Black Snow / Kuroi yuki (1965)

While the Occupation of Japan officially ended in 1952, in Black Snow Japan is still an occupied country, though it is now 1965. Set just outside Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, the action is perpetually accompanied by the screeching of jets landing and taking off and of military vehicles on the road. And this is …

Happiness of Us Alone / Namonaku mazushiku utsukushiku (1961)

Possibly the earliest Japanese film to deal seriously with people with disabilities, The Happiness of Us Alone is also one of the best surveys of post-war Japanese history as seen by the "average" couple.  In this case, the couple are both deaf, but their story mirrors that of many families we have seen in many …

Chikamatsu’s Love in Osaka / Their Own World / Naniwa no koi no monogatari (1959)

Chubei has been adopted into a family to learn the business and eventually marry the daughter. Dragged by a friend/customer to the pleasure quarter, he is trapped reluctantly into spending his first night with a woman, the popular and lovely courtesan Umegawa. They fall in love, and when a rich man tries to buy Umegawa, …

Pigs and Battleships /Buta no gunkan (1961)

In Pigs and Battleships, Shohei Imamura manages to make a completely humane, humorous, and yet utterly cynical look at Japan of the time. It is a remarkable achievement, and I can't think of many movies from any nation with quite this unique mixture of attitude. Kinta (Hiroyuki Nagato) is a not too bright hustler and …

Black River / Kuroi kawa (1957)

Kobayashi's Black River marks a couple of significant "firsts." It is, as far as I can find, the first Japanese movie to deal openly with the continuing American presence in Japan, long after the Occupation had officially ended. Perhaps even more significantly, it is the first major screen appearance of Tatsuya Nakadai, initiating his strong …

Sincere Heart /Sincerity / Magokoro (1953)

If you come to this expecting a Masaki Kobayashi film, you're in for a big surprise. One of his earlier features, it was made before he developed enough status in the studio system to have the clout to make movies like Black River, Harakiri, or Human Condition. I would guess that if Kobayashi's name wasn't …

Love Letter/Koibumi (1953)

In a sense, the history of Japanese film from the silent era into the early seventies is the history of Kinuyo Tanaka. She combined a tremendous popularity with the general public with a skill, variety, and complexity that attracted, and often brought out the best, in the great directors she worked with, including Gosho, Shimizu, …