The Japanese entertainment industry has lost a truly marvelous talent. On January 15th, 2023, versatile character actor Noboru Mitani passed away at the age of 90. On the website Yahoo! Japan, Kyodo News reports the cause of death being “due to acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure”( Kyodo News 1). Mitani worked with an array of filmmakers, frequently appearing in the works of Kinji Fukasaku and Juzo Itami. He was also quite active in television and theatre. Tokusatsu fans may recognize him for his appearances in “Return of Ultraman,” “Ultraman Taro,” and “Space Sheriff Gavan,” while anime enthusiasts may remember him for voice acting in the series “Princess Tutu.” His wide range, colorful personality, and how real he could make his characters feel made him stand out as an actor. He also was often able to convey so much through his facial expressions alone, even in moments without dialogue.
Noboru Mitani and Hiroyuki Kawase...
Noboru Mitani and Hiroyuki Kawase...
- 2/3/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Arrow Video floors us with yet another well-curated Japanese masterpiece. For practical purposes, this disc might represent the Western premiere of Tomu Uchida’s three-hour ‘crime and punishment’ saga. Unfolding like a novel and filmed with an unusually gritty visual scheme called ‘the Toei W106 method,’ the story’s timeline is split between 1947 and 1957. It has a strong postwar social statement to make, but the overriding theme is one of spiritual Karma, and the function of guilt in imperfect humans. Several of the actors are just unforgettable, especially Rentarô Mikuni, Junzaburô Ban, and Ken Takakura.
A Fugitive from the Past
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.
Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa
Special Effects: Sadao Uemura
Art Director: Mikio Mori...
A Fugitive from the Past
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.
Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa
Special Effects: Sadao Uemura
Art Director: Mikio Mori...
- 9/6/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Many international viewers probably know filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku for his terrific dystopian action-thriller “Battle Royale,” a movie that blends dark comedy with tragedy and kickstarted a narrative concept that would continue to be frequently utilized in other fictional works. Some may associate him with his campy sci-fi features like “The Green Slime.” Yet, early on, the director gave Japanese audiences viscerally outspoken and bold features. Look no further than his yakuza film series “Battles Without Honor and Humanity,” which tears apart Japan’s most operative crime organizations. The director was never afraid to speak his mind on a matter, even if he were to receive criticism as a result. Fukasaku’s mindset is openly expressed in his haunting anti-war masterpiece “Under the Flag of the Rising Sun.”
on Amazon
The film is based on a collection of war short stories by Shoji Yuki. Beyond the source of adaptation,...
on Amazon
The film is based on a collection of war short stories by Shoji Yuki. Beyond the source of adaptation,...
- 8/12/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
The Insect Woman
Written by Keiji Hasebe, Shohei Imamura
Directed by Shohei Imamura
Japan, 1963
That director Shohei Imamura’s 1963 film, The Insect Woman, can be found in a Criterion Collection box-set called “Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes” should do more than hint at the content and themes of his work. An auteur dedicated to defying traditional Japanese stories and storytelling, Imamura famously referred to himself as a creator of “messy films,” films that—in opposition to Japanese contemporaries who emphasized taming the animal nature of humanity—explored the immutable wildness of the human condition. And as the only Japanese director to have two Palme d’Or awards under his belt, Imamura’s customary shamelessness verifies his history as one of the leading trend-setters of the Japanese New Wave, a movement dedicated to uninhibited portrayals of social structure and cultural evolution, among other things.
In The Insect Woman, Imamura examines these notions, as he almost always did,...
Written by Keiji Hasebe, Shohei Imamura
Directed by Shohei Imamura
Japan, 1963
That director Shohei Imamura’s 1963 film, The Insect Woman, can be found in a Criterion Collection box-set called “Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes” should do more than hint at the content and themes of his work. An auteur dedicated to defying traditional Japanese stories and storytelling, Imamura famously referred to himself as a creator of “messy films,” films that—in opposition to Japanese contemporaries who emphasized taming the animal nature of humanity—explored the immutable wildness of the human condition. And as the only Japanese director to have two Palme d’Or awards under his belt, Imamura’s customary shamelessness verifies his history as one of the leading trend-setters of the Japanese New Wave, a movement dedicated to uninhibited portrayals of social structure and cultural evolution, among other things.
In The Insect Woman, Imamura examines these notions, as he almost always did,...
- 9/1/2015
- by Christina Leo
- SoundOnSight
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