In a Ring of Mountains / Seven Miles to Nakayama / Nakayama shichiri (1962)

Nakayama shichiri is another of those Japanese movies that turn out not to be what you expect them to be. As it stars Raizo Ichikawa and is directed by Kazuo Ikehiro, one of the Daiei standbys with a number of Zatoichi, Sleepy Eyes, and Shinobi no mono films on his resumé, you can be forgiven …

Black Line Zone / Kurosen chitai (1960)

An American film noir in everything but its cast and setting, Black Line Zone is an impressive, tight, and tense thriller. Shigeru Amachi, one of the most attractive Japanese leading men of the era, plays a daring reporter, known as Scoop, of course. As the movie opens, he's following a prostitute who can lead him …

Three Treasures / Nippon tanjo (1959)

A Japanese equivalent of the Biblical epics sweeping the Euro/American world after the rise of 'scope and color, Three Treasures relates the foundation story of Japan and of the Shinto religion, including at one point an Adam and Eve pair, but without the somber fake profundity of the Biblical movies. Unfortunately, to a non-Japanese audience, …

Endless Desire / Hateshinaki yokubo (1958)

The heist or caper movie has been with us throughout the history of film (see The Great Train Robbery), but it became an international fad in the mid-fifties with Rififi, Bob le Flambeur, The Killing, and in comedic versions The Ladykillers and Big Deal on Madonna Street. Japan was apparently not immune, though I haven't …

Ballad of Narayama / Narayama bushiko (1958)

There have long been legends of remote Japanese villages that drove out the elderly when they essentially ate more than they were able to produce. None of those legends appear to have been confirmed, but in 1956 a short novel about such a place appeared, and it was almost immediately adapted by Kinoshita for a …

Stakeout / The Chase / Harikomi (1958)

In general, police procedural movies made up only a small portion of the Japanese film industry.  Crime stories were popular in the newspapers and bookstores, but most of these followed the lead of Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, featuring an intricate puzzle to be solved by a brilliant private detective. After the war, many of …

Danger Stalks Near / Hanging by a Thread / A Candle in the Wind / Fuzen no tomoshibi (1957)

Three small-time hoods hear rumors of a rich old woman living outside the village and decide to break in and steal her cash when she is alone with her daughter-in-law. This is a basic set-up for crime movies the world over. But it is also a movie written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, so before …

Blue Sky Maiden / The Bright/Cheerful Girl / Aozora musume (1957)

Ayako Wakao was a big star among young audiences during the early fifties. With her pure ingenue looks that would have made her an ideal teenager even in America, it's easy to see how. Like Mie Kitahara, she personified a new kind of Japanese girl/woman for audiences eager to find a new, modern expression. Underneath …

Portrait of Madame Yuki / Yuki fujin ezu (1950)

Even the most fervent admirers of Mizoguchi don't seem to know how to deal with Madame Yuki, and so for the most part it is ignored. It should not be. In outline, this is a typical josei-eiga: Yuki is a woman who has somehow been married  to the wrong man. He squanders her wealth, forcing …

Shozo, A Cat, and Two Women / Neko to Shozo to futari no onna (1956)

All but unknown outside of Japan, Shozo, a Cat, and Two Women is one of the most surprising and entertaining movies of the fifties, not just from Japan but from any country. Shozo is your average man, a typical shomin-geki hero who just wants a quiet life. But he has woman-trouble from every angle, not …