The Last War gives us a Japanese take on the nuclear standoff that was much on people's minds in 1962, also the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.* For the most part, it focuses on the "little people" who generally go about their business without any particular awareness of the dangers. We do see the … Continue reading Last War / Sekai daisenso (1962)
The American title of Love Under the Crucifix is more than a bit misleading. Though the movie is set in the 1580s, when there was a serious attempt to suppress Christianity in major part because it led to contact with foreigners, the film itself is not about Christians or their persecution. Rather, it is about … Continue reading Love Under the Crucifix / Ogin-sama (1962)
Akira Kobayashi first attracted serious attention as the young brother in Rusty Knife, where audiences fell in love with his open smile. Within months, Nikkatsu began featuring him as the lead and he became one of the most popular stars of the studio's borderless action films. Rambling Guitarist itself spawned eight sequels. It is also, in … Continue reading Rambling Guitarist / Gitaa o motta wataridori (1959) & Rambler Rides Again / Daisogen no wataridori) (1960)
Most of the streams of the Japanese "troubled youth" movie reach their peak in Tears on the Lion's Mane, the major Shinoda movie that Criterion doesn't have and is thus all but unknown in America. Young Sabu is an enforcer for a small shipping company, and we first see him running to the docks to … Continue reading Flame at the Pier / Tears on the Lion’s Mane / Namida o shishi no tategami ni (1962)
I began my serious interest in Japanese movies because I wanted to try to understand how the Japanese coped with the destruction of their country and its reorganization by the Americans. This led me to a fascinating and varied world of movies with which I fell in love but, ironically perhaps, the most "Japanese" filmakers … Continue reading Early Summer / Bakushu (1951)
The Girl I Loved provides us with the simplest of story lines. A baby is abandoned by a woman on her way to commit suicide. The child is taken in by a farm family and raised as their own, and their son falls in love with her. Returning from the war, he intends to marry … Continue reading Girl I Loved / Waga koi seshi otome (1946)
Unusual for Ozu's movies, Record deals with a genuine social problem of the day. One of the major results of the war was an enormous number of orphans in all of the major cities. We have seen this in more detail and more realism in Children of the Beehive, but Ozu treats it here with … Continue reading Record of a Tenement Gentleman / Nagaya shinsoroku (1947)
