Criterion has released a number of classic Japanese movies in recent months, the most famous of these probably being Sansho the Bailiff (1954), one of the last films made by Kenji Mizoguchi, who many critics consider Japan’s greatest director. This exquisite period drama recounts the tragic tale of Anju and Zushio, siblings who are separated from their parents and sold as laborers.
Sansho the Bailiff
Following the success of Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, Criterion released a pair of classic films from director Kon Ichikawa that examine the horrors of the Pacific war. Fires on the Plain (1959) follows Japanese soldiers in the Phillipines towards the end of the war, as they wander aimlessly over a disorienting landscape. As the soldiers receive conflicting orders and their situation deteriorates, they become ravaged by hunger, madness, and disease. Fires is unlike any war film I’ve seen in its flat, unsentimental approach to the harrowing subject matter. Also available: The Burmese Harp (1956).
The Burmese Harp
Vengeance Is Mine (1979): One of Japan’s most perceptive directors, Shohei Imamura was driven to understand the human capacity for greed, lust, and violence. Based on a true story of a fugitive on a two-month journey of murder, theft, and deception, Vengeance Is Mine is an unflinching character study and a darkly comic portrait of a sociopath’s tangled relationships with his victims, his family, and society.
Linda Linda Linda (2005) is a deadpan comedy about four high school girls learning a rock song for a school festival. Director Nobuhiro Yamashita crafted a sincere, refreshing film that avoids the many clichés of the genre. NYAFF listing
Linda Linda Linda
Dora-Heita (2000): The story for this period drama was written by Akira Kurosawa and his “Club of the Four Knights” in 1969, but was not filmed until thirty years later by surviving knight Kon Ichikawa. Actor Koji Yakusho (Shall We Dansu) plays the titular “Alley Cat” who runs into comic trouble when he is assigned to clean up a lawless town.
Blind Woman’s Curse (1971): This strange and entertaining film by Teruo Ishii mixes a female yakuza revenge tale with phantasmagoric horror and oddball humor. Actress Meiko Kaji (of Lady Snowblood, an oft-cited influence on Kill Bill) plays a tattooed yakuza boss targeted by rival gangs and haunted by a sinister black cat. Great fun for cult film fans.
Blind Woman's Curse
Cutie Honey (2004): Campy action parody based on a popular comic.
A box set of five late films by Yasujiro Ozu, one of Japan’s greatest directors, is available. If you’re unfamiliar with Ozu, Early Summer (1951) is a great place to start.
Coming soon: Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara
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