To spare himself public embarrassment an insecure and ageing movie star named Ginshiro (Morio Kazama) forces his pregnant mistress Konatsu (Keiko Matsuzaka) to marry his lackey Yasu (Mitsuru Hirata). To Ginshiro’s envy the pair fall deeply in love and Yasu – now desperate for money to support Konatsu – volunteers to perform a fall down an oversized staircase on the … Read the rest
Category: Japan
Only On Mondays (Ko Nakahira, Japan, 1964)
20 year old Yuko (Mariko Kaga), a sexually assertive good time gal from the port city of Yokohama finds herself caught between the manipulative sugar-daddy (Takeshi Katô) who wants her to sleep with an American skipper to ensure a business transaction goes through and her young best friend (Akira Nakao) who wants to make an honest woman of her.
One … Read the rest
What Did The Lady Forget? (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1937)
Wise and charming battle of the sexes comedy in which Komiya (Tatsuo Saito) a meek professor under the thumb of bossy wife Tokiko (Suiko Kurishima) is put straight by his liberated niece Setsuko (Michiko Kuwano after he gets into trouble for concocting an alibi to cover their drunken night out together at a geisha house. Kuwano – who conveys a … Read the rest
Village Of Eight Gravestones (Yoshitara Nomura, Japan, 1977)
Following the death of his grandfather a young airport worker named Tatsuya (Kenichi Hagiwara) returns to his family home in a remote valley and discovers that a curse has been placed on the village by the leader of a band of samurai warriors who were brutally murdered there 400 years earlier. As the bodies begin to pile up fearful villagers … Read the rest
A Legend Or Was It? (Keisuke Kinoshita, Japan, 1963)
In the last months of WW2 a tiny village becomes home to two refugee families, the Sonobes and the Shimizus. But after pretty Yuri Shimizu (Mariko Kaga) refuses to marry the mayor’s son, a local war hero named Takamori (Bunta Sugawara), malicious rumours put about by the latter have the villagers blaming the new arrivals for every incident no matter … Read the rest
Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2008)
An insatiably curious goldfish princess named Ponyo falls in love with Sosuke, the five-year old boy who saves her after she ends up washed ashore and trapped in a bottle. But Ponyo’s love for Sosuke and subsequent transformation from fish to human alarms her wizard father Fujimoto (who despises humans for their environmental vandalism) and throws nature so terrifyingly out … Read the rest
A Scoundrel (Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1965)
14th Century Japan; an ageing general named Moronao (Eitaro Ozawa) whiles away his time at a private court. When his courtesan Jijyu (Nobuko Otowa) unwisely hints at a Princess of rare beauty who lives in the area (Woman of the Dunes‘ Kyoko Kishida) the General instantly becomes smitten and begins sending the married woman love verses. The verses … Read the rest
Wolf (Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1955)
A group of rookie insurance salespeople – Yano (Nobuko Otawa), Tomie (Sanae Takasugi), Mikawa (Taiji Tonoyama), Harashima (Jun Hamamura) and Yoshikawa (Ichiro Sugai) – find themselves unable to make their sales targets. Facing the sack and with their personal lives mired in poverty the group agree to rob a cash delivery truck. But after a successful heist all are undone … Read the rest
Ditch (Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1954)
After being raped a traumatised woman named Tsuru (Nobuko Otowa) wanders into a squatter camp and is immediately taken advantage of by Toku (Taiji Tonoyama) and Pin (Jukichi Uno), two residents keen to use her to fund their gambling habit. Exploiting Tsuru’s good nature by posing as a hard up student Pin worms his way into Tsuru’s affections and convinces … Read the rest
Snow Flurry (Keisuke Kinoshita, Japan, 1959)
In 1940 the only son of an aristocratic family commits suicide with his pregnant wife (Keiko Kishi). However the latter survives to eventually give birth to a son, Sutueo (Yusuke Kawazu). 19 years later, with the family having lost its status along with most of its land, the adult Suteo harbours a deep love for his adoptive sister Sakura (Yoshiko … Read the rest
