Taste of Tea / Cha no aji (2002)

Nothing could be more ordinary yet more meaningful for traditional Japanese culture than the cup of tea. Reflecting this, the outline of A Taste of Tea is quite simple. The viewer observes a family while it passes through one spring when the son enters high school and the daughter goes to grade school, while Dad …

Princess Goh / Go-hime (1992)

Teshigahara's Go-hime picks up its story just after Sen no Rikyu committed seppuku. While talking to Lord Oribe, Hideyoshi tries to deny anything to do with it, even though we saw in Rikyu that Hideyoshi not only ordered the suicide but also sent men to guarantee it was carried out. Oribe, a famous daimyo disciple …

Death of a Tea Master / Sen no Rikyu: Honkakubo ibun (1989)

Among the many mysteries of Japanese culture, the tea ceremony remains arguably the least comprehensible to outsiders. Though similar rituals began in China and continue to be observed in some form in China and Korea, the Japanese seem to have taken it to an extreme, converting the brewing and drinking of a cup of tea …

Gonza the Spearman / Yari no Gonza (1986)

Gonza is a handsome young samurai, so handsome that girls sing songs about him in the street, and regarded as the best spearman in his clan. Oyuki, the sister of his competitor Bonnojo, wants to marry him, but he feels he needs further advancement to secure permission from her brother. When the daimyo of the …

Love Under the Crucifix / Ogin-sama (1962)

The American title of Love Under the Crucifix is more than a bit misleading. Though the movie is set in the 1580s, when there was a serious attempt to suppress Christianity in major part because it led to contact with foreigners, the film itself is not about Christians or their persecution. Rather, it is about …