral quasi-genre picture from the Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda. It’s a complex courtroom drama that can be read at least partly as a piercing – if not precisely passionate – rebuke to the death sentence. Capital punishment is still on the statute book in Japan, amid growing calls for its removal. A more obviously campaigning movie might concentrate on the possibility of hanging the wrong person, or on the squalor of state-sanctioned killing. Instead, The Third Murder is more elusive and relativist. It is about fighting a losing battle to establish the facts, and to grasp a truth that appears to change shape and disappear over the horizon. In the past, Koreeda has been celebrated for his movies in the classic Japanese “family drama” style,...
Here’s an intriguing and cerebral quasi-genre picture from the Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda. It’s a complex courtroom drama that can be read at least partly as a piercing – if not precisely passionate – rebuke to the death sentence. Capital punishment is still on the statute book in Japan, amid growing calls for its removal. A more obviously campaigning movie might concentrate on the possibility of hanging the wrong person, or on the squalor of state-sanctioned killing. Instead, The Third Murder is more elusive and relativist. It is about fighting a losing battle to establish the facts, and to grasp a truth that appears to change shape and disappear over the horizon. In the past, Koreeda has been celebrated for his movies in the classic Japanese “family drama” style,...
- 9/15/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Days of Glory (1944)This year at the Locarno Festival I am looking for specific images, moments, techniques, qualities or scenes from films across the 70th edition's selection that grabbed me and have lingered past and beyond the next movie seen, whose characters, story and images have already begun to overwrite those that came just before.***“Like anything you will ever tell me,” dreamily says a Soviet dancer-turned partisan (Tamara Toumanova) to her lover and commander Vladmir (Gregory Peck in his first role), “it’s learned by heart.” Days of Glory (1944), a highly evocative masterpiece from Jacques Tourneur conjured in that brief moment during World War 2 when Hollywood was asked to make movies in support of our Soviet allies, with disjunctive, lyrical surrealness casts this dancer among the hardened Russian soldiers isolated in a crumbling, underground redoubt behind enemy lines. She comes from a world of art unknown to these fighters,...
- 8/11/2017
- MUBI
A gambling-addicted private eye spies on his ex-wife in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama, which, despite its grubby setting, is understated and delicate
The title of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s new movie is ironic. The TV weather forecast says a typhoon is imminent, and the characters are subtly influenced by its inexorable approach. Situations are intensified and complicated. The drama is actually taking place before the storm, during the storm – or maybe instead of the storm. The period of rest the title appears to conjure up happens very late, if it happens at all. Yet there is no climactic storminess in the action.
After the Storm is a family drama, a 21st-century variation on the classic Japanese style of which this film-maker is now the international standard-bearer. The director has said he models himself on Mikio Naruse, rather than Yasujirō Ozu, although he is dissatisfied with both comparisons. It is a story...
The title of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s new movie is ironic. The TV weather forecast says a typhoon is imminent, and the characters are subtly influenced by its inexorable approach. Situations are intensified and complicated. The drama is actually taking place before the storm, during the storm – or maybe instead of the storm. The period of rest the title appears to conjure up happens very late, if it happens at all. Yet there is no climactic storminess in the action.
After the Storm is a family drama, a 21st-century variation on the classic Japanese style of which this film-maker is now the international standard-bearer. The director has said he models himself on Mikio Naruse, rather than Yasujirō Ozu, although he is dissatisfied with both comparisons. It is a story...
- 6/1/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The twenty-second entry in an on-going series of audiovisual essays by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin. Mubi will be showing the retrospective Philippe Garrel: Fight for Eternity from May 1 - July 5, 2017 in most countries around the world.Walking is an ubiquitous activity in art cinema of all stripes, from Mikio Naruse and Michelangelo Antonioni to Chantal Akerman and Béla Tarr. The “walk and talk” scene has long crossed over into the mainstream to become a convention. But Philippe Garrel has tenaciously kept walking as his own, special motif since his first short films of the mid-1960s, and he has guarded it from encroaching cliché. Walking never means just one thing in Garrel’s films; it touches every level, every character, almost every situation (even those cramped, indoor scenes where people nervously pace back and forth). It is as if this filmmaker decided to test, from his earliest efforts,...
- 5/15/2017
- MUBI
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This April will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Monday, April 3 The Chaos of Cool: A Tribute to Seijun Suzuki
In February, cinema lost an icon of excess, Seijun Suzuki, the Japanese master who took the art of the B movie to sublime new heights with his deliriously inventive approach to narrative and visual style. This series showcases seven of the New Wave renegade’s works from his career breakthrough in the sixties: Take Aim at the Police Van (1960), an off-kilter whodunit; Youth of the Beast (1963), an explosive yakuza thriller; Gate of Flesh (1964), a pulpy social critique; Story of a Prostitute (1965), a tragic romance; Tokyo Drifter...
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Monday, April 3 The Chaos of Cool: A Tribute to Seijun Suzuki
In February, cinema lost an icon of excess, Seijun Suzuki, the Japanese master who took the art of the B movie to sublime new heights with his deliriously inventive approach to narrative and visual style. This series showcases seven of the New Wave renegade’s works from his career breakthrough in the sixties: Take Aim at the Police Van (1960), an off-kilter whodunit; Youth of the Beast (1963), an explosive yakuza thriller; Gate of Flesh (1964), a pulpy social critique; Story of a Prostitute (1965), a tragic romance; Tokyo Drifter...
- 3/29/2017
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
One of the year’s most affecting, humanistic films, Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s After the Storm, will arrive in the U.S. this week (our rave review from Cannes), so for the occasion, we’re looking at the director’s favorite films. Submitted by the Japanese director for the latest Sight & Sound poll, it’s perhaps the most varied list we’ve seen thus far — at least next to Mia Hansen-Løve‘s favorites.
Although the filmmaker is often compared to Yasujiro Ozu (none of his films are mentioned below), Hirokazu Kore-eda told The Guardian, “I of course take it as a compliment. I try to say thank you. But I think that my work is more like Mikio Naruse — and Ken Loach.” One will find his favorites from both of those directors on the list, as well as Jacques Demy‘s most-praised film, along with lesser-seen works from Hou Hsiao-hsien,...
Although the filmmaker is often compared to Yasujiro Ozu (none of his films are mentioned below), Hirokazu Kore-eda told The Guardian, “I of course take it as a compliment. I try to say thank you. But I think that my work is more like Mikio Naruse — and Ken Loach.” One will find his favorites from both of those directors on the list, as well as Jacques Demy‘s most-praised film, along with lesser-seen works from Hou Hsiao-hsien,...
- 3/13/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
My guest for this month is Christa Mrgan, and she’s joined me to discuss the film she chose for me, the 2001 surreal horror-comedy film The Happiness of the Katakuris. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.
Show notes:
Takashi Miike has made an astonishing 90 films in his career, but none quite like this one Thematically it would be hard to have two films as different as this one and our last episode on Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon Arcadia, California was home to at least one video store, in 2004 It really is quite hilarious that both An Autumn Afternoon and this were released by Shochiku, how the world changes Shochiku were, of course, also the sometime home to films by Nagisa Oshima, and Mikio Naruse As well as the phenomenally goofy films of their horror period, so brilliantly captures by Criterion in the When Horror Came to Shochiku...
Show notes:
Takashi Miike has made an astonishing 90 films in his career, but none quite like this one Thematically it would be hard to have two films as different as this one and our last episode on Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon Arcadia, California was home to at least one video store, in 2004 It really is quite hilarious that both An Autumn Afternoon and this were released by Shochiku, how the world changes Shochiku were, of course, also the sometime home to films by Nagisa Oshima, and Mikio Naruse As well as the phenomenally goofy films of their horror period, so brilliantly captures by Criterion in the When Horror Came to Shochiku...
- 8/1/2016
- by Arik Devens
- CriterionCast
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
Dan Sallitt has published his extensive companion on the films of Mikio Naruse.
A lost Marx Brothers musical has found its way back on stage, The New Yorker reports.
Watch a video on Pedro Almodóvar‘s obsession with the color red:
Los Angeles Plays Itself director Thom Andersen names his 10 favorite films of the last 10 years at Grasshopper Film.
Vox‘s Aja Romano on the strange story of how a machine was trained to “watch” Blade Runner:
Broad’s goal was to apply “deep learning” — a fundamental piece of artificial intelligence that uses algorithmic machine learning — to video; he wanted to discover what kinds of creations a...
Dan Sallitt has published his extensive companion on the films of Mikio Naruse.
A lost Marx Brothers musical has found its way back on stage, The New Yorker reports.
Watch a video on Pedro Almodóvar‘s obsession with the color red:
Los Angeles Plays Itself director Thom Andersen names his 10 favorite films of the last 10 years at Grasshopper Film.
Vox‘s Aja Romano on the strange story of how a machine was trained to “watch” Blade Runner:
Broad’s goal was to apply “deep learning” — a fundamental piece of artificial intelligence that uses algorithmic machine learning — to video; he wanted to discover what kinds of creations a...
- 6/6/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The arrival of a half-sister they’ve never met before subtly undermines the existence of three twentysomething women in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s tender tale
This sweetly tender movie from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is superbly unforced and unassuming, finding delicate notes of affirmation and optimism and discreetly celebrating the beauty of nature and family love. It is watercolour cinema with nothing watery about it, in the classic “family drama” vein that you might associate with Yasujirô Ozu, though in conversation at Cannes last year – where I first saw this – the director told me his inspiration was more Mikio Naruse. Our Little Sister is not as challenging and overtly painful as his previous films I Wish or Like Father, Like Son, and there might be some who find it a bit tame or even sentimental; I can only say there is something subtly subversive in the emotional dynamic Kore-eda creates with...
This sweetly tender movie from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is superbly unforced and unassuming, finding delicate notes of affirmation and optimism and discreetly celebrating the beauty of nature and family love. It is watercolour cinema with nothing watery about it, in the classic “family drama” vein that you might associate with Yasujirô Ozu, though in conversation at Cannes last year – where I first saw this – the director told me his inspiration was more Mikio Naruse. Our Little Sister is not as challenging and overtly painful as his previous films I Wish or Like Father, Like Son, and there might be some who find it a bit tame or even sentimental; I can only say there is something subtly subversive in the emotional dynamic Kore-eda creates with...
- 4/14/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Setsuko Hara, 1920 - 2015The great Japanese actress of Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring and Mikio Naruse's Repast passed away in September but the news has only recently been released. An indelible screen presence whose absence from movies has been felt every year since 1966.My MotherTop 10s: Cahiers du Cinéma + Sight & SoundFor us it's still too early to make judgement—we've hardly caught up with all of 2015's great cinema!—but the esteemed magazines of Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound have made their selections for the best of the year:Cahiers du Cinéma1. My Mother (Nanni Moretti)2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)3. In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel)4. The Smell of Us (Larry Clark)5. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)6. Jauja (Lisandor Alonso)7. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)8. Arabian Nights...
- 12/2/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
In six decades of filmmaking and thirty plus titles in his filmography, it’s nearly impossible to determine the weighted importance concerning a number of the influential works from Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, considered by many to be among the most notable directors from Japan, alongside peers such as Mizoguchi and Ozu. Instead, it’s easier to discuss his work in strategic measures regarding theme or motif, such as his famed Shakespearean adaptations or epic Samurai classics, pillaged endlessly by Western filmmakers in proceeding generations. But certainly a definite standout is his 1952 title, Ikiru, which roughly translates as “to live.” A powerfully humanistic title examining the significance of life as something only to be rightly cherished when seen through the lens of death, it stands at the slender end of a filmography generally examining human tendency for apathy, revenge, and other plateaus of self-destructive forces. Moving without being sentimental, Kurosawa...
- 12/1/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Having been born in 1920, it’s hardly any shock that Setsuko Hara has passed away; and having entirely disappeared from the public spotlight by 1963, it isn’t so odd that only today, November 25, do we learn of a death that occurred on September 5. But the actress, as iconic as any that Japanese cinema has ever given us, radiated such grace, warmth, and kindness through several masterpieces of the post-war era that many a cinephile, yours truly included, take the news with a heavy heart.
If there’s any consolation — other than the knowledge that she died sans media attention, as was very likely wished — it’s that several films showcasing her brilliance can be streamed online. (Assuming you have a Hulu subscription, that is.) The collection of directors represented here, who were pulled towards and made her a regular collaborator, speaks volumes: Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, and Mikio Naruse. There...
If there’s any consolation — other than the knowledge that she died sans media attention, as was very likely wished — it’s that several films showcasing her brilliance can be streamed online. (Assuming you have a Hulu subscription, that is.) The collection of directors represented here, who were pulled towards and made her a regular collaborator, speaks volumes: Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, and Mikio Naruse. There...
- 11/25/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
"Legendary actress Setsuko Hara, who starred in the Yasujiro Ozu movie Tokyo Story, died of pneumonia on Sept. 5 at a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture, her family said Wednesday," reports the Nikkei Asian Review. "She was 95." Nick Pinkerton in the Voice in 2011: "Born Masae Aida, Hara was the very image of ravishing fortitude; the actress met the head-on gaze of Ozu’s camera with her headlamp eyes in six films, made four with Mikio Naruse, and played against type in the bad-girl Anastassya role in Akira Kurosawa’s 1951 The Idiot." We're collecting remembrances and tributes. » - David Hudson...
- 11/25/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
"Legendary actress Setsuko Hara, who starred in the Yasujiro Ozu movie Tokyo Story, died of pneumonia on Sept. 5 at a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture, her family said Wednesday," reports the Nikkei Asian Review. "She was 95." Nick Pinkerton in the Voice in 2011: "Born Masae Aida, Hara was the very image of ravishing fortitude; the actress met the head-on gaze of Ozu’s camera with her headlamp eyes in six films, made four with Mikio Naruse, and played against type in the bad-girl Anastassya role in Akira Kurosawa’s 1951 The Idiot." We're collecting remembrances and tributes. » - David Hudson...
- 11/25/2015
- Keyframe
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Above: Tilda Swinton, a short video portrait of the actress (and Shanghai) by cinematographer-turned-director Christopher Doyle.Over at Empire, mediocre director Sam Mendes sends questions and gets answers from directors far more talented than himself, including David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola and more.Speaking of mediocre directors, scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson have posted online their analysis of The Prestige, probably the best film by Christopher Nolan.Above: a tantalizing picture of Jean-Pierre Léaud in costume on the set of Albert Serra's new film, Last Days of Louis Xiv. Via Cineuropa.We can't say there's much newly revealed in this interview at the New York Times by Bret Easton Ellis of Quentin Tarantino, by why not give it a try regardless?If you want really good interviews,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Here are a handful of links that I think are worth reading today, for discerning Criterion Collection fan.
Articles
Over on his Criterion Reflections blog, David has just posted his review of Mikio Naruse’s Scattered Clouds:
Since a couple years have passed between my last viewing of a Naruse film (1964’s Yearning, back in 2013, though not reviewed anywhere), I was thus quite eager to sit down and take in Scattered Clouds, available on Criterion’s Hulu channel (and only there, as no version of it on disc is anywhere to be found for the Region 1 market, anyway.)
Don’t miss the Criterion Collection As Haiku blog’s latest entry, on Lonesome.
Jonathan Rosenbaum has republished his review of Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan on his blog, adding:
Even though this is favorable, I think I underestimated the achievement of this first feature; reseeing it a quarter of a century later,...
Articles
Over on his Criterion Reflections blog, David has just posted his review of Mikio Naruse’s Scattered Clouds:
Since a couple years have passed between my last viewing of a Naruse film (1964’s Yearning, back in 2013, though not reviewed anywhere), I was thus quite eager to sit down and take in Scattered Clouds, available on Criterion’s Hulu channel (and only there, as no version of it on disc is anywhere to be found for the Region 1 market, anyway.)
Don’t miss the Criterion Collection As Haiku blog’s latest entry, on Lonesome.
Jonathan Rosenbaum has republished his review of Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan on his blog, adding:
Even though this is favorable, I think I underestimated the achievement of this first feature; reseeing it a quarter of a century later,...
- 10/6/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
It was interesting to note the reaction, head bowed in a pained half-smile, of Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda when hit with his first Cannes press conference question this year: “Is this an homage to Ozu?” or at least something to that extent. In fairness, it’s probably a question the man is sick of hearing at this point, but in the case of Our Little Sister it’s not quite as wayward or as ignorant as one might think. Indeed, Koreeda acknowledges as much in response: admitting to revisiting some of the master’s work in preparation for the project, or perhaps simply in preparation for such questions. And he’s right: there are similarities, and more than enough to provoke such a question. The opening shots alone of a sleepy suburban neighborhood, houses split by an unseen railway line whose heavy clients must shake these small abodes to their foundations,...
- 6/26/2015
- by Nicholas Page
- SoundOnSight
Jean-Luc Godard figures rather prominently in the new issues of Senses of Cinema and Necsus, the European Journal of Media Studies. Senses also features reviews of several films by Mikio Naruse, two by Kira Muratova, three by Karel Zeman, and interviews with Albert Maysles, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Corneliu Porumboiu, Denis Côté, Hubert Sauper, Raphaël Bassan, Viviane Vagh and Jayne Amara Ross. Plus: Moritz Pfeifer on Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida and Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan, Philip Cartelli on Bruno Dumont's P’tit Quinquin and the latest round of festival reports. » - David Hudson...
- 6/14/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Jean-Luc Godard figures rather prominently in the new issues of Senses of Cinema and Necsus, the European Journal of Media Studies. Senses also features reviews of several films by Mikio Naruse, two by Kira Muratova, three by Karel Zeman, and interviews with Albert Maysles, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Corneliu Porumboiu, Denis Côté, Hubert Sauper, Raphaël Bassan, Viviane Vagh and Jayne Amara Ross. Plus: Moritz Pfeifer on Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida and Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan, Philip Cartelli on Bruno Dumont's P’tit Quinquin and the latest round of festival reports. » - David Hudson...
- 6/14/2015
- Keyframe
While I cannot say the festival has started for me with the searing acuteness found day one in Cannes last year with Timbuktu, with Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister the tone of my first full day on the Croisette instead began with the Japanese director's particular sensibility of refined, humane warmth and a complete absence of desire to impress.A wonderful concept centers this picture and called back to me small memories of a Mikio Naruse film I loved long ago, Older Brother, Younger Sister (speaking now of Japanese masters, Our Little Sister also contains a poignant reference to Ozu's The End of Summer). Three single women, not young but also not middle-aged, sisters from their father's first of three marriages, adopt their teenage half-sister after his death strands her between his first and last broken family. So we get a kind of enclave or community of sisterhood, discreet,...
- 5/14/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Philip Yung’s Port Of Call to close the festival.
Sylvia Chang’s Murmur Of The Hearts will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff, March 23-April 6), while Philip Yung’s Port Of Call will close the event.
Chang was previously named as the Filmmaker in Focus at this year’s Hkiff, which will screen 14 of her films. Murmur Of The Hearts, in which she goes back to her Taiwanese roots, stars Isabella Leong, Joseph Chang, Lawrence Ko and Lee Sinje.
Yung’s Port Of Call is a crime drama starring Aaron Kwok.
Other Hong Kong films receiving their world premiere at Hkiff include Lau Ho-Leung’s Two Thumbs Up, starring Francis Ng, Simon Yam and Leo Ku, and Fruit Chan’s documentary My City about well-known local writer Xi Xi.
Hkiff has also collaborated once again with Youku on an omnibus film, which will receive its receive its world premiere at the...
Sylvia Chang’s Murmur Of The Hearts will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff, March 23-April 6), while Philip Yung’s Port Of Call will close the event.
Chang was previously named as the Filmmaker in Focus at this year’s Hkiff, which will screen 14 of her films. Murmur Of The Hearts, in which she goes back to her Taiwanese roots, stars Isabella Leong, Joseph Chang, Lawrence Ko and Lee Sinje.
Yung’s Port Of Call is a crime drama starring Aaron Kwok.
Other Hong Kong films receiving their world premiere at Hkiff include Lau Ho-Leung’s Two Thumbs Up, starring Francis Ng, Simon Yam and Leo Ku, and Fruit Chan’s documentary My City about well-known local writer Xi Xi.
Hkiff has also collaborated once again with Youku on an omnibus film, which will receive its receive its world premiere at the...
- 2/26/2015
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
The 14th editon of the film festival set to feature a tribute to Japanese cinema.
The 14th Marrakech International Film Festival is to take place from Dec 5-13, 2014.
This year’s festival will pay tribute to Japanese cinema and will welcome a major delegation of actors, directors and producers.
It will also put the spotlight on some of the masters of Japanese filmmaking from Yasujiro Ozu to Kore-Eda Hirokazu, through Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Takeshi Kitano, Hayao Miyazaki, Shinji Aoyama, Naomi Kawaze, Kyoshi Kurosawa, Mamoru Oshii, Takashi Miike and Masaki Kobayashi.
The 14th Marrakech International Film Festival is to take place from Dec 5-13, 2014.
This year’s festival will pay tribute to Japanese cinema and will welcome a major delegation of actors, directors and producers.
It will also put the spotlight on some of the masters of Japanese filmmaking from Yasujiro Ozu to Kore-Eda Hirokazu, through Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Takeshi Kitano, Hayao Miyazaki, Shinji Aoyama, Naomi Kawaze, Kyoshi Kurosawa, Mamoru Oshii, Takashi Miike and Masaki Kobayashi.
- 1/28/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Who needs new movies? In this week’s issue of the magazine, our critics show us what’s in their personal collections of old culture, much of it you might’ve missed. All of it is available online, somewhere. Herewith, David Edelstein and Bilge Ebiri’s list of 30 great movies you probably haven’t seen, plus Edelstein's list of 20 commercially unavailable movies you can only watch online (and only if you know where to look). 1950s 1. The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) In Robert Siodmak’s underrated noir melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck seduces and lures unsuspecting, desperate assistant D.A. and family man Wendell Corey into doing her bidding. 2. Battle Cry (1955) Tough-guy director Raoul Walsh’s emotionally exhausting, earnest World War II epic, focusing on the Marines in the Pacific, is beautiful, almost Dickensian in its expansiveness. 3. The Sound of the Mountain (1954) One of the great Japanese master Mikio Naruse’s most...
- 11/11/2013
- by David Edelstein,Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
News.
The lineup for the 66th Locarno Film Festival has been announced. Sections include the Concorso internazionale, (highlights which include premieres from Hong Sang-soo and Albert Serra and the long desired extended cut of Jacques Rivette's Va savoir), special Piazza Grande presentations, Histoire(s) du Cinéma, Fuori Concorso, and more. The various Jury members have also been announced, and heading the Concorso internazionale is Lav Diaz. David Hudson has more details for you over at Keyframe.
New issues now available on physical and digital shelves: Film Comment & Brooklyn Rail. Pitchfork's new film criticism sister site, The Dissolve, has opened its doors.
Finds.
Above: via Jonathan Rosenbaum, his introduction to Erich von Stroheim's Greed at the 2013 Greater St. Louis Humanities Festival. For Cinema Scope Online, Celluloid Liberation Front writes on Il Cinema Ritrovato Xxvii:
"Were we to emulate the Biblical terminology Il Cinema Ritrovato employs to describe one...
The lineup for the 66th Locarno Film Festival has been announced. Sections include the Concorso internazionale, (highlights which include premieres from Hong Sang-soo and Albert Serra and the long desired extended cut of Jacques Rivette's Va savoir), special Piazza Grande presentations, Histoire(s) du Cinéma, Fuori Concorso, and more. The various Jury members have also been announced, and heading the Concorso internazionale is Lav Diaz. David Hudson has more details for you over at Keyframe.
New issues now available on physical and digital shelves: Film Comment & Brooklyn Rail. Pitchfork's new film criticism sister site, The Dissolve, has opened its doors.
Finds.
Above: via Jonathan Rosenbaum, his introduction to Erich von Stroheim's Greed at the 2013 Greater St. Louis Humanities Festival. For Cinema Scope Online, Celluloid Liberation Front writes on Il Cinema Ritrovato Xxvii:
"Were we to emulate the Biblical terminology Il Cinema Ritrovato employs to describe one...
- 7/19/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
★★★★☆ When Western cinephiles cast their eye down Kinema Junpō's Top 100 Japanese Films of the 20th century, they may be surprised to find themselves unfamiliar with the film placed at number five. The hundred-or-so critics polled for the list selected Yûzô Kawashima's 1957 comedy Bakumatsu Taiyô-den (The Sun Legend in the Last Days of the Shogunate) in amongst the works of the more recognisable names Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa and Mikio Naruse. Despite being largely unknown outside its own country, the film remains highly-regarded internationally and is beautifully rendered on a new Masters of Cinema Blu-ray.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 4/22/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Spiritismes
Director: Guy Maddin
Writer(s): Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk
Producer(s): Phyllis Laing
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin, Maria de Medeiros, Mathieu Amalric, Udo Kier, Amira Casar, Adèle Haenel, Ariane Labed, Elina Löwensohn, Mathieu Demy, Jean-François Stévenin, André Wilms, Grégory Gadebois, Jacques Nolot
High set of profile actors join one crazy project which is best described by the avant-gardist himself – “Over eighty percent of silent films are lost. I’ve always considered a lost film as a narrative with no known final resting place — doomed to wander the landscape of film history, sad, miserable and unable to project itself to the people who might love it.”
Gist: Every day, Guy Maddin invites visitors of the Centre Pompidou to witness the making of a new film inspired by a long-lost movie. Summoning these wandering spirits of cinema in theatrical “séances”, Maddin and his actors inhabit their ghostly scenarios.
Director: Guy Maddin
Writer(s): Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk
Producer(s): Phyllis Laing
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin, Maria de Medeiros, Mathieu Amalric, Udo Kier, Amira Casar, Adèle Haenel, Ariane Labed, Elina Löwensohn, Mathieu Demy, Jean-François Stévenin, André Wilms, Grégory Gadebois, Jacques Nolot
High set of profile actors join one crazy project which is best described by the avant-gardist himself – “Over eighty percent of silent films are lost. I’ve always considered a lost film as a narrative with no known final resting place — doomed to wander the landscape of film history, sad, miserable and unable to project itself to the people who might love it.”
Gist: Every day, Guy Maddin invites visitors of the Centre Pompidou to witness the making of a new film inspired by a long-lost movie. Summoning these wandering spirits of cinema in theatrical “séances”, Maddin and his actors inhabit their ghostly scenarios.
- 1/14/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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