- 続・宮本武蔵 一乘寺の決斗 (Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple)
1/30/25 (Thurs)
The second film (1955) in Inagaki’s Musashi trilogy. Continue reading
Category Archives: Film
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (宮本武蔵)
- 宮本武蔵 (Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto)
1/26/25 (Sun), home
Inagaki Hiroshi’s 1954 remake of his now-lost wartime epic about the legendary swordsman, adapted from Eiji Yoshikawa’s popular 1930s novel. The novel is a highly romanticized look at the elusive Miyamoto’s life, where the known facts are thin on the ground, and has done much to establish his swashbuckling image. The film is the first in a trilogy, as made clear in the English title. It proved a huge hit both at home and abroad. It was honored by Hollywood at the Academy Awards as the year’s best foreign-language film. I don’t think it was even the best Japanese-language film that year (its competition included The Seven Samurai, Sansho the Bailiff, Chikamatsu Story, Late Chrysanthemums, and Blue Ribbon and Kinejun winner Twenty-Four Eyes), but no arguing with success.
A House in the Quarter (五番町夕霧楼)
- 五番町夕霧楼 (A House in the Quarter)
1/14/25 (Tues)
Tasaka Tomotaka’s 1963 version of Minakami Tsutomu’s novel was being shown as part of a celebration of actress Sakuma Yoshiko, whose performance in this weepy transformed her virginal image and propelled her to stardom. It offers a rather sanitized look at a brothel full of happy hookers overseen by a kindhearted madam. While this was hardly Japan’s first work about brothels, its salacious marketing strategy and portrayal of sex, however mild by today’s standards, raised eyebrows at the time and (along with Imamura Shohei’s The Insect Woman) triggered an “erotica boom” in Japan’s film industry.
Rocketman
- Rocketman
1/12/25 (Sun)
Dexter Fletcher’s 2019 film biography of Elton John from childhood to his recovery from drug addiction some 30 years ago. It’s pretty standard fare for this type of film, starting with a difficult upbringing by disinterested parents to a success that he was not prepared for and ultimately to redemption.
The Ghost of Yotsuya Parts 1 & 2 (新釈四谷怪談)
- 新釈四谷怪談 Parts 1 & 2 (The Ghost of Yotsuya)
1/11/25 (Thurs)
Kinoshita’s two-part 1949 work is one of more than two dozen film versions of the evergreen Kabuki classic Yotsuya Kaidan since the silent era. The first eight minutes or so of Part 2 simply repeat the final minutes of the first half, so I assume that this was originally intended as a single film, broken up either for excessive length or just to make an extra buck (the second one opened in theaters just two weeks after the first). The original Kabuki version was also split into two days, mixed with scenes from Chushingura (it was a spinoff of the latter), so I suppose it follows tradition in a sense. In any case, the film could and should be reedited into a single 2.5-hour film and should certainly be seen that way.
The Japanese title is literally “Yotsuya Ghost Story: A New Interpretation”. New is right – for one thing, the ghost story has no ghosts. Oiwa appears only as a figment of the guilt-ridden Iemon’s imagination rather than an actual spirit as in the play. The film cleverly has Tanaka Kinuya playing both Oiwa and Oiwa’s sister Osode, so that the latter represents for Iemon a haunting manifestation of Oiwa after her murder.
High Sierra
- High Sierra
11/10/24 (Sun)
Raoul Walsh’s 1941 noir thriller gave Humphrey Bogart his first starring role; while he was second-billed (to Ida Lupino), that wouldn’t last long, especially after his turn later that year in a true classic, The Maltese Falcon. This film, though a big success in its day, has not aged as well.
Shogun vs. Shogun
- Shogun vs. Shogun
1/2/25 (Tues)
I never caught the original Shogun series way back when, so having seen the new version recently, I figured it was time to get caught up. As it turns out, both are superb renditions of the book, but their aims and approaches are very different.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
1/2/25 (Tues)
I’m not sure if this 1962 film was meant to be serious, but it’s fantastic high camp, a drag queen’s dream. Bette Davis gives a gothic portrayal of the demented former star in Sunset Boulevard mixed with the demented fan in Misery, while Joan Crawford plays the crippled sister with an irritating gentleness that reminded me of Olivia de Havilland (Crawford’s real-life sister) in Gone With the Wind. Never a dull moment from start to finish.
A former child star failed to shake off her sweet, curly-haired Baby Jane image as she grew, only to see her little sister Blanche surpass her as a major movie star. Unfortunately Blanche was left crippled at the peak of her stardom, reportedly run over by her drunk and bitter sister. She is now wheelchair-bound, living with the spinster Jane on the second floor of her home. Jane has never forgiven Blanche for snatching stardom from her and treats her abominably, which is where the camp comes in. Continue reading
Miller’s Crossing
- Miller’s Crossing
12/28/24 (Sat)
The Coen Brothers’ third effort is fantastic in every way: a razor-sharp script, great acting all around, distinctive characters, a superb balance of humor, blood and emotion. If the story of a gangster who plays both sides against each other sounds like Yojimbo, it’s because both are supposedly inspired by the same novel (or novels) by Dashiell Hammett. Continue reading
Destiny’s Son (斬る)
- 斬る (Destiny’s Son)
12/27/24 (Fri)
Misumi Kenji’s 1962 chambara flick inconveniently has the same Japanese title Kiru (meaning slash to death) as Okamoto Kihachi’s wild 1968 work, which managed to beat the earlier film to the obvious English choice Kill.
The film opens with a dynamic sequence in which a maidservant sneaks in and stabs the lord’s mistress to death “for the sake of the clan”. Skipping forward a year, we learn that the man chosen to execute her has fallen in love with her, and it is only after their son is born that he duly cuts her head off. He entrusts the child to a low-ranking samurai and becomes a monk, shutting himself off from the world entirely.
The Conversation
- The Conversation
12/15/24 (Sat)
In Coppola’s 1974 film, free-lance wiretapper Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a gruff loner considered the best in his field, is charged with tapping the conversations of a normal-looking couple. His intricate work involves several mikes and cameras placed in various spots, and his golden rule is to know as little as possible and never get personally involved in any information he acquires. The couple, aware that they could be under surveillance, wander around San Francisco’s Union Square speaking quietly to each other, but their words are all picked up by Harry. The problem comes when he hears remarks suggesting that they may be in danger, particularly the line, “He’d kill us if he got the chance” – or is it “He’d kill us if he got the chance,” implying something very different?
Madame Butterfly (1915 silent film)
- Madame Butterfly (1915 silent film)
2/1/22 (Tues)
I realized after writing about the Fritz Lang Butterfly that I never posted this review of the older silent version of the opera. I found this film by chance online when doing research for my Kabuki version of Butterfly [which finally debuted in Dec 2024]. The only names I recognized were Mary Pickford in the title role and David Burton as a Japanese prince who wants to marry her – casting that wouldn’t go over well today.
The story is taken broadly from the opera but changed in significant ways. The biggest difference is that Butterfly is not a geisha for hire but the daughter of a well-to-do family, which changes the dynamics considerably. Continue reading
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