Geisha House / Omocha (1998)

I suppose it was only a matter of time until the nostalgia movies of the nineties turned to the Gion of the fifties for a subject, but the nostalgic glow around Geisha House raises so many questions that it is difficult to know what to make of it. Based on an apparently original script* by …

Crest of Betrayal / Chusingura gaiden: Yotsuya kaidan (1994)

Some re-tellings of the Chushingura story will be about someone not among the final 47 ronin but near them in some way, most notably Samurai Vendetta and Hana, and occasionally there will be a 48th member who somehow misses the final attack. In Crest of Betrayal this 48th ronin is Iemon Tamiya, the man in …

Triple Cross / Itsuka giragirasuruhi (1992)

With more gunfire than a John Woo movie and more car chases and crashes than a Bourne sequel, Triple Cross as directed by Kinji Fukasaku in his yakuza-era manner is an action movie lover's dream. Once again we have a heist gone wrong, but with enough variation to keep us surprised. Over the titles we …

Chaos of Flowers / Hana no ran (1988)

Chaos of Flowers looks at part of the life of Akiko Yosano, one of the most famous Japanese poets of the early 20th century, whose personal and relatively sexually explicit tanka poems made her a lightning rod for all kinds of political and social movements of the time. After the war, however, she was all …

House on Fire / Kataku no hito (1986)

Adapted from an autobiographical novel by Kazuo Dan, House on Fire is such a tempestuous love story that it is hard to believe it is actually Japanese. In its flamboyant and emotional relationships, it is the opposite of And Then, made at about the same time. Dan (Ken Ogata) is the kind of writer who …

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 …

Fall Guy / Kamata koshinkyoku (1982)

For one of the rare occasions in Japanese movies, Fall Guy takes us behind the scenes at a movie studio. Or, to be more accurate, takes us into a fantasy movie studio where clichés are exaggerated and the basic premise so absurd that it gives us little if any real insight into how the Japanese …

Lovers Lost / Dotonbori Bridge / Dotonborigawa (1982)

Lovers Lost takes us into two parts of the underworld that I don’t think I’ve seen in any earlier Japanese movie – the pool hustler and the trans world* before sex change operations became widely available. Unfortunately, neither of these have much of anything to do with the love story of the title, except that …

Gate of Youth / Seishun no mon (1981)

Hiroyuki Itsuki’s eight-volume novel collectively known as Gate of Youth was thought to be so important and so popular when it was written that it was filmed twice before it was even finished in 1994. The first, a six hour and two movie version, appeared in 1975 and 1977. Apparently, producers thought the interest was …

Swords of Vengeance / The Fall of Ako Castle / Ako-jo danzetsu (1978)

There have been so many Chushingura movies that it is very difficult to keep them apart in your mind, and equally tempting not to add another to the list of viewings of the all-too-familiar story. However, the name of Kinji Fukasaku on the credits finally persuaded me to watch Fall of Ako Castle, which turns …