“Yakuza are vain, treat them politely,” the heroine of Juzo Itami’s 1992 comedy Minbo, or The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (ミンボーの女, Minbo no Onna) instructs a hapless pair of hotel employees tr…
Apr 26, 2025 • Subscribe
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Supermarket Woman (スーパーの女, Juzo Itami, 1996)
A veteran housewife uses her long experience to save a failing supermarket while standing up for wholesome small-town values in Itami’s post-Bubble farce
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A self-involved film director gets a lesson in what it is to live when he discovers that he has terminal cancer in a lighthearted melodrama from Juzo Itami.
A Quiet Life (静かな生活, Juzo Itami, 1995)
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Woman of Tokyo (東京の女, Yasujiro Ozu, 1933)
A loyal sister finds her tremendous sacrifice rejected by an unforgiving and conservative society in Yasujiro Ozu’s silent melodrama
Tokyo Art Scene: Japanese Art Through The Centuries
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Fan Service or Art?
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The Woman in the Rumour (噂の女, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
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Whirlpool of Joy (1992)
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A Woman’s Place (女の座, Mikio Naruse, 1962)
The young women of post-war Japan struggle to define themselves in a changing society in Mikio Naruse’s uncharacteristically hopeful family drama
Radio Queen (ラヂオの女王, Shigeo Yagura, 1935)
The conflict between warring neighbours of differing dispositions deepens when their children want to get married in Shigeo Yagura’s modernising comedy.
The Guard From Underground (地獄の警備員, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1992)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa positions an office building as an industrial hell but suggests it’s only one of many hazards to be aware of for a woman in the corporate…
Record of a Woman Doctor (女医の記録, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
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Ichigo Ichie: Keeping the Japanese Art of Candy Sculpting Alive
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Love’s Gentle Spring. . .
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Tokyo Art Scene: Collections of Japanese Major Corporations
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Aladdin (1992)
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