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 …

Stolen Desire / Nusumareta yokujo (1958)

Stolen Desire as a title suggests an overheated romantic melodrama.* Instead, it is one of the most entertaining back-stage comedies you'll come across in any language. Shinichi is a young man who has somehow gotten himself attached to the low-rent Yamamura acting troupe, which tours the countryside with crudely abridged versions of Kabuki plays and …