Fort Graveyard / Chi to suna (1965)

From the moment the military drum roll under the Toho symbol turns into  "When the Saints Go Marching In," played by an unarmed band of college boys marching through the Manchurian countryside, we know we're in for an unusual war movie. Fort Graveyard delivers beyond all reasonable expectations, giving us a perfectly balanced mixture of …

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 …

Ninja, Band of Assassins / Shinobi no mono (1962)

It is one of the great ironies of the ways movies can work that they can often have exactly the opposite effect of their original intention. No better example in Japan is Shinobi no mono. Though it is a film about the corruption and ultimate destruction of a gang of assassins for hire,* it would …

Oh Bomb / Aa bakudan (1964)

Well! It is all but impossible to describe this flamboyant, chaotic, fascinating, and -- oh, yes --  funny film by Kihachi Okamoto. Ostensibly a gangster picture, it follows what would be one of the major templates of yakuza movies. Ona is the leader of his gang but has been in prison for three years. When …

Graceful Brute / Elegant Beast / Shitoyakana kedamono (1962)

In the early sixties, Japanese films began to express a cynicism about the "new Japan" that was appearing* with the return of properity. Possibly the most cynical of all was Elegant Beast, in which we meet the perfect Ozu family turned on its head. Papa, Mama, Son, and Daughter live together, but they are completely …

Sand City in Manchuria / Sabaku o wataru taiyo (1960)

Though not a work of film art by a long shot, Sand City in Manchuria is an especially interesting movie on a number of counts. First, it is a kind of movie common in America  but which we did not know the Japanese made. Koji Tsuruta is the doctor who goes to live among the …

Scarlet Camellia / Goben no tsubaki (1965)

Sometimes you come across a movie that is far more interesting in concept than in practice, and Scarlet Camellia is a good example. It is a highly unusual movie because it is about a serial killer, a very rare occurrence in Japanese society or films, and even more unusually, the killer is a woman. But …