8/4/19 (Sun)
A wild anti-war satire by Okamoto Kihachi. This low-budget film, told in retrospect from the perspective of hedonistic 1968 (when the film was made), shows a lowly soldier doing his best to maintain his loyalty to crown and country toward the end of the war. Okinawa has been lost and Hiroshima obliterated, but the soldiers pretend to believe that victory is in sight in what we now know are the war’s final days. Continue reading
Naruse’s 1953 film, based on a story by his muse Hayashi Fumiko, opens with voiceovers by a wife and husband grumbling to themselves about their unhappy marriage. The wife Mineko complains about the husband Juichi’s lack of ambition and ability, their financial strain and Juichi’s clear lack of interest in her. She busies herself with small sewing jobs and overseeing their upstairs tenants to boost their income, but gets little support from Juichi. Meanwhile, Juichi bemoans his bureaucratic job, his wife’s undeniably slovenly ways and the draining routine of his unexciting home life. He compares the sloppy bento prepared by his wife with the beautifully arranged lunch eaten by the cheery typist at the next desk. He understandably becomes drawn to the typist, who returns the affection. Mineko is livid when she finds out about their secret trysts and confronts the woman, who is shamed into returning to her hometown. The couple thus remain together but out of habit rather than romance. The film ends with another set of voiceovers as the wife and husband each contemplate whether to leave the other – would that solve anything? would being single at this point be any easier for either? – while carefully avoiding showing how that is resolved.
5/18/19 (Sat)
I watched Kinugasa Teinosuke’s 1953 film after the death of its star Kyo Machiko a few days earlier. This was apparently Japan’s first color film to be distributed worldwide, and it made a huge impression, winning major awards at Cannes, the Oscars and elsewhere. Coming shortly after Rashomon, it cemented Japan’s place on the map of world cinema, a position that was to be further enhanced over the decade to follow. (Some have suggested that the title in Japanese, Jigokumon, was aimed at riding the coattails of Rashomon (mon = gate), but that seems far-fetched.)
3/30/19 (Sat), Tokyo
A 1951 film by Mizoguchi Kenji about the deterioration of Japanese values after the war and the misguided attempts of a woman from a respected family to preserve them. Continue reading
1/26/19 (Sat), Tokyo
A film retrospective of the noted actress Iwashita Shima offered a double-feature bringing together two works in which she played the daughter of Ozu favorite Ryu Chishu. And that’s where the similarities stop. Continue reading
10/18/18 (Thurs)
Ichikawa Kon’s 1955 film, following the broad structure of Natsume Soseki’s iconic novel, is effectively split into two: it begins in Tokyo at the end of the momentous Meiji Era, when a student befriends an older man, then shifts in flashback to the latter’s recollection of his younger years and his confession of a dark secret regarding an old friendship. “Kokoro” means heart or soul, here a deep dark place.
12/22/18 (Sat), Tokyo
A star really is born in this fourth iteration of the now-familiar tale. Continue reading
12/7/18 (Fri), Tokyo
One of the most loved of the many film versions of the novel. I was curious to watch it after seeing the latest stage version in LA. Continue reading
12/4/18 (Tues), Tokyo
A chilling German film set in the late 1980s in the pre-liberated East about the surveillance of a playwright suspected of dissident activity. His home is secretly wired by the Stasi, and agents are ruthless in ensuring its success, warning a busybody neighbor, for instance, that any word from her will prevent her son from getting into the university. The main agent and his assistant listen carefully to every utterance 24 hours a day, keeping detailed notes on all conversations and activity (“suspect and his girlfriend presumably engage in intercourse”). But this soon becomes a story about the listener rather than the listened as the agent charged with the case – himself threatened by his superiors if he doesn’t find something incriminating – grows increasingly sympathetic with his charge. The web of betrayals and lies leads in the end to death, shame and disgrace, leavened only by an act of deep self-sacrifice. It is just a few years later, after the Berlin Wall has fallen, when the playwright is able to view his files and learn the thoroughness of the scrutiny and corruption as well as the fate of the investigator.
A portrayal of the suffocating power of the Communist state: how it creates suspicion among citizens, its pettiness and paranoia, and its ability to crush the will of anyone in its way. Continue reading
11/19/18 (Mon), Tokyo
An oddball Japanese film about a lonely Japanese office worker named Setsuko (the ever-reliable Terashima Shinobu) with a knack for ruining lives. Continue reading
11/17/18 (Sat), Tokyo
A Jewish mensch named Norman (a pitch-perfect Richard Gere) makes his living by introducing powerful people to other powerful people, hoping that some of the benefits will rub off on him. He hits the big time when a minor politician that he once befriended unexpectedly becomes Israeli prime minister. Unfortunately his sudden leap to fame leaves him unprepared for the burst of people seeking favors through his connections, which, desperate to feel important, he proves utterly unable to reject. He begins making impossible promises – finding a huge donation to rebuild a flailing synagogue, getting the prime minister’s son into Harvard – that gradually become a web entrapping him. Worse, his careless blabbing to a woman on a train about a gift he innocently offered the now-prime minister leads to disaster when she turns out to be a government official, who seeks to use the information to topple the government. As the situation spirals into crisis, Norman finds the courage for action, including a bold sacrifice.
9/29/18 (Sat)
I hadn’t seen this 1952 classic in years, but with Miyamoto Amon’s Broadway-aimed musical version set to debut (in Japanese) next week, I figured it was time for a revisit. It didn’t strike me as an obvious choice for musicalization given the halting communication skills of the main character, who is not exactly Mr. Excitement, and I wondered how they could top the haunting “Gondola no Uta” that the man sings on the swing in the iconic finale. First, a look at the film.
sekenbanashi 