Koheita is the second son of a high-level samurai, which means he has developed a reputation as a dora, which the subtitles translate as “playboy” or “stray cat.” Nevertheless, he is sent to clean up the clan's castle town, a task at which three other commissioners have already failed. The crime is generally assigned to … Continue reading I Went To . . . / Alley Cat / Dora-Heita (2000)
Shugoro Yamamoto
The Sea is Watching / Umi wa miteita (2002)
Almost immediately after Akira Kurosawa's death, Japanese film-makers brought to the screen three of his still unproduced screenplays, all of which were based on stories by Shugoro Yamamoto. The Sea is Watching was the last of these and in many ways the most unexpected. Directed by Kei Kumai, it is so utterly different from what … Continue reading The Sea is Watching / Umi wa miteita (2002)
Fusa / Sono kido o tootte (1993)
The fiction of Shugoro Yamamoto provided a deep well of inspiration for some of Japan's finest movie-makers long after his death in 1967.* Kon Ichikawa's Fusa uses one of his more cryptic stories for an extremely elegant movie that seems to want to be a ghost story but isn't quite. Hiramatsu is a young samurai, … Continue reading Fusa / Sono kido o tootte (1993)
Murderer! / Hitogoroshi (1976)
The Japanese swordplay movie usually followed a basic pattern, whether it involved samurai, ronin, or pre-Meiji era yakuza. Someone insults a person's, family's, clan's, or yakuza gang’s honor and that insult must ultimately be avenged, leading to a final one-to-one duel. Hitogoroshi is the most unusual take on this formula I’ve ever come across, and … Continue reading Murderer! / Hitogoroshi (1976)
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