A 5-piece jinta brass band ends up performing as ringers at strike-stricken circus in Naruse’s melancholy anti-authoritarian comedy
Apr 30, 2021 • Subscribe
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Wife (妻, Mikio Naruse, 1953)
An unhappily married woman contemplates independence but struggles to see herself as anything other than a “wife” in Naruse’s bitter marital drama
Mikio Naruse: Adventures on Harumi Island
I got a pleasant surprise recently when I watched Mikio Naruse’s AUTUMN HAS ALREADY STARTED (1960). At a key point in the narrative, the two child protagonists living…
Repast (めし, Mikio Naruse, 1951)
An unhappily married woman fed up with the drudgery of her existence considers other options but finally concludes there are none in Naruse’s bleak melodrama
A Wife’s Heart (妻の心, Mikio Naruse, 1956)
When plans to start a new business go awry, a dejected wife finds herself at a crossroads in Mikio Naruse’s martial drama.
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
A Wanderer’s Notebook (放浪記, Mikio Naruse, 1962)
A determined young woman seeks a way out of poverty in Mikio Naruse’s biopic of author Fumiko Hayashi.
Late Chrysanthemums (晩菊, Mikio Naruse, 1954)
Four former geishas struggle to find their place in a changing society in Miko Naruse’s melancholy melodrama.
Untamed (あらくれ, Mikio Naruse, 1957)
A rebellious woman strives for independence in a patriarchal society but nevertheless finds herself hamstrung by feckless men in Naruse’s Taisho-era drama
Mother (おかあさん, Mikio Naruse, 1952)
A teenage girl struggles to understand her self-sacrificing mother in Mikio Naruse’s subversive take on the hahamono
Sound of the Mountain (山の音, Mikio Naruse, 1954)
A failed patriarch resolves to set his unhappily married daughter-in-free in Mikio Naruse’s post-war marital drama
Hit and Run (ひき逃げ, Mikio Naruse, 1966)
A grief-stricken mother hatches a desperate plan of revenge against the woman who killed her son in Mikio Naruse’s dark psychological drama.
The Angry Street (怒りの街, Mikio Naruse, 1950)
A sociopathic student takes revenge on a changing society by seducing wealthy women in Mikio Naruse’s brooding noir.
The Approach of Autumn (秋立ちぬ, Mikio Naruse, 1960)
A small boy finds himself trapped between the new society and the old in Mikio Naruse’s often deceptively cheerful childhood drama.
Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 4 ( くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
The problem with writing alternate history is that you have to figure out where things go, as china has discovered in Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki series. To understand…
Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 2 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
While we are all waiting for the Seven Seas release of I Fell In Love With the Villainess, (of which I had read the first few chapters in…
Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 3 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
In Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 3 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月), Satsuki comes face to face with a political group that wants, not just foreigners’ expulsion from Japan…but their deaths…
Baccano!: 1935-A Deep Marble
By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel. It’s been a long time…
Yuri Light Novel: Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 1 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
In late Edo Japan, she was cool, That successful businesswoman Vlad Dracul. With Satuski her guard Who was handy with a sword. My complaints with this book are…
Fog Hill of Five Elements【雾山五行】Sakuga MAD
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIpDroJQ0tE This is a niche Chinese series available only on Bilibili, so very few from the west have watched it due to that inaccessibility. Though hard to find,…
“Jack’s Shack” (1935)
A Terrytoon, based on the children’s nursery rhyme “The House that Jack Built”, is both charming and really, really strange.
Loved Circus GN
This feels like a volume created by somebody whose eyes are bigger than their stomach. The ambition for the piece is clear, but the execution does not go…
Baccano!: 1935-B Dr. Feelgreed
By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel. One of the main themes…
Baccano!: 1935-D Luckstreet Boys
By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel. At last, we are forced…
Karakuri Circus (Karakuri Sākasu)
I think Karakuri Circus oscillates between kind of a wild mess on one hand and more compelling flashbacks on the other. And maybe a third thing: action with…
Karneval – Quite the Circus!
I had been eyeing Karneval for a while but for some reason never actually watched it. Glad to have remedied that!
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Even if Annihilation was a mess, Ex Machina being one of the best films of the past ten years is conclusive proof of Alex Garland’s talent as a…
Naruse A Master of the Japanese Cinema - Booklet
Articles by Audie Bock, Hideko Takamine and Kihachi Okamoto (19 Pages )
Planetes in the Planetarian: a Church of Men and Angels
From ancient times, the boundless night sky and the numberless stars have captured the human imagination. For Aristotle, the birth of philosophy lay in the contemplation of the stars,…
Baccano!: 1935-C The Grateful Bet
By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel. The author has said a…
An Inn in Tokyo (東京の宿, Yasujiro Ozu, 1935)
Yasujiro Ozu was perhaps most at home in the genial world of the shomingeki in which everyone is comfortable enough and the problems, such as they are, are…
Snow in Midsummer (五月雪, Chong Keat-Aun, 2023)
How should you deal with the traumatic past? In Chong Keat-Aun’s Snow in Midsummer (五月雪) it becomes clear that this past has not been dealt with and that…
A Circus Mystery? — Death Trick: Double Blind is finally out!
Do you enjoy mysteries and circus settings? Well, you're in luck!
Five Uniquely Japanese Events In A Child’s First Year
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Trending: Young Men in Anime wearing Tracksuits
Is it just me or are there more young men in anime wearing tracksuits?
Buddy Daddies: Two and a Half Men
Well at least one of the shows I watched this season actually finished. Everyone else has been delayed or is restarting its run. Either way I have talked…
Five Amazing Fathers in Nintendo
So on Mother’s day I did a post about amazing mothers so naturally I planned to do the same with the fathers. Now in this case, at least…
Five Amazing Mothers in Nintendo
With it being Mother’s Day I thought now would be the best time to do a mothers-themed entry for my website and well that wasn’t easy to do.…
Men Men Musubi ( 麺面むすび)
I am very much enjoying Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya, which is a relatively new series from Yodogawa-sensei, so when I saw Men Men Musubi (…
Silent Naruse: STREET WITHOUT END (1934)
Last year I saw eleven films directed by Mikio Naruse, raising to 24 the number of films I’ve seen by him. So far this year I’ve seen two…
The Marginal Service #01 — Men In Not-Black
The promos for this show lied to me. Impressions: I'm very confused by the marketing behind this show. It was pitching itself as a goofy manservice show,…
Men Live in Despair. What Can Be Done?
It’s no secret that many men struggle with depression and despair. This desperation has many factors, such as lacking a sense of purpose. The problem also isn’t new.…
Men Live in Despair. What Can Be Done?
It’s no secret that many men struggle with depression and despair. This desperation has many factors, such as lacking a sense of purpose. The problem also isn’t new.…
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High school student Haiki Yuuki lives a happy life. Eating lunch on the rooftop, visiting amusement parks, and watching the stars, all with his friends by his side.…
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