Muhomatsu, the Rickshaw Man Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1958 • Japan Matsugoro is a poor rickshaw driver whose animated spirit and optimistic demeanor make him a favorite of the town. Matsu helps an injured boy, Toshio, and is hired by the boy's parents, Kotaro and Yoshioko, to transport the boy to and from doctor appointments. Matsu comes to love the boy and his parents. When Toshio's father dies, Matsu becomes a surrogate father, helping to raise the boy and secretly falling in love with Toshio's mother Yoshioko. But Matsu knows there is a great gulf between their classes and there seems no hope that Matsu can ever be more than the rickshaw man to the mother and son.
Downhill Racer (1969, Michael Ritchie) has yet to appear on the channel so I'm watching this nifty streamer. One of Redford's best performances. Come on, Criterion!
Samurai Saga Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1959 • Japan Toshiro Mifune plays a large-nosed samurai who woos a princess in Hiroshi Inagaki's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Sorry, don't know how to post the screen shots, but I watched these films on CC over the weekend: Ugetsu Invention of Destruction Man of the West All three were fantastic! I'm still haunted by Lady Wakasa and her nurse. Brilliant stuff.
If anyone would like my $10 off "charter member" code for Criterion physical media, send me a PM, first come first served. I won't be using it.
Yes. Funny how moments in Ugetsu strike you differently as the years pass. That final scene that features the wife at the pot with steaming hot chow and the young son snug in bed always gets me the most. Guess home is something that every culture regards as sacred.
Goofball trailer (below) but the legend that was Toshiro Mifune (buffeted considerably by long time collaborator/director, Akira Kurosawa) is being celebrated with some two dozen films this month on the channel. I'm not sure if I have a favorite. He certainly never gave a bad performance that I've seen (though many say his work outside of Kurosawa's films was seldom up to par with the master director's work). Haven't seen them all, though, so this should be a fun retrospective.
Scandal (1950, Kurosawa) My first Mifune revisit is on YouTube (w/English subs) as well. It featuress a polar opposite performance of Mifune's rascal reputation that the trailer above conveys: here Toshiro is a painter who is forced into litigation with a scandal broadsheet. It's one of the most subtle portrayals that I've seen Mifune give. Takashi Shimura, as a bungling old reporter, gives a characteristically deft performance, too. Glad to see it getting play on both platforms.
If you're on a Mac: Hold the Control key down before you press on the image and a menu will pop up with the option to Copy Image Address. Do that then use the Image icon above your message window here (6th from the right in the bunch of icons) and paste the image address in and you're done. Probably almost the same on a PC. Phone is different, I guess. I don't have one.
Ozu is, by far, my favorite director. I bought The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice blu-ray with CC coupon to replace one of the five Ozu films that I have on Korean dvd. This is also one of those DVD’s. Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1941 • Japan When the patriarch of the Toda family suddenly dies, his widow discovers that he has left her with nothing but debt and married children who are unwilling to support her--except for her most thoughtful son, just returned from China...
An Autumn Afternoon Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1962 • Japan The last film by Yasujiro Ozu was also his final masterpiece, a gently heartbreaking story about a man's dignifed resignation to life's shifting currents and society's modernization. Though the widower Shuhei (frequent Ozu leading man Chishu Ryu) has been living comfortably for years with his grown daughter, a series of events leads him to accept and encourage her marriage and departure from their home. As elegantly composed and achingly tender as any of the Japanese master's films, An Autumn Afternoon is one of cinema's fondest farewells.
Once I begin to watch some Yasujiro Ozu I can’t stop. Late Spring Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1949 • Japan One of the most powerful of Yasujiro Ozu's family portraits, Late Spring (Banshun) tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter. Eminent Ozu players Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara command this poignant tale of love and loss in postwar Japan, which remains as potent today as ever, and a strong justification for its maker's inclusion in the pantheon of cinema's greatest directors.
Thought I'd give the newly added Columbia Noir series a go. Started with this one, though I don't think I'd recommend it. The Crimson Kimono Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1959 • United States Starring Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta Pulp maestro Samuel Fuller lends his slam-bang stylistic punch to this complex, fascinating noir that doubles as a trenchant social document of 1950s America. When a stripper is murdered in LA’s Little Tokyo, Japanese American detective Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) and his partner Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) are assigned to the case—but their investigation is soon complicated by both romantic rivalry and racial tension. Fuller delves fearlessly into the knotty undercurrents of the lurid tabloid premise to craft a powerful and daring commentary on racism and cultural alienation.
Another Film Noir that I won't recommend - just OK and a little interesting: Experiment in Terror Directed by Blake Edwards • 1962 • United States Starring Lee Remick, Glenn Ford Following the success of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, producer-director Blake Edwards took a detour into noir territory with this ultra-stylish, mood-drenched thriller. Lee Remick plays a San Francisco bank clerk who is plunged into a waking nightmare when she becomes the unwitting pawn in a sadistic killer’s heist scheme, while Glenn Ford is the FBI agent charged with unraveling the case. Featuring lustrous black-and-white cinematography and a cool jazz score by Henry Mancini, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR bristles with voyeuristic, psychosexual unease, striking a tone that has invited comparisons to the work of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch.
How do you access the Criterion Channel? I don’t see an icon for it on my Apple TV. I also have Comcast if it’s available from that. Thanks
I don't know that it is available from anywhere but the Criterion web site, which means I can only watch from my laptop with an HDMI cable to my TV. You can get a free 2 week trial. The Criterion Channel
Anatomy of a Murder Directed by Otto Preminger • 1959 • United States Starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara A virtuoso James Stewart plays a small-town Michigan lawyer who takes on a difficult case: the defense of a young army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife (Lee Remick). This gripping envelope-pusher, the most popular film by Hollywood provocateur Otto Preminger, was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex—but more than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast—with a young George C. Scott as a fiery prosecutor and the legendary attorney Joseph N. Welch as the judge—and an influential score by Duke Ellington, ANATOMY OF A MURDER is an American movie landmark, nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture.
Another Otto Preminger! This is really great if you like British psychological thrillers as only the Brits can do, with a cameo from The Zombies. And Noël Coward hilarious and campy as can be. Bunny Lake Is Missing Directed by Otto Preminger • 1965 • United Kingdom Starring Carol Lynley, Laurence Olivier, Noël Coward After her young daughter ostensibly disappears from a London daycare, a desperate mother (Carol Lynley) gets another shock when the authorities—led by Laurence Olivier’s cynical Scotland Yard superintendent—inform her that they can find no evidence that the girl ever existed. Otto Preminger’s coolly harrowing psychological thriller probes not only the curious mystery at its center but also the frightening ambiguities of sanity and reality. Watch out for a musical appearance from English psych-rock legends the Zombies.
The title was parodied 6 years later on "The Odd Couple" in an episode called "Bunny is Missing Down By the Lake".
Like many a baby boomer, I bet, the first time I was ever aware of him was as Mr. Freeze, not as an iconic director. Amazing that the guy who directed "Laura" also directed "Skidoo", which I still think I may have hallucinated. I am going to check this film out, I've never seen it (and never "got" the title to that "Odd Couple" episode until your post).