Battle Anthem / Nihonkai daikaisen: Umi yukaba (1983)

Battle Anthem gives Toshiro Mifune another opportunity to win the Battle of the Sea of Japan, but a lot has changed in Japanese movie-making and in the society as a whole since he first did so in 1969. Though Mifune reprises his role as Admiral Togo, the story of the battle now is told from …

Woman in the Mist / Oboroyo no onna (1936)

Just before he came down with TB before the war, Gosho began a turn away from his popular shomin-geki with three more melodramatic movies. Woman in the Mist is the most frustrating of these three movies, even though it seems the most complete, for it takes us into the confusing world of the Japanese mistress. …

Angel Guts: Red Classroom / Tenshi no harawata: Akai kyôshitsu (1979)

One of the most highly regarded pinku films, Angel Guts: Red Classroom takes us into the complex world where exploitation and empathy are difficult to distinguish.* At one level, it is a story of a woman whose life is destroyed by a rape; on another, it is the story of a pornographer who loses his …

Island of Evil Spirits / Akuryo-To (1981)

Island of the Evil Spirits takes us once again into the popular world of detective Kindaichi. He has been called to a small island by a man who appears to have died just before Kindaichi arrived. Before he is done, he has found the deep secrets of the island’s most powerful families that have resulted …

Heart, Beating in Darkness / Yami utso shinzo (1982)

Heart, Beating in Darkness is a rare student project that actually has a story and characters that also make sense, which would lead to a professional career for its writer/director Shunichi Nagasaki. It was shot entirely on 8mm and in natural light, or perhaps natural darkness would be a better description, but with a pair …

Beast Must Die / Beast to Die / Yaju shisubeshi (1980)

The movie generally known as The Beast to Die is one of the great poems to the gun and how it changes the person holding it. It is a meditation on violence begetting violence, even if the violence only begins as something seen, a poem to violence as its own reward, not because the man …

Exchange Student / Tenkosei (1982)

Long before the international animated hit Your Name was released, Nobuhiku Obayashi of Hausu fame made a live action movie about a young teen boy and girl trading personalities.* Aside from the swapped minds aspect, however, Tenkosei bears little relation to the more famous later movie and is much more concerned with sexual awareness and …

Scarred Life / Scratched Faces / Life’s Bloody Wounds / Kizu darake no jinsei (1971)

There are so many yakuza movies, and the story lines are so often repetitive, that they tend to be distinguished primarily by the level of violence in their presentation. Scarred Life certainly culminates in a spectacularly bloody and extended fight, but it stands out not for the fight but for the sincerity and variety of …

Family Game / Kazoku gemu (1983)

The family was the fundamental unit of Japanese society, but by the eighties it was seen by many to have gone adrift. This uneasiness is the subject of The Family Game, a satirical look at the family in the age of the salaryman that is often more revealing than it is funny. From the very …

Legend of the Eight Samurai / Satomi hakkenden (1983)

One of the most popular novels of 19th century Japan was the sprawling, episodic fantasy Nanso Satomi Hakkenden written over a period of thirty years by Bakin. It had been adapted to stage, film, and TV several times, so it is no particular surprise that Toei and Kadokawa decided it was time for another version …