Illusion of Blood / Yotsuya kaidan (1965)

Yotsuya kaidan has been one of the most consistently popular kabuki plays in Japanese history and has been directly adapted into movies and TV on a regular basis, possibly even more often than the Chusingura story. Its mixture of the loving woman done wrong, the desperate ronin, visual horror, insanity, betrayal, and mistaken identity provide …

Escape from Japan (1964)

My first reaction when I saw this movie was that its director, Kuji Yoshida, was pulling a Suzuki by taking an absurd script and filming it as absurdly as possible. However, that does not seem to be the case. Yoshida wrote the script and then walked out of Shochiku reportedly because the studio cut the …

With Beauty and Sorrow (1965)

There was a burst of Japanese movies in the sixties featuring the femme fatale. Of course, the femme fatale has not been completely unknown in Japanese movies, but in the handful of surviving movies featuring the woman who destroys a man, there is only one man and the destruction may be heartless but not intentional, …

Assassination / Ansatsu (1964)

Masahiro Shinoda's Ansatsu is one of the most visually and aurally imaginative movies of the sixties, which is saying a lot, with one of Tetsuro Tanba's best performances. It can also be one of the most confusing Japanese movies for an American to watch, because it deals with one of the most confusing years and …

Punishment Island / Captives’ Island / Shokei no shima (1966)

A mysterious stranger arrives in a remote village on a mysterious mission, one of the basic formulas of suspense movies the world over. In Punishment Island, Masahiro Shinoda uses the formula to make a mysterious and suspenseful movie that also tries to be more than that. Saburo, the stranger, is actually no stranger, for he …

Samurai Wolf / Kiba okaminosuke (1966)

I earlier suggested Hideo Gosha's Three Outlaw Samurai was the most approachable chanbara for people new to the genre or for people who think they don't like such movies. By contrast,  Samurai Wolf, his fourth film, is the chanbara on steroids and should be approached with care until you are comfortable with the form. To …

Kwaidan / Kaidan (1964)

Kobayashi's first color film, Kwaidan carries to an extreme the Japanese use of intentional non-realism in film. As such, it is a triumph of style over substance, by making an anthology film of four very simple stories into a three-hour visual marathon.* Adapted from four stories by Lafcadio Hearn, the movie provides the unusual chance …

Samurai Spy / Ibun Sarutobi Sasuke (1965)

If you are looking for a samurai or a ninja movie, this is not a good place to start, though there are samurai and ninja aplenty. The hint is in the title -- this is a spy movie, made during the peak of the spy movie era. But it is directed by Masahiro Shinoda, which …

Woman in the Dunes / Suna no onna (1964)

Among all Japanese movies, my most unusual relationship is probably with Woman in the Dunes. It was the first Japanese movie I ever saw, barring perhaps some badly dubbed Godzillas on the Late Show.  It did not lead to my interest in Japanese movies in general, because the "foreign film" college fad of the sixties …

Twin Sisters of Kyoto / Kyoto / Koto (1963)

Based on Kawabata's last novel, Koto is as quiet, subtle, and allusive as its source. Its story of twins separated at birth is common throughout the world, but I don't think it has ever been told with less melodramatic development than here. As with some of Ozu's seasons movies, every potential outburst of drama is …