Japanese cinema for beginners Part 3

Seijun Suzuki. “The tramp from Tokyo” (“Tōkyō nagaremono”), 1966

One of the most famous and loved films of Suzuki in tune with the popular mood in Japan the song “the Tramp from Tokyo”, which was released on the album a year before the film and became its main theme. Exploiting the standard scenario moves Yakuza movies, directed with an unusual decorations longstanding collaborator of his films artist Takeo Kimura, unexpected colors and exaggerated when he mocks genre conventions of the gangster film, as well as on the commercial essence of the Japanese film industry. The film was called “the real feast”, a tribute of gratitude to the Grand musicals of Hollywood’s Golden age.

Eisige Yoshida. “Eros + cruel murder” (“Erosu purasu gyakusatsu”), 1969

The story of the life of Japanese early XX century anarchist Sakae Osugi, who preached free love and the abandonment of marriage as the Foundation of the political and social system of the state. These ideas became popular again in the 60-ies, was close to the Director: “My interpretation of the material in the film was a triple denial: of monogamy, economic systems and of the sexes”. The second layer of the story — the story of three young people gathering material for the filming of a television movie about Osugi. The film, which was at that time under the influence of the ideas of the left Freudianism, a number of critics called the Japanese equivalent of Felliniesque “8½”, but deeply pessimistic, leading to the suicide of one of the young Directors of the film about Osugi in turn killed by the police in 1923, during the riots that erupted in Japan after the Great Kanto earthquake. Black-and-white motion picture with a significant predominance of white color, against which the graphic clarity of the looming figures of the actors in a black kimono, was named by Japanese film critics as a masterpiece of calligraphy and got hot recognition from Western critics as one of the masterpieces of the “new wave”. Along with the films “Heroic purgatory” (1970) and “Order on the protection of the city” (“state of war”, 1973) “Eros + brutal murder” is a kind of trilogy Yoshida about the roots and destinies of radicalism, the end of which the Director of 13 years, will leave cinema.

Masahiro Synod. “Suicide of lovers on the island of sky Networks” (“Shinjû: Ten no Amijima”), 1969

Staged by the drama be recognized masterpiece of the Synod, in which he tries to link the techniques of theater dzoruri (the play was written in 1720 for him) with the poetics of cinema “new wave”. Particularly acute this clash of techniques of different arts gives a permanent presence in the frame, where there are live actors, kurogo (puppeteers medieval theater dressed in black) that embody the unforgiving rock, host of lovers, ignoring all social taboos to reach ecstasy in a double suicide. At the same time in drama film of the Synod follows the principles of Noh. The film became the winner in several categories of the Japanese awards “Kinema, Juno” and “Mainichi”, including best film (1970).

Yoji Yamada. “Otoko was tsurai yo”, 1969

The film is one of the leaders of the social cinema of Japan opening series of 48 pictures depicting a travelling salesman of cheap goods — take. The main character of the movie series was Tora-San, Torajiro Kuruma, is a lonely oddball, ready at any moment to come to the aid of their neighbors; initially, it was a serial telecast on scenario Yamada. The actor Kiyoshi Atsumi (prize, “Mainichi” and “Cinema, Juno” in 1970 for best male role) became a favorite of the Japanese audience, seeing stories about good-natured of amorous solitary man living in the suburbs of Tokyo, is the idealization of life in old Japan was based on a good-neighbourly relations and strong family ties. In the same year, the Director put the film “the Man has a hard life. The sequel”. The third and fourth films put his collaborators on the show, but since the fifth film, Yamada was the only author of all the episodes of the cycle. The movie series was discontinued in 1995 after the death of the actor Kiyoshi Atsumi. A series of “Man life is hard” is included in the Guinness Book of records as the longest movie series in the history of world cinema.

Kay Komai. “Shinobugawa”, 1972

Adaptation of the novel of the writer Tetsuo Miura’s “River of patience”, which takes place in the Tokyo of the early 20‑ies. Poetry, devoid of a complex plot love story “little people” imbued with a sadness and a craving for a traditional way of life, to the usual ethical and aesthetic values, returning to the spiritual life of Japan after the rebellion of the sixties. The film was accompanied by a big box office success at home.

After the show in 1973 in the competition program at the international film festival in the Soviet Union began the fame of the actress Komaki Kurihara, later played a major role in the joint Soviet-Japanese films of Alexander Mitta “Moscow, my love” (1974) and “Shag” (1988), and in the film by Sergei Solovyov “melodies of the white night” (1976). “Shinobugawa” — winner of the Japanese film awards “Kinema, Juno” and “Mainichi” (1973) in seven categories, including best film.

The Shohei Imamura. “Narayama-bus kô”, 1983

The film, loosely based on the story of Sitio Fukazawa, set in the nineteenth century in an impoverished Japanese village, where the people entered the ritual killing of useless members of the community: newborn boys just kill the elderly and their own children will relate to the top of mount Narayama and left there to die. Imamura creates a philosophical essay on the meaning of life, thinking about human nature, about the collision in it is archaic and humanistic principles. One of the few outstanding films of the Japanese new wave, trapped in the rental in the USSR in the perestroika years and had great success. “Palme d’or” at the Cannes IFF in 1983 (the second time Imamura’s gonna get her in 1997 for the film “the Eel”). Award of the Japanese Academy, Blue ribbon and “Mainichi” in several categories (1984).

Kohei Oguri. “Shi no toge”, 1990

The core of the film on the eponymous work by Toshio shimao. Despite numerous suggestions to the author about the film adaptation from Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda, and other prominent Directors, consent was obtained only Oguri, but the film was completed after his death. The film, which became largely a hallmark of the Director in the West, masterfully reinvents the language of cinema, the images created Simao. The story of the crisis in the relationship of a middle-aged married couple, which many critics saw a kind of return to the themes of the films of yasujiro OZU are seen as the intertwining of surreal visions and the ordinary everyday life. A significant role in the poetics of the film music plays Toshio Hosokawa. Grand jury prize and the FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes IFF (1990). In 1991 the film was awarded a dozen Japanese film awards (award of the Japanese Academy, Blue ribbon, “Cinema, Juno”, “Mainichi”) in the major categories.