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.
Jan 18, 2023 • Subscribe
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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…
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…
The Guard From Underground 地獄の警備員 (1992) Remaster Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Guard From Underground 地獄の警備員 (1992) Remaster, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is a solid slasher film that features a psychotic sumo wrestler smashing the world of corporate Japan.…
Jigoku Hanazono (地獄の花園)
Jigoku Hanazono (地獄の花園) is absolute trash, hilarious and unforgivable, and probably puzzling to anyone who isn’t deeply interested in girl-gang lore. It’s a movie tailored almost …
High and Low and Kandagawa Jet Girls
A lot of excitement is said about trades and acquisitions when it comes to sports, but it...
High and Low and Kandagawa Jet Girls
A lot of excitement is said about trades and acquisitions when it comes to sports, but it is true what the MLBPA said in that there are real…
Portrait of Hell (地獄変, Shiro Toyoda, 1969)
An artist finds himself in conflict with a cruel feudal lord when asked to paint a picture of heaven in Shiro Toyoda’s haunting adaptation of the Akutagawa story.
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.
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 ...
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.
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.
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.
BFI to Host Complete Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
At BFI Southbank January and February 2023.
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.
Is This Heaven? (天国か、ここ？, Shinji Imaoka, 2023)
A middle-aged couple ponder loss and regret on a surreal odyssey into the afterlife , or something like it at least, in Shinji Imaoka’s cheerfully absurdist dramedy
Episode 6: High and Low Literature in Edo Japan
Saikaku’s illustration of Yonosuke sailing for the Island of Women. Check out Episode 6 of the Read Japanese Literature podcast. This episode is marked mature. How does “this…
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.
Seiyuu Highlights: Tomoyo Kurosawa 黒沢 ともよ
A name that is relatively small in the industry. However, as someone who's still in her early 20s, she has been voicing a lot more familiar characters than…
HiGH&LOW the Worst Cross – Movie Review
The big day is here! The newest installment of HiGH&LOW the Worst has shown in theaters. I went during the second week of screening in my area. Given…
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.
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
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Jigoku-no-Hanazono: Office Royale (地獄の花園, Kazuaki Seki, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]
Office ladies go to war in Kazuaki Seki’s anarchic, Bakarhythm-scripted transposition of the yankee manga to the world of the OL
A-Z Movie Challenge: Road to HiGH&LOW
Q was skipped because…. I couldn’t find a new movie with a Q in the title. The one I have watched was ages ago, and I rated it…
6 From High & Low the Worst – The Review
I told you guys I would get to this eventually. The eventually being a few days before the next installment of HiGH & LOW (H&L), the HiGH &…
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.
Rampo Noir 乱歩地獄 (2005) Dirs: Suguru Takeuchi, Akio Jissoji, Hisyasu Sato, Atsushi Kaneko
The 2022 Halloween review is the anthology film Rampo Noir 乱歩地獄 (2005) Dirs: Suguru Takeuchi, Akio Jissoji, Hisyasu Sato, Atsushi Kaneko
Samurai Wolf 2: Hell Cut (牙狼之介 地獄斬り, Hideo Gosha, 1967)
Kiba is again confronted with the duplicities of late Meiji society after being pulled into intrigue at a disused mine in Hideo Gosha’s striking chanbara.
The Most Beautiful (一番美しく, Akira Kurosawa, 1944)
Kurosawa’s second feature explores the intense dedication of a collection of factory girls crafting precision lenses in a late National Policy 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.
Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom (金の国 水の国, Kotono Watanabe, 2022)
After centuries of conflict, two feuding countries finally begin to put the past behind them to work for a common future in Kotono Watanabe’s animated fantasy romance.
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.
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.
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...
Ping Pong: The Triumph (中国乒乓之绝地反击, Deng Chao & Yu Baimei, 2023)
A changing China tries to recapture its sense of possibility by regaining its reputation as a ping pong powerhouse in Deng Chao & Yu Baimei’s rousing table tennis…
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 Island Closest to Heaven (天国にいちばん近い島, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1984)
A young woman comes to a new understanding of herself while travelling abroad in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s laidback kadokawa idol movie.
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Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale 地獄の花園 Director: Kazuaki Seki (2021) [New York Asian Film Festival 2021]
Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale is a funny battle comedy that satirises office culture and delinquent manga/films! Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale 地獄の花園 Director: Kazuaki Seki (2021) [New York …
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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.
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…
Japan Accepts Record-High 300 Refugees in 2023, Still a Global Low
While it's still low compared to other countries, Japan accepted more refugee applicants last year than ever.
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.
Tetsuwan Atom (1963) – Episode 093: “Cobalt”
Here’s our first release for 2024, another episode of Osamu Tezuka’s groundbreaking first anime series. This episode has some impressive credits, written by Masaki Tsuji and directed by…
The Sword in the Stone (1963)
The Sword in the Stone (1963) To begin, I thought I should note that this is the Disney film where the team emotionally torments that poor chipmunk character,…
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Model-chan to Jimi Mane-san, Volume 2 (モデルちゃんと地味マネさん)
In Volume 1, we met Okabe-san, a new manager for top model Yuria-san. Yuri appears cool and remotes but that may well be because she’s so beautiful no…
