Tag Archives: Japan

Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)

Posted on October 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

Humanity and Paper Balloons (“Ninjô kami fûsen”)
Directed by Sadao Yamanaka
Written by Shintarô Mimura
1937/Japan
Photo Chemical Laboratories (Sony)/Toho Company/Zenshin-za
First viewing

 

[box] “Lastly I say to my seniors and friends: Please make good movies.” From the last will and testament of director Yamanaka Sadao[/box]

I don’t really know whether this is a sad comedy or a funny tragedy.  Whatever it is, it is a small masterpiece.

As might be expected from such a film, the plot is quite complex, subtle and unexpected and I won’t give away too much here.

The story takes place during the Edo period (1603-1867) in a slum quarter of the capital.  It begins with the off-screen suicide of a samurai by hanging.  This inconveniences all the occupants of the crowded street happening on such a fine day and they grouse and complain.  Their irritation is eased however when the local gangster/hair dresser Shinza talks the landlord into giving a wake to lift the “curse” of the place with plenty of sake.

Unno, a ronin (unemployed samurai) and apparently a recovering alcoholic, lives in the quarter with his wife, who supports the couple by making paper balloons.  He spends much of the picture following a former colleague of his samurai father.  Unno is convinced that, if the man would just read a letter written to him by Unno’s deceased father, the man would get him employment.  He is not having much luck in securing an audience, however, as the man avoids him at every turn.  The man is busy arranging the marriage of a pawnbroker’s daughter to a high court official.

Meanwhile, Shinza is running an illegal gambling operation which infringes on the turf of a more powerful gangster.  He is repeatedly beaten up by the gangster and his gang, who are also employees of the pawnbroker.  Shinza finds a way to get even when he chances upon the pawnbroker’s daughter in a compromising position with the pawnbroker’s clerk.

I loved this film.  I love the way the writer just drops you in the middle of things with no notion where they will lead and keeps your interest the whole way.  I love the many well-drawn characters and the way they are portrayed by a gifted ensemble cast.  It is really unlike anything else I have seen.  I suppose it most resembles a more comic version of Kurasawa’s The Lower Depths if one needs a reference point.   Highly recommended.

Humanity and Paper Balloons premiered the same day that Yamanaka was drafted into the Japanese army. He later died in a field hospital in Japanese-ruled Manchukuo, China. He was 28 years old.

I watched this on Hulu Plus.  It is also currently available on YouTube.

Clip – film footage begins at around 55 second mark – the wake

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Osaka Elegy (1936)

Posted on September 11, 2013 | 2 comments

Osaka Elegy (“Naniwa erejî”)
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Written by Kenji Mizoguchi, Yoshikata Yoda and Tadashi Fujiwara
1936/Japan
Daiichi Eiga
First viewing

 

It’s not easy to “like” this thoroughly depressing film.  Nonetheless, it is darkly magnificent.

Mr. Asai is a whiny, complaining old man who gives his servant girls nothing but grief and is picked on by his wealthy wife.  Ayako (Isuzu Yamada) is a telephone operator who works for him.  Mr. Asai constantly propositions Ayako but she is in love with a co-worker.

Ayako’s spineless father has embezzled 300 yen from his company.  The company is threatening to prosecute unless he repays the money.  Although Ayako berates him mercilessly, she also desperately wants to get the money to save him from jail.  Her boyfriend cannot help her so she finally gives Mr. Asai what he wants.  She repays the company and Mr. Asai gives her father a job.  The affair is quickly discovered by Asai’s wife.

Later, Ayako gets money to help her brother with his tuition at university by promising her favors to another executive.  When she refuses to follow through, the executive gets her arrested.  Her boyfriend leaves her.  Her family disowns her and calls her an “ingrate”, not even acknowledging her help.  With Takashi Shimura (Ikuru, Seven Samurai) in a small role as a police inspector.

Mizoguchi was the champion of suffering women throughout his career and Osaka Elegy is an early example of this trend.  The problem for me is that Ayako, though strong, is not particularly sympathetic.  While secretly planning to help, she is always very caustic to her family members.  She is mean to the executive.  So I had a nagging feeling the whole time that she brought a lot of this on herself.   On the other hand, I’m not Japanese and don’t know whether filial piety almost required Ayako to avoid shame on her family at all costs.  If so, her body was all she had to bargain with.  This might make anybody hard to get along with.

Whatever reservations I might have about the plot, the film itself cannot be faulted.  Ayako and her boss watch a wonderful Kabuki puppet performance with thematic ties to her plight that I really, really loved.

Lead actress Isuzu Yamada may be most famous for her chilling performance as Lady Asaji Washizu, the Lady Macbeth role in Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957).

Clip – ending

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Throne of Blood (1957)

Posted on June 19, 2013 | 4 comments

Throne of Blood (“Kumonosu-jô”)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
1957/Japan
Toho Studios/Kurosawa Production Company
Repeat viewing
#320 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8.1/10; I say 9/10

 

[box] And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/ The instruments of darkness tell us truths,/ Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s/ In deepest consequence. (Macbeth, 1.3.132) [/box]

Kurasawa’s stylized Noh-inspired adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth has always seemed to me somehow the most “foreign” of his films.  The images are so beautiful that I can come back again and again despite the somewhat distancing acting and pacing.

The story takes place in 14th Century Japan.  The great Toshiro Mifune plays Washizu, the Macbeth counterpart, with full-throttle bravado, exaggerating each emotion in what I assume is the best Noh style.  Washizu and Miki, the Banquo counterpart, are returning to Spider’s Web Castle after victory in battle when they encounter an evil spirit in the forest. The spirit predicts that Washizu will be named master of the North Garrison that day and later will become Lord of the Castle.  She predicts that Miki will now be named commander of the First Fortress and that his son will later be Lord of the Castle.  The scene with the spirit is particularly creepy and effective.

Washizu and Miki are astonished when the Lord of the Castle appoints them to the positions predicted by the spirit.  Not content to let fate take its course, Washizu’s cold and cruel wife Asaji, brilliantly played by Isuzu Yamamoto, spurs her husband on to murder the current Lord.  The couple plots to frame a courtier named Noriyasu (Takashi Shimura) but fool almost no one.  The childless Washizu has a final opportunity to claim the Lordship and salvage the situation by naming Miki’s son as his heir but this too is foiled by Asaji’s announcement that she is pregnant.

Wasaji’s doom is sealed when he is convinced to murder his former friend Miki and his son.  Mifune’s horrified reaction to the vision of Miki’s ghost is unforgettable.  Wasaji’s hired man lets Miki’s son escape and the son and Noriyasu join forces with the castle’s enemies against Wasaji.  In the meantime, Asaji’s baby is stillborn and she goes mad from guilt over the murders.

By this time, Wasaji’s own men are losing faith in their commander.  Wasaji goes back to the forest to consult the evil spirit.  The spirit advises that he cannot be defeated until the trees of the forest advance on Spider Web Castle.  Various warrior spirits appear to admonish Wasaji about the toll in blood his rise has cost.  Wasaji rallies his worried men by telling them about this latest prediction.  But when they see Noriyasu’s troops advancing on the castle under a protective cover of trees, Wasaji’s troops turn on him, killing him in a hail of arrows.

The end of Throne of Blood is one of the most spectacular in film history.   The images of the huge trees moving through the fog and Mifune staggering, terrified, as one arrow after another pierces his body are mind-blowing.

The commentary on the Criterion DVD says that this is a film about fate.  I see it more as a film about human nature.  Nothing about the prediction said that Wasaji had to use bloodshed to ascend to the throne.  It was his own ambition and hubris that spelled his doom.  Perhaps that is the way evil spirits get the better of us all.

Japanese trailer (with subtitles)

 

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Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Posted on May 27, 2013 | 4 comments

Grave of the Fireflies (“Hotaru no haka”)Grave of the Fireflies Poster
Directed by Isao Takahata
1988/Japan
Shinchosha Company/Studio Ghibli
Repeat viewing
#787 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8.4/10; I say 9/10

 

[box] Setsuko: Why must fireflies die so young?[/box]

Memorial Day is a fitting time to reflect on all the lives lost to war, including those of the most innocent. American should give thanks that civilians have not suffered the horrors of world war on our shores.  This animated film poignantly brings home the cost of war to children in other parts of the world.

Grave of the Fireflies 3

The date is September 25, 1945.  The place is Japan.  The narrator informs us that he died today.  His name is Seita and he is a young adolescent boy, between about 12 and  14.  The film tells his story and that of his pre-school age sister Setsuko.

Their mother is killed at a shelter in a fire bombing; father is away at war.  The children head for an aunt’s house.  The aunt takes them in but increasingly makes it clear that they are an inconvenience.  Furthermore, she constantly nags Seita about his failure to work in the war industry or fight fires during the air raids.  Eventually, she starts withholding the best of the food from the children on the ground that they are not pulling their weight.

Disgusted, Seita decides the children will be better off on their own and takes his sister to an abandoned shelter in the country.  At first, they live a kind of carefree life but rapidly the struggle for survival takes over.  Seita resorts to stealing but even that is not enough.

Grave of the Fireflies 1

It is fortunate that this film is animated.  A live action film detailing the hardships these poor children must suffer would be just too hard to take.  This is sad enough as it is.  The animation is extremely beautiful, as is the music.  The relationship between the brother and sister is very touching and kind.  The film is not totally downbeat.  There are many lovely scenes of the children playing together.

Trailer

 

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An Inn in Tokyo (1935)

Posted on May 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

An Inn in Tokyo (“Tôkyô no yado”)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu
1935/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing

 

[box] Kihachi: It’s awful to be poor.[/box]

Kihachi is unemployed and is raising his two young sons.  The little family is so poor that it relies on the boys catching stray dogs and bringing them in for rabies shots for a bounty to get money to eat and shelter from the elements in a common inn.  Sometimes they must choose between eating and shelter.  Despite this, the children manage to enliven this bleak existence with imagination and mischief.  They meet a woman and her young daughter at the inn and the children become friends.

Kihachi has the very good fortune of meeting an old female friend who helps him find work. The mother of the girl remains unemployed and Kihachi gets his friend to (reluctantly) help feed those two as well.  The older boy goes to school and all the children play together after he gets home.  The mother and daughter eventually fail to turn up.  It turns out the daughter is seriously ill.  Then Kihachi does something he shouldn’t to help them and puts his own family’s future at risk.

This is Ozu’s last silent film and one of his best.  It has been compared to The Bicycle Thieves in its focus on the effects of poverty on the dignity of the individual.  Despite the somber subject matter, the parts of the film that focus on the children are really charming. The clip shows a scene I particularly liked where the older boy tries to cheer up the father by pretending to serve him sake.  Ozu’s style had matured by this point and many of his trademarks are in place.  There is a very interesting ellision in which the boys lose a parcel and we completely skip any angry words from the father.  The acting, including especially that of the children, is top-notch.

I watched the film on Hulu Plus streaming.  It is also currently available on YouTube.  The print is not pristine by any means but that did not interfere with my enjoyment of this wonderful film.

Clip

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Rashomon (1950)

Posted on April 8, 2013 | 7 comments

RashomonRashomon dvd
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
1950/Japan
Daiei Motion Picture Company
#225 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Several viewings

 

 

Commoner: In the end you cannot understand the things men do.

A priest, a woodcutter, and a commoner take shelter from a downpour under the Roshomon gate.  The priest and woodcutter are stunned by the horrible stories they have heard about a murder of a samurai and rape of his wife in the forest.  The woodcutter first tells about his discovery of the body and then proceeds to relate the accounts of the events given by the bandit, the woman, and the samurai (through a medium).  He follows with another eye-witness account.  The stories do not coincide and indeed there is conflicting evidence as to whether there was a murder at all.

roshomon 2

The commoner and the woodcutter

I love Kurosawa’s dazzling meditation on the nature of reality. The people are not so much lying as telling the story from their perspective and in a way that puts each in the best possible light. I think it is interesting that each of the principals claims responsibility for the death, as if what is most important is that s/he be seen as in control of the situation.  Sometimes Toshiro Mifune seems to be overacting as the bandit but when we compare his performances in each version of the story we can see subtle changes.  I love the vast differences between the classic sword fight as described by the bandit and the same sword fight reported by the woodcutter, when we see the two men struggling on the ground and gasping for breath.

Roshomon 1

The cinematography is fantastic. The Criterion DVD includes excerpts from The World of Kazuo Miyagawa, a documentary on Rashomon’s cinematographer.  It was fascinating to learn how he achieved the long tracking shot of the woodsman entering the forest and the light and shadows on the characters faces.  Kurosawa truly captured a sun-dappled forest to perfection. Needless to say, each shot is exquisitely composed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXygJmtnvm0

Clip – “A Ghastly Discovery”

 

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Tokyo Story (1953)

Posted on April 3, 2013 | 6 comments

Tokyo Story (“Tôkyô monogatari”)Tokyo Story DVD
Yasujirô Ozu
1953/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
#257 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Multiple Viewings

Kyoko: Isn’t life disappointing?
Noriko: [smiles] Yes, it is.

This is one of my very favorite films by my very favorite director and I feel like I’m too close to it to find the right words to review it.  I love this and Ozu’s other films because they are unique in giving me a sort of nostalgia, like a bittersweet sadness for a time now lost.  Although I have no reason to be nostalgic for 1950’s Japan, Ozu shows us the core of family life, with its inevitable challenges, in a way that speaks to every time and place.   Ozu’s deliberate pacing and formal compositions encourage a contemplative attitude on the part of the audience, allowing our impressions to linger and evolve.

Shukichi (Ozu regular Chisu Ryu) and Tomi (Chieko Higashiyama) are an elderly couple who have not seen their scattered adult children for several years.  They eagerly set off by train to visit them in Osaka and Tokyo.  When they get to Tokyo, it gradually becomes clear that their son and daughter are too busy with their own lives to entertain their parents.    In contrast, Noriko, the widow of  a son who died in the war, (Setsuko Hara) takes time off from work and extends herself gladly to make her in-laws welcome.

tokyo-story 3

Daughter Shige (Haruko Sugimura) is particularly ungracious and stingy toward her parents.  We learn that she has built up resentments from childhood at her mother’s weight and her father’s drinking.  Shige comes up with the idea of sending the old people to a beach resort to avoid having to take them places.  During his stay with Shige, Shukichi goes out on the town with old friends and gets thoroughly drunk.  It turns out all the old men are disappointed in their children but Shukichi reminds the others that children must be expected grow up and live their own lives, that is just the way life is.  Finally, the old couple decide to cut their visit short and head back for home in the country.

tokyo story 2

Tomi falls in ill on the train and the two spend a night at their younger son’s place in Osaka.  While there, they reflect that their children are a disappointment but still are better than most children.

After they arrive home, Tomi is stricken and becomes critically ill.  The clan gathers once again at their childhood home.  They grieve when Tomi dies yet revert to their old ways after the funeral, Shige asking for some of her mother’s clothes almost before the corpse is cold.

tokyo-story-1953-family-seated

Kyoko, the couple’s youngest daughter who still lives at home, bitterly denounces her siblings as selfish.  The unselfish Noriko explains that it is natural that the older children have busy lives of their own and that eventually she, too, may need to think of herself first.  Life is disappointing but that is the way it is.

Shukishi urges Noriko to remarry and tells her she is a good woman who treated them better than their blood relations on the trip.  In tears, Noriko responds that she is not so good but is very lonely and at loose ends.  Kyoko has already left for work and Noriko now departs for Tokyo by train.  The film ends with Shukishi agreeing with a neighbor that stops by that life will be lonely now.

Ozu allows us to draw our own conclusions.  We are given ample space and time to get to know the characters.  Surely, we are meant to see that the Tokyo children treat their parents very badly but just as certainly we are meant to consider the parent’s acceptant response as admirable.  Life is disappointing, but it goes on.

Trailer

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A Story of Floating Weeds

Posted on March 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

A Story of Floating Weeds (“Ukikusa monogatari”)floating weeds dvd
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1934
Shochiku Company
Second Viewing

 

 

A Story of Floating Weeds

Otaka (the mistress): “The world is like a lottery. You take your ups and downs.”

Kihachi is the actor-manager of a traveling theater company that plays the backwaters of Japan. The shows they put on are comically bad but seem to entertain rural audiences. Kihachi decides to stay in the mountain town where an old flame lives so he can visit with his illegitimate son, whom he has high hopes for but who thinks of the father as an “uncle”. Kihachi’s current mistress is consumed with jealousy and plots to have a young actress seduce the son to foil the father’s plans.

That’s about all there is to the plot but, this being an Ozu film, plot is not all that important. Instead, this is a character study focusing on how the different characters cope with relationships, failure, and aging. It is also quite funny when it looks at the different members of the company, including some low humor aimed at a bed-wetting 9-year-old who ineptly plays the dog in the show.  The film  is ultimately an examination of the inevitably flawed expression of family love in real life as are all Ozu’s films. This is arguably his best and most mature silent film, though I personally prefer 1932’s I Was Born, But ….

Kihachi is irrascible and strikes several people, including women who do not fight back, which could be disturbing to modern viewers.  The violence is not graphic or prolonged.  This film was remade in 1959 as Floating Weeds, Ozu’s first color film.

Excerpt (opening)

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