This is the copy that I bought yesterday on Amazon. Sadly, I was aware of that controversy after I read the book. The book was great and very heart rending otherwise but I wish I could find a good eyewitness book about it. I have The Quiet Duel. I have one film to go in the Kurosawa box set before I hit the five films for which Criterion didn't have the rights. Thanks for the above recommendations and for the PM with some others. I know that Toshiro Mifune was a GREAT actor but Takashi Shimura was great too and vastly under rated.
Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai (1963) Winner of the Golden Bear award at the 1963 Berlin International Film Festival. Director: Tadashi Imai Actor: Kinnosuke Nakamura Tag Line: 350 Years... 7 Generations... & roles... 1 Actor The film opens when a young man is attending to his dying fiancé at a hospital, who appears to have attempted suicide. Standing by her bedside, the man remembers a group of diaries that he read when his mother passed away, detailing the lives of his ancestors, all of whom were from the aristocratic samurai class and followed the code of bushido. He slowly goes through all of their horrible lives, living them over one-by-one, and watching how each of them sacrificed something precious and worthwhile all in the name of "bushido," of the honor of subservience to a lord. A harsh look at the Bushido Code. A must see for fans of actor and director.
Got it today and watched it tonight. GREAT film!!! A little busy on some of the sub-titles but great none the less.
Glad you enjoyed it. You can cut back on their sub-titles but I felt like I was missing something and just adapted to reading faster. I think they do a great job with their translations and program notes and I'm still collecting their catalog.
Rainbow Kids AKA Daiyukai (1991) Directors: Kihachi Okamoto Actors: Ken Ogata, Tanie Kitabayashi, Toru Kazama, Hiroshi Nishikawa, Katsuyasu Uchida Plot: A wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three, but there so much more. A enjoyable film.
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards (1963) Directors: Seijun Suzuki Actors: Jo Shishido Fans of Suzuki will want this disc, as the start of his visual style leading up to Tokyo Drifter and others.
47 Ronin aka Shijushichinin no shikaku (1994) Directors: Kon Ichikawa Actors: Ken Takakura; Koji Ishizaka; Hisaya Morishige; Ruriko Asaoka Winner of nine film awards.
Ashura aka Ashura-jô no hitomi (2005) Director: Yôjirô Takita Actors: Somegoro Ichikawa, Rie Miyazawa, Kanako Higuchi, Atsuro Watabe, Fumiyo Kohinata Demons vs Demon wardens, taken from the Kabuki Theater. Great visuals.
Revenge of a Kabuki Actor(1963) Directors: Kon Ichikawa Actors: Shintaro Katsu, Raizo Ichikawa,Eiji Funakoshi, Jun Hamamura, Kazuo Hasegawa While performing in a touring kabuki troop, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge on them.
http://www.martygrossfilms.com/films/masterpiece/masterpieces_kabuki.html http://www.farsidemusic.com/acatalog/Cat_Japan_DVD.html
Kabuki is a little more recent, and started as a working-class alternative to nō. Both are very stylised, but nō tends to be more abstract and austere; kabuki is more violent and colourful. Nō uses masks. Kabuki uses make-up. Nō plays are often tales from Shinto folklore, while kabuki usually features revenge tragedies or stories of doomed lovers, though the repertoire of the two styles does overlap a bit.
Zatoichi #14: Zatoichi's Pilgrimage Director: Kazuo Ikehiro Actors: Shintarô Katsu; Michiyo Ookusu; Kunie Tanaka I finally tracked down the missing episode from the series.
Which version is that? I haven't seen that packaging. I've seen the film, but, did a US company finally release a legitimate version? As far as I know, the only legit version was the Japanese version from several years ago that served as the source of the numerous boots. I thought it was still tied up in rights limbo.
http://www.amazon.com/Zatoichi-14-P...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1279632279&sr=1-1 http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.552929/qx/details.htm
Could have posted this here as well. http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=5656843&postcount=352
Sansho the Bailiff (1955) Director: Kenji Mizoguchi Actors: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô, Akitake Kôno A wonderful film of Feudal Japan on a pristine print. This isn't an entertaining sword fest but a movie on issues that will linger with you for awhile. A classic film by Mizoguchi!
The Sleepy Eyes of Death series starring Raizo Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro This first set has four discs. The Chinese Jade Sword of Adventure Circle Killing Sword of Seduction Per AnimEigo: Edo, the capital of Japan, has degenerated into a tangled web of political intrigue and personal vice. Nemuri Kyoshiro, the half-breed son of a Japanese noblewoman raped by a Christian missionary, lives only for the moment, amused by the chaos that surrounds him. But those who decide to use him for their own ends soon discover that they have made a fatal error! For Kyoshiro wields the fabled Musou-Masamune blade, and is master of the most subtle and deadly technique in all of swordplay, the Full-Moon-Cut. All those who challenge him must face... the Sleepy Eyes of Death! This should be embraced by fans of Zatoichi and Razor films. AnimEigo continues with their great print and subtitle work. The second set is to be released this winter.
I haven't read through the whole thread, but has anyone mentioned KWAIDAN (1964)yet? It's a compendium of four ghost stories, all shot on sound stages so that every element is controlled. It's a beautiful, haunting movie, often like watching a series of paintings come to life.