Zatoichi (2003)

As Shinji Somai's Kaza-hana indicated in 2000, Zatoichi had not faded from popularity, though the movies ended in 1973 and the follow-up TV series in 1979. Shintaro Katsu's one attempt to revive the character in 1989 had been ruined by scandal and legal problems. Still, Katsu himself had died in 1997 and the rights to …

After the Rain / Ame agaru (1999)

Ihei is a wandering ronin who has been done in over the years by his own good nature. He and his wife find themselves stranded at an inn as the river they want to cross is flooded. He enters a prize-fight and uses the prize money for food and drink for all the people in …

Violent Cop / This Man is Wild / Sono otoko, kyobo ni tsuki (1989)

Japan had seen the American-style rogue cop movie before, but Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop strips the cliches to their bare-boned essence, in the process making a movie that often looks like a very traditional bit of Japanese film-making yet feels like a major turning point in Japanese cinema. As a detective, Azuma is strange, to …

Kill! / Kiru (1968)

Starting from the same story on which Kurosawa built Sanjuro, Kihachi Okamoto’s Kiru throws everything from sixties chanbara into the pot and stirs it all up into a unique and arguably great film. What could easily have resulted in a derivative mess, a pale imitation, or a Mel Brooks parody instead comes out as an …

Rise Against the Sword / Abare Goemon (1966)

There was something about a return to black and white that seemed to stimulate, even revive, many Japanese film makers in the sixties. This is certainly true of Inagaki’s Rise Against the Sword. For the last decade of his career, Inagaki spent most of his time on color period epics, several running four hours, which …

Dojo Challengers / Samurai from Nowhere* / Dojo Yaburi (1964)

The sixties chanbara is so rich that a fascinating movie like Samurai from Nowhere, without a famous director or star, undeservedly falls through the cracks. While there is plenty of swordplay, it provides one of the most realistic looks at the life and the desperation of the ronin since Humanity and Paper Balloons. Ihei is …

Samurai Assassin / Samurai (1965)

Based on a famous incident in Japanese history, Samurai Assassin assumes a certain amount of historical knowledge on the part of its audience, but don't let that put you off. Most of the movie is fiction. After the Americans arrived, the new Tokugawa Shogun was a child, so Chief Elder Ii actually ran the country …

Sanjuro (1962)

Among other things, Sanjuro asks us, "When is a sequel not a sequel?" Though generally seen as a sequel to Yojimbo, and marketed as such by Toho in 1962, it is not altogether clear that they are even related. There's no doubt that Toshiro Mifune is playing the same character: He has the same costume, …

A Man’s Crest / Emblem of a Man / Otoko no monsho (1963)

By the early sixties, Japanese chanbara were beginning to question the "honorable man" aspects of the samurai, but there was still a large audience looking for an honorable hero they could admire. They found it in the most unexpected of places, the yakuza. Initially, the ninkyo or chivalrous yakuza had been a sub-genre of the …

A Note on Kurosawa (II)

In his lifetime, Kurosawa was often criticized in Japan for being too western, somehow not really "Japanese." This particular criticism had always confused me, not least because I came to Japanese films through Kurosawa, as did most Americans, so that he provided the initial paradigm of a Japanese movie.  As I became more familiar with …