Kurosawa’s second feature explores the intense dedication of a collection of factory girls crafting precision lenses in a late National Policy Film.
Dec 27, 2022 • Subscribe
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The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人, Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
A fugitive princess offers a new hope for a peaceful and prosperous socitey in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era epic.
The Idiot (白痴, Akira Kurosawa, 1951)
A pure soul is destroyed by the selfishness and duplicity of the post-war society in Kurosawa’s snowbound adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel.
Akira Kurosawa Retrospective at the BFI 2023
The good folks at the BFI have sent us details for an up coming Akira Kurosawa Retrospective. Set to run from Sunday 1st January 2023 until ...
Scandal (醜聞, Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
The battle for the soul of the post-war society is fought in the body of a conflicted lawyer in Akira Kurosawa’s seasonal morality tale.
One Wonderful Sunday (素晴らしき日曜日, Akira Kurosawa, 1947)
A young couple attempt to have a nice day out in Tokyo for only 35 yen but eventually discover something much more valuable in Akira Kurosawa’s surprisingly upbeat…
BFI to Host Complete Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
At BFI Southbank January and February 2023.
Kagemusha (影武者, Akira Kurosawa, 1980)
A thief reborn as a lord finds himself caught between the contradictions of the feudal order and the borders of identity in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era tragedy.
Yojimbo (用心棒, Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
A cynical ronin plays warring factions off against each other to save a moribund silk town in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai western.
Ikiru (生きる, Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
A lifelong bureaucrat is confronted by the emptiness of the salaryman dream when diagnosed with a terminal illness in Akira Kurosawa’s intensely moving melodrama.
Rashomon (羅生門, Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
A series of witnesses give conflicting accounts of a death in the forest in Akira Kurosawa’s exploration of the limits of objective truth.
The Lower Depths (どん底, Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
In the absence of salvation a comforting falsehood is the only means of survival in Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of the Gorky play.
No Regrets for Our Youth (わが青春に悔なし, Akira Kurosawa, 1946)
A young woman is torn between a future with a passionate rebel or spineless conformist in Kurosawa’s meditation on the militarist folly.
Sanjuro (椿三十郎, Akira Kurosawa, 1962)
The cynical drifter finds himself offering fatherly advice to idealistic but hot-headed samurai youth in Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo followup.
Stray Dog (野良犬, Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
A rookie policeman chases an echo of himself through the backstreets of post-war Japan while looking for his missing gun in Akira Kurosawa’s sweltering noir.
The Most Beautiful Thing | Violet Evergarden: The Movie
I love reviewing movies, but sometimes I feel like I can’t review the things that mean the most to me. How stupid is that? I’ve been doing this…
Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Desperate peasants recruit samurai protectors in Akira Kurosawa’s classic historical epic back in UK cinemas Oct. 29
The Silent Duel (静かなる決闘, Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
A doctor who contracted syphilis from a patient wrestles with desire and responsibility in Kurosawa’s post-war drama.
Online Tributes to Akira Kurosawa for the 102nd Anniversary of his Birth
by Marc Saint-Cyr March 23rd is a particularly noteworthy date for admirers of Japanese cinema, as it marks the birth of one of its most b...
Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城, Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
An ambitious retainer falls victim to the false promises of a forest spirit in Akira Kurosawa’s haunting adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
UPA Shorts, 1944-1950
In 1941, an animators’ strike at Disney emerged from discontent with Walt Disney’s business practices; although the company enjoyed the best pay and benefits in the American animation…
How to Japanese Podcast – S02E02 – 一番搾り and 自己分析
Episode 2! 一番搾り (Ichiban Shibori) helped me cement my understanding of a translator’s role and what “fluency” means. And I was able to get this podcast up and…
Ume: Japan’s Most Beautiful Early Spring Blossoms
Whether you like the flowers, the pickled fruit or the liqueur, Japanese plums are one of the most charming early signs of spring—and soon they’ll be in full…
High and Low (天国と地獄, Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
A self-made millionaire faces a moral dilemma when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped in place of his own in Kurosawa’s post-war crime film.
Dodes’ka-den (どですかでん, Akira Kurosawa, 1970)
The denizens of a small slum on the outskirts of the modern city live largely on wilful self-delusion in Kurosawa’s first experimentation with colour.
Drunken Angel (酔いどれ天使, Akira Kurosawa, 1948)
A gruff yet well intentioned doctor does his best to cure the ills of post-war Japan in a rundown slum on the edge of a fetid swamp in…
美術館
A very short message this month about museums - How to Japanese - February 2023
Stay Mum (かくしごと, Kosai Sekine, 2024)
On returning to care for estranged father, a woman finds herself taking care of a neglected little boy in Kosai Sekine’s maternal melodrama.
Belonging (とりつくしま, Kahori Higashi, 2024)
The recently deceased watch over their loved ones from the vantage point of a familiar object in Kahori Higashi’s wistful drama.
神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods (an original Podcast) coming IN 2022
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
The Most Beautiful and March Comes in Like a Lion
We are back once again, and it is finally baseball season! My White Sox are a surprising 6-5 only nine games into their season, but there’s still time…
The Most Beautiful and March Comes in Like a Lion
We are back once again, and it is finally baseball season! My White Sox are a surprising...
Tokyo Cherry Blossom Viewing: The Most Beautiful Spots for 2024
Visit these 10 most beautiful Tokyo cherry blossom viewing spots with family and friends to see the blooms at their best!
Sempai, Oishii desuka? Volume 1 (先輩、美味しいですか?)
Miho loves food. She happily eats large bowls of rice with a big smile. But, back in high school, a schoolmate told her it wasn’t really feminine to…
Sempai, Oishii desuka? Volume 2 (先輩、美味しいですか?)
Huh. It was almost exactly a year ago I reviewed Volume 1 of Mikanuji’s Yuri + food manga. At the time I said, “I can definitely recommend it…
Rhapsody in August (八月の狂詩曲, Akira Kurosawa, 1991)
Three generations reckon with the wartime past after receiving news from estranged relatives in Hawaii in Kurosawa’s humanist drama.
Comic Update: It’s the most beautiful ugly sound in the world
Original Post Late to the party with this one, and the joke is incredibly obvious, but I feel if you’re the only anime webcomic on the net, being…
The Hot Little Girl (しびれくらげ, Yasuzo Masumura, 1970)
A young woman uses the tools used against her to fight back against the exploitations of a patriarchal society in Yasuzo Masumura’s provocative drama.
Yakuza Graveyard (やくざの墓場 くちなしの花, Kinji Fukasaku, 1976)
A maverick cop finds himself sympathising with noble yakuza when confronted by entrenched corruption in Kinji Fukasaku’s jitsuroku-esque gangster drama.
A Musical Up-Roar 1944-46
If an exhibitor who had been running MGM cartoons in 1935 did a Rip Van Winkle and awakened in 1945, he would have seen quire a difference in…
Cross Game 50 (End) もう終わりましたょ。世界中で一番のアニメかもね TT_TT Too good, no...
Cross Game 50 (End) もう終わりましたょ。世界中で一番のアニメかもね TT_TT Too good, no words.
I Live in Fear (生きものの記録, Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
An elderly man’s nuclear paranoia threatens to tear his family apart in Kurosawa’s post-war social drama.
からだの美
Yōko Ogawa’s 2023 collection からだの美 brings together sixteen short essays on the theme of bodies and physicality. The three primary topics are sports, performing arts, and animals. The…
番外編：The Mill House Murders
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When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty (朝がくるとむなしくなる, Yuho Ishibashi, 2022)
A young woman wrestles with a sense of failure and inadequacy after leaving the corporate world in Yuho Ishibashi’s zeitgeisty indie drama.
Mio’s Cookbook (みをつくし料理帖, Haruki Kadokawa, 2020)
A talented young woman battles a patriarchal society in a bid for restaurant success in Haruki Kadokawa’s Meiji-era foodie drama
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フランスのジャパン・トゥール・フェスティバルで、アニメ監督の中村亮介とキャラクターデザイナーの細居美恵子の才能ある二人組に出会った。この二人の素晴らしい二人組は、『ねらわれた学園』、『あいうら』、『灰と幻想のグリムガル』などの印象的な作品を生み出した。
番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,