Like Someone in Love (with Japan) – part 4
Like Someone in Love (with Japan) part 4 Japan as seen on film from without Kill Bill (Vols. 1 & 2 [2003/04]) Quentin Tarantino – whose fourth and fifth films these are NOT! – has made a career of picking like a voracious magpie over those shiny bits and pieces of cinema and pop […]
BLACK RAIN
BLACK RAIN (1989) Dir. Ridley Scott Thriller drama yakuza buddy film After and given the aesthetic design of Blade Runner (1982) it was arguably little surprise that Ridley Scott would sooner or later find his way to Japan. Neither it is especially notable that, after the commercial and largely critical failures of Legend (1985) and […]
Like Someone in Love (with Japan) pt. 3
Like Someone in Love (with Japan) pt. 3 Contemporary Japan as seen from without Following the numerous films made about Japan by foreign filmmakers in the wake of WWII there has been a relatively recent proliferation of the same, albeit by a more diverse series of directors and nationalities. In recent years a plethora of […]
Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District
SUZAKI PARADISE: RED LIGHT DISTRICT 洲崎パラダイス 赤信号 Dir. Kawashima Yuzo Drama Gendai-geki 1950s The work of Kawashima Yuzo was for a long time almost invisible outside Japan, rarely seen and even more rarely considered. Despite this, he was a key figure in Japanese cinema, someone whose influence on directors like Imamura Shohei was palpable and […]
Like Someone in Love (with Japan) Pt. 2
Like Someone in Love (with Japan) Pt. 2 Japan on Film from Without Sayonara (1957) Following The Teahouse of the August Moon Marlon Brando remained in Japan (narratively) and appeared in a film that is in many ways a companion to Daniel Mann’s in that it casts its lead in a diagrammatically opposing role. Sayonara […]
Like Someone in Love (with Japan) pt.1
Like Someone in Love (With Japan) Pt.1 Films About Japan as seen from Without LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (WITH JAPAN) – Part 1 In the post-WWII era a number of Hollywood works were made in and about Japan, often revolving around Japanese characters alongside characters from the US. These were generally both commercially and critically […]
Overnight Walk
OVERNIGHT WALK オーバーナイトウォーク” Dir. Isobe Teppei Japanese Cinema Drama City Symphony Walking has a particular provenance and a privileged charge in Japanese cinema, as it has in Japan. Historically the obligation of local daimyo to pay annual visits to their Lords necessitated long journeys on foot. Cultural reflections on such travels proliferate in […]
Crazy Thunder Road
Crazy Thunder Road 狂い咲きサンダーロード 1980 • Directed by Ishii Sogo Japanese Cinema Punk Dystopian 1980s Cult Classic There are few more significant Japanese films of the 1970s and 1980s, and fewer still who wear their significance with such gleeful abandon, as Crazy Thunder Road. Began as a student graduation project in 16mm and ultimately given […]
Burst City
Burst City 爆裂都市 1982 • Directed by Ishii Sogo Japanese Cinema PunkDystopian 1980s Cult Classic There are few filmmakers that better encapsulate the punk aesthetic of much 1980s Japanese independent cinema than Ishii Sogo; and of his riotous, anarchic, frequently iconoclastic work in this decade arguably no film better represents such an aesthetic than Burst […]
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes ドロステン 2020 • Directed by Yamaguchi Junta Japanese Cinema Comedy Time Travel 2020s Time travel has been a frequent, if often under-appreciated, facet of Japanese cinema. The anime and animated Television series and films of Doraemon the robotic cat from the future has for many remained an entry point not […]