Japan 1960

Thank You

2007-06-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

I'm still reeling from the contrast between Hogs and Battleships and Late Autumn.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to the series. It was a pleasure for me to share these films with such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience.

Till next time.

Hogs and Battleships

2007-05-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

Nikkatsu Studios released Shohei Imamura's Hogs and Battleships on January 21, 1961. Before this commercial release, however, the film was submitted as an entry to the 1960 Media Arts Festival. Based on its participation in this event, it was singled out by Kinema Junpo as one of the ten best films of 1960.

Imamura began his career in 1951 as an assistant director at Shochiku Studios. There he had the opportunity to work with the renowned Yasujiro Ozu. He assisted the great master on three films: Early Summer (1951), The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952), and Tokyo Story (1953). Although Imamura would gradually came to respect Ozu, at the time he chafed a what he perceived to be the director's rigid, overly genteel approach toward film.

In 1954 Imamura moved to Nikkatsu, the financially troubled studio that had only recently re-entered the film business. Imamura found himself more at home in this new professional environment, where the commitment to teen sexploitation pics and yakuza movies better fit his freewheeling sensibility than the more refined fare produced at Shochiku.

In 1958 Imamura directed his first film, but it was not until Hogs and Battleships that he made a film that exhibited his distinctive take on life. This view is encapsulated in the director's oft-quoted statement "I am interested in the relationship of the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure on which the reality of daily Japanese life obstinately supports itself." This principle is on display in Hogs and Battleships, which focuses on the efforts of mobsters and other low-lifes to eke out a living on the periphery of a US navy base. In particular, Imamura depicts the struggles of his female characters, who, in contrast to the noble suffering exhibited by the heroines in the films of Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi, use every weapon at their disposal to get ahead in life. No shrinking violets, these women are every bit as tough and self-reliant as the men around them (if not more so).

Imamura followed Hogs and Battleships with other examinations of the lower echelons of Japanese society. Never condescending or moralizing, he paints stark portraits of life at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. The Insect Woman (1963) tells the story of a peasant who over the course of her life works as a factory laborer, prostitute, and madam, before eventually ending up as a domestic servant. The Pornographers (1966) chronicles the life of a producer of low-budget porn films.

In the 1970s, Imamura shifted his creative energies from film to TV documentary. Despite the shift in medium, he continued to treat the down and out, representing the experiences of bar hostesses, the so-called "Comfort Women," and ex-pat soldiers.

With Revenge Is Mine (1979), Imamura made a triumphant return to feature-film making. Over the next decade he directed some of his most important works, including Eejanaika (1981), The Ballad of Narayama (1983), and Black Rain (1989), for which he was awarded the Kinema Junpo Best Director Award.

Despite health problems, Imamura remained professionally active until the last years of his life, directing idiosyncratic films that defied easy categorization. He passed away in 2006.

He is currently the subject of a film retrospective at the Pacific Film Archive. For more information, go to Shohei Imamura's Japan.

Shohei Imamura

Ballad of Narayama

Black Rain

Hogs and Battleships Trailer

2007-05-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

Our last trailer. Enjoy!

Review of Late Autumn

2007-05-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to Weena Pun's review of Late Autumn. The review appeared in the April 13 edition of The Stanford Daily.

Late Autumn

2007-05-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Shochiku Studios released Yasujiro Ozu's Late Autumn on November 13, 1960. It was Ozu's third-to-last film and is considered to be one of his great masterpieces.

In Japan and around the world, Ozu is treasured by cineasts, particularly specialists in film studies. Scholars especially appreciate the uniformity of his visual style and his commitment to a consistent set of thematic issues. In this sense, he readily conforms the notion of a film director as the "author" of his films. This idea that great directors use film as a medium to express their view of life (in the same way that authors use the medium of the written word) lies at the heart of the influential school of film studies know as the auteur theory. I think it's safe to say that Ozu's body of work serves as the ideal vehicle to promote this approach toward interpreting film.

Because Ozu has been the subject of so many scholarly analyses, I will defer to two of the better known statements on his work.

The first comes from David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film.

Ozu’s most important characteristic is his way of watching the world. While that attitude is modest and unassertive, it is also the source of great tenderness for people. It is as if Ozu’s one personal admission was the faith that the basis of decency and sympathy can only be sustained by the semi-religious effort to observe the world in his style; in other words, contemplation calms anxious activity. As with Mizoguchi, one comes away from Ozu heartened by his humane intelligence and by the gravity we have learned.

The intensive viewing of Ozu—and such stylistic rigor encourages nothing less—makes questions of Japaneseness irrelevant. There have been attempts to explain Ozu by reference to his native culture, and it is easy to pin his mysticism to facile notions of the East. Even Ozu himself believed that his subject matter was too provincial to travel outside Japan. Some critics have tried to illuminate his films by reference to Buddhism, Japanese pottery, domestic ritual, and haiku.

All of those are worth considering. But the most useful point to make is that Ozu uses a minimal but concentrated camera style: static, a little lower than waist height, with few camera movements, dissolves, or fades. The intentness of the image, and its emotional resonance, is not only as relevant to the West as to Japan; it is a return to fundamental cinema, such as we can see in Dreyer, Bresson, Lang, and even Warhol, whose characters sit as habitually as Ozu’s. Nor is there anything limitingly Oriental in Ozu’s ability to create deep anguish or joy in the cross-cutting of faces. There are similar moments in Hitchcock or Lang, when we are made to apprehend the unverbalized feelings that rush between people, and which are only defined by the constructive power of editing.

The second comes from Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction.

After 1947 Ozu began a collaboration with screenwriter Kogo Noda that was to result in a string of major works. These films usually center upon family crises: marriage, separation, and death. In Late Spring (1949) a dutiful daughter faces the necessity of leaving her widowed father alone. In Early Summer (1951) several generations of a family are shaken by a daughter's impulsive decision to marry. Tokyo Story (1953) chronicles an elderly couple's visit to their grown, unfeeling children. In Equinox Flower (1958) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962) a father must accept his daughter's wish to leave the household. Ozu and Noda explore a few dramatic issues from various angles. Usually the film is suffused with a contemplative resignation to life's painful changes—an attitude embodied in the gentle smile and sigh of Chishu Ryu, Ozu's perennial actor of this period.

A comparable calm pervades the director's style. The films adhere to the "rules" he set for himself in the 1930s: low camera position, 360-degree shooting space, cutting for graphic effects, transitional sequences that obey a logic of similarity and difference rather than strict spatial continuity. Ozu forswears dissolves and fades entirely. He stages conversations with the characters facing the camera head-on and looking over the lens. His color design turns mundane settings into abstract patterns. His camera is attracted by humble objects in the corner of a room, down a hallway, or on a thoroughfare. The peaceful contemplation at the heart of the drama finds its correlative in a style that allows us time to look closely at the characters and their world. This quietude, sometimes broken by sly humor, makes Ozu's films seem undramatic. But he came to be recognized as one of the cinema's most sensitive explorers of everyday life.

Here are some shots from a scene early in Late Autumn. The sequence exemplifies some of the features to which these scholars refer. Note especially Ozu's preference for the so-called "pillow shot" (shots of scenery or empty rooms used to set up a scene).

Late Autumn Trailer

2007-05-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Here's the original theatrical trailer for Ozu's 1960 masterpiece, Late Autumn.

Technical Difficulties II

2007-05-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the temporary glitch with the sound. According to the projectionist, the problem was with the sound track on the print and not the equipment. He did a quick sound check after the screening was over and everything is fine for next week.

Speaking of which, we'll be showing an absolutely wonderful film by Yasujiro Ozu. The print is from Criterion and it's brand new, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Two reviews of The Island

2007-05-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Here are two interesting reviews of Shindo's film.

Click here to go to Matty Smith's review, which appeared in the April 13 edition of the The Stanford Daily

Click here to see an interesting essay on the movie by Patricia Erens.

The Island

2007-05-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

Among the directors featured in this series, Kaneto Shindo is probably the most unfamiliar to international audiences. Born in a small village outside of Hiroshima, he began working in the film industry in 1934. Over the next six years he toiled in various capacities as a technician at a small studio called Shinkyo. Throughout this period his aspiration was to become script writer. He finally realized his ambition in 1941 when the studio used one of his scripts for a B film. After writing scripts for a few more films, he was drafted into the navy.

Upon returning to Japan in 1946, he entered the script department at Shochiku Studios. At this point, his career finally took off when he was assigned script writing duties for Kosaburo Yoshimura's 1947 triumph, The Ball at the House of Anjo, which was heralded as the best picture of the year by Kinema Junpo. By 1951 he was able to parlay his success as a script writer into an opportunity to direct his first film, Tale of a Loving Wife, a commercial and critical hit. Aside from marking Shindo's directorial debut, the film is also noteworthy as the beginning of his personal and professional collaboration with the actress Nobuko Otowa. The two married shortly thereafter and she subsequently starred in almost all of his films.

With a contract at a major studio and a popular star for a wife, Shindo could have easily settled into a mainstream, successful career. Instead, though, he left the studio and affiliated himself with a group called the Modern Film Association, which consisted of artists and film makers who felt limited by the constraints of the commercial film industry. He immediately tested the freedom of this new working environment with his next work, 1952's Children of Hiroshima. Made immediately after the US Occupation, it was the first Japanese film to address the effects of the atomic bomb. Despite US efforts to pressure the Japanese government to ban the film, it was released to widespread critical acclaim.

Although Shindo on occasion returned to the major studios to make commercial fare, his heart was in the independent, more personal projects that he directed in association with the Film Alliance. The Island, which was first released on November 23, 1960, belongs to this latter category. The film records the struggles and simple pleasures of a farming family on a small island in the Inland Sea. Inspired by the experimentation of the European New Wave and other film-as-art movements, Shindo set out to create what he referred to as a cinematic poem. Foregoing dialogue, the minamalist film evokes emotion through striking imagery, repeated actions, ambient sounds, and Hikaru Hayashi's simple score.

Financing the film with his own money, Shindo, Otowa, and the rest of the cast and crew, all of whom worked without payment, spent almost two months on the island, during which time they came to embrace the serenity of the isolated environment. This commitment to the place and its people is evident in the dignified manner in which they depict the film's characters and their way of life.

The experimental film was hailed by critics both in Japan and abroad. It was feted at film festivals the world over, winning the Grand Prize at the 1961 Moscow International Film Festival, where it was praised as a tribute to the human spirit.

Since the release of The Island Shindo has continued to surprise and delight cineasts with his idiosyncratic works. Noteworthy films include The Demon (1964), Black Cat from the Grove (1968), Tree Without Leaves (1986), Strange Tales from East of the River (1993), and The Bit Player (2000), his award-winning biography of Taiji Tonoyama, the actor who portrays the husband in The Island. With his most recent film, 2004's The Owl, Shindo entered the record books as the oldest working film director in the world.

Shindo at the 2004 Moscow Film Festival

Nobuko Otowa in The Island

Otowa in The Demon

Kiwako Taichi in Black Cat from the Grove

New Link

2007-05-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've added a link to the blog Kuzu. If you go there, you can find some intereting reviews of the films we've been screening.

Review of Her Brother

2007-05-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Stanford Daily didn't review Her Brother, but I found a short piece about the movie on the internet. Click here to go to an informative review of the film by Paghat the Ratgirl (evidently her by-line).

Her Brother

2007-05-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

Daiei Studios released Kon Ichikawa's Her Brother on November 1, 1960. The film proved to be a triumph for both the director and the studio. It ended up winning 14 awards, including the coveted Kinema Junpo awards for Best Picture and Best Director of 1960.

The critical acclaim was especially gratifying for Ichikawa, since he had toiled for years in the Japanese film industry, never quite reaching the top tier of directors. In this sense, his status differed from that of Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Ozu, all of whom reigned supreme at their home studios. Ichikawa, on the other hand, over the course of his long career moved around from studio to studio, always occupying a position just below these elite directors. Whereas the top directors were free to choose their material, their casts, and their technicians, Ichikawa was typically assigned projects by the front office. Working under these constantly changing conditions, he was never able to cultivate a consistent style in the manner of his more revered contemporaries. But ingenuity and creative flexibility allowed Ichikawa to make the most of this situation, resulting in a body of work noteworthy for its diversity.

Ichikawa began his career in 1938 as an illustrator in the animation division at Toho Studios. Slowly working his way up the ladder, he directed his first live action feature in 1948. Caught up in the labor disbutes of the late 1940s, he decided to follow many of his Toho co-workers to a new studio, Shin-Toho. In 1955 he moved briefly to Nikkatsu Studios. And finally in 1956, he settled at Daiei, where he enjoyed his greatest professional success.

Ichikawa first made his mark with a film version of Soseki Natsume's timeless novel, Kokoro (1955), starring Masayuki Mori. One year later, he directed another literary adaptation, The Harp of Burma. With these two successes, Ichikawa came to be seen as a director especially adept at translating literature to the screen. He continued in this vein for the next few years, working from novels by Yukio Mishima, Shotaro Ooka, and Jun'ichiro Tanizaki.

The culmination of this series of literary adaptations was Her Brother, based on Aya Koda's autobiographical tale of her troubled family during the Taisho era (1912-26). Although assigned the project, Ichikawa was able to work with some first rate talent. His cast was headlined by four of Japan's most popular and talented stars: Keiko Kishi, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Masayuki Mori, and the incomparable Kinuyo Tanaka. Also assigned to the picture was Kazuo Miyagawa, one of the most skilled cinematographers in the Japanese film industry. Over the course of his career Miyagawa had lent his talents to Kurosawa's Rashomon, Ozu's Floating Weeds, and all of Mizoguchi's great masterpieces of the 1950s.

The collaboration with Miyagawa was especially fortunate, since it provided Ichikawa with an opportunity to satisfy his penchant for creating visually innovative film narratives. Although never associated with a signature style, Ichikawa's early days as a cartoonist made him particularly attentive to the visual impact of his films. Always willing to experiment to give his movies a distinctive look, he and Miyagawa created a new technique known as skip bleaching. By treating the film stock with chemicals that muted the palette, Ichikawa lent Her Brother the air of a faded picture postcard. In recognition of this achievement, Miyagawa was awarded the Best Cinematography Award at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. Since then, their process has become a standard practice in the film industry.

After Her Brother, Ichikawa went on to other successes, most notably An Actor's Revenge (1963), a highly stylized historical drama, Alone in the Pacific (1963), a biography of Kenichi Horie, the young man who sailed alone from Osaka to San Francisco, and Tokyo Olympics (1965), a cinematic record of the 1964 Oympics.

As the Japanese studio system began to disintegrate in the late 1960s, Ichikawa once again displayed his adaptability. In contrast to his contemporary Kurosawa, whose output after 1970 slowed to a rate of about one film every five years, Ichikawa continued to direct one or two movies per year. His greatest success during these latter years was the tremendously popular Makioka Sisters (1983), based on Tanizaki's wartime novel. Ichikawa's most recent film was released in 2006.

Here I'd also like to take an opportunity to provide some information about Masayuki Mori, one of the stars of the film. The eldest son of the acclaimed author, Takero Arishima, Mori established his own professional reputation as a popular film star. He is especially cherished by cineasts for his participation in two of the masterpieces of world cinema. In 1950 he played Kanazawa no Takehiro, the murdered warrior, in Kurosawa's Rashomon; and in 1953 he played Genjuro, the haunted potter, in Mizoguchi's Ugetsu. 1960 was a banner year for Mori, bringing him roles in three important films. It's a credit to his versatility that he managed to excel in such divergent parts. Hearkening back his early days as a "pretty boy" (nimaime) star, he brings glamour to the role of Fujisaki in Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. Channeling villains from the kabuki stage, he oozes corruption as Iwabuchi in Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well. And perhaps tapping into his own family history, he perfectly portrays the distant, self-absorbed author/father in Her Brother.

Ichikawa in the 1960s

Ayako Wakao in An Actor's Revenge

Tokyo Olympics

Masayuki Mori's 1960 rogues gallery

Her Brother Trailer

2007-05-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here's the original theatrical trailer for Kon Ichikawa's award-winning film Her Brother.

Subtitles by Andre Haag.

Nishi's tune

2007-05-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

After The Bad Sleep Well, two members of the audience commented on the tune that Mifune's character whistled throughout the film. Does anyone recognize the song or know if it had any particular significance? Or was it composed specifically for the film?

Thanks.

Map of Stanford

2007-05-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a map of the Stanford campus. You can also click on the "Map to Cubberley Auditorium" link on the right side of this blog. It will connect you to a searchable map of the campus.

Review of The Bad Sleep Well

2007-05-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Click here to read Marco Hernandez's review of The Bad Sleep Well. The review appeared in the April 13 edition of The Stanford Daily.

The Bad Sleep Well

2007-04-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

The Bad Sleep Well premiered on September 15, 1960. The film marked the beginning of a new phase in the storied career of director Akira Kurosawa (1910-98).

Kurosawa started working for Toho Studios in 1938. Five years later in 1943 he directed his first film, Sugata Sanshiro. A string of commercial and critical successes over the next five years quickly established Kurosawa as one of the most electrifying new directors working in Japan. Important films from this early period include: No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Drunken Angel (1948), and Stray Dog (1949).

In 1950 Kurosawa directed Rashomon, one of the most important films in the history of Japanese cinema. Winning the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival and Best Foreign Film award at the 1951 Academy Awards, Rashomon become the first Japanese film to garner international attention and effectively introduced worldwide audiences to the richness of Japanese cinema. With this stunning achievement, Kurosawa cemented his status in the Japanese film industry.

To keep their internationally renowned director happy, Toho gave Kurosawa carte blanche in his subsequent films. He responded by directing some magnificent features, most notably Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), and Thrown of Blood (1957). Less pleasing to the Toho front office was Kurosawa's increasing extravagance. Seven Samura, for example, was months over schedule and way over budget, turning out to be one of the most expensive films made in Japan to date. In an effort to force Kurosawa to pay closer attention to the bottom line, the studio encouraged him to establish his own production company in conjunction with Toho Studios.

The Bad Sleep Well was the first film that Kurosawa directed under this new arrangement. Determined to make a powerful statement, he chose to structure the movie around an explosive contemporary issue, the corporate scandals that were rocking Japan in the late 1950s. Despite its epic scale, expensive cast, and long running time, the film still managed to turn a profit. Audiences appreciated the engrossing plot, the film-noire atmosphere, and the flashy performance by Toshiro Mifune. The film also struck a powerful chord with critics, who ranked The Bad Sleep Well as the third best film of the year.

The Bad Sleep Well initiated what is generally thought to be the most creative period of Kurosawa's career. Over the next four years he directed some of his greatest masterpieces: Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), and Red Beard (1965).

After Red Beard, Kurosawa directed seven more features, the most memorable of which were Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985). These late films further endeared him to US directors, especially Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who presented Kurosawa with an honorary Oscar in 1989.

Although Kurosawa is now generally associated with his historical dramas, he also excelled at films set in contemporary times. Indeed, his early films tended to addresses social problems of postwar Japan. No Regrets for Our Youth, for instance, depicts the obstacles faced by antiwar activists, Drunken Angel confronts the despair of the Occupation, and Ikiru reveals the intransigence of the postwar bureaucracy.

In this same vein, The Bad Sleep Well combines commentary on a modern social problem with high-voltage melodrama. The director further complicates the mix by adding elements gleaned from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the crime fiction of US writer Ed McBain, and a dash of the classic Japanese adauchi-mono (revenge tale). The end result is a riveting and entertaining film.

Toshiro Mifune (1920-97) gives a solid performance as the brooding hero of The Bad Sleep Well. It was the eleventh film (out of a total of fifteen) that the star had made under Kurosawa's direction. Mifune also worked successfully with directors Hiroshi Inagaki and Masaki Kobayashi. In most of films he played a man of action, thrilling audiences with his elemental power and natural charisma. Due to his collaboration with Kurosawa, Mifune is probably the most famous Japanese film star in the world.

Kurosawa in the 1950s

Michiyo Kogure and Toshiro Mifune in Drunken Angel

Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, and Mifune in Seven Samurai

Mifune, Seizaburo Kawazu, Susumu Fujita, and Isuzu Yamada in Yojimbo

Shohei Imamura's Japan

2007-04-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

From May 25 to June 30 the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley will be hosting a Shohei Imamura retrospective. This is a wonderful opportunity to acquaint yourself with the work of this innovative and controversial artist. Please click here for more information about the event.

The Bad Sleep Well Trailer

2007-04-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

Here is the original theatrical trailer for Akira Kurosawa's thrilling The Bad Sleep Well.

We will be showing the film in its original widescreen format.

Until next week!

Reminder

2007-04-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

This is a reminder that there is no screening on Friday April 20. Our next film, Cruel Story of Youth, will be shown on April 27.

Cruel Story of Youth

2007-04-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Shochiku Studios released Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth on June 3, 1960. The film was one arm of a larger strategy to revamp the studio's image. Throughout the 1950s, Shochiku had become increasingly associated with the heartwarming home dramas of Yasujiro Ozu. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, Ozu was the face of the studio.

Although happy with the prestige that the studio garnered from Ozu's films, Shochiku executives looked with increasing envy at the massive profits that their rivals at Nikkatsu Studios made from movies featuring popular teen actors Yujiro Ishihara and Keiichiro Akagi. These films with their racy plots and bad-boy stars appealed to huge audiences of young men and women.

In an effort to steal some of its rival's thunder, Shochiku decided to promote a cadre of talented young assistant directors to its hallowed directors list. The studio hoped that these young men would create films that spoke more directly to Japan's younger audiences.

At the age of just 27, Oshima was one of the youngest of these directors. The studio took careful note of his first two features. Based on signs of talent exhibited in these initial forays, they decided to give him free rein in his third feature, Cruel Story of Youth. The gamble was richly rewarded. The film caused a sensation, emerging as the studio's biggest money-maker of the year. The film also effected a profound change in Shochiku's image. Taking note of the innovative cinematic style achieved by Oshima, the popular press heralded him, along with his fellow Shochiku directors Masahiro Shinoda and Yoshishige Yoshida, as exemplars of the New Wave. Shochiku thus came to be perceived as the epicenter of an exciting new trend in Japanese film. Studio executives had thus achieved their goal; Shochiku was no longer thought of solely as the home of Yasujiro Ozu.

It's difficult to know if Oshima consciously tried to differentiate himself from Ozu with Cruel Story of Youth, but the end product can justifiably be described as the antithesis of an Ozu film. With its attention to social upheaval, its overheated depiction of youthful resentment and passion, and its hyperbolic visual style, the film embodies a view of Japanese society and film that deviates radically from anything found in the work of Ozu. Three of the film's stars, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga, and Fumio Watanabe, had also worked with Ozu. A comparison of how the two directors styled and shot these actors suggests the fundamental difference in their respective cinematic visions.

Kuwano in Cruel Story of Youth

Kuwano in Ozu's Late Autumn

Kuga in Cruel Story of Youth

Kuga in Ozu's Good Morning

Watanabe in Cruel Story of Youth

Watanabe in Ozu's Late Autumn

Despite the success of Cruel Story of Youth in contemporizing Shochiku's image, the relationship between Oshima and the studio quickly soured. Studio executives were aghast at Oshima's next film, Night and Fog in Japan (1960), an avant-garde depiction of political radicals. Although the film was praised by critics, named as one of the ten best films of the year by Kinema Junpo, it was a commercial failure and target for cultural commentators who railed against the anarchic tendencies of popular culture. Shortly after the release of this film, Oshima severed his connection with Shochiku.

Once on his own, the young director developed into one of the most creative and controversial film-makers of the 1960s. His post-Shochiku output includes The Catch (1961), based on short story by Kenzaburo Oe, Violence at Noon (1966), Death by Hanging (1968), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968), and Boy (1969). Taken together these films constitute a remarkable and challenging body of work.

In the 1970s, Oshima shifted gears and began exploring other, equally controversial, issues in his films. In particular, sex, always a topic of interest to Oshima, emerged as a central preoccupation of his work. He gained worldwide attention in 1976 with the release of Realm of the Senses, a study of sexual obsession and experimentation reminiscent of Last Tango in Paris. Due to the relentlessly explicit sex scenes, the film was initially banned in Japan.

In the years since Realm of the Senses, Oshima has slowed down considerably. Among his late films, only two have attracted significant attention: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), a WWII drama starring David Bowie, and Taboo (1999), a historical tale that recounts a gay love triangle involving 19th-century samurai.

For a more detailed discussion of Oshima's impact as a filmmaker, click here to go to an informative article by Nelson Kim.

Oshima in 1960

Do-yun Yu in Death by Hanging

Eiko Matsuda and Tatsuya Fuji in Realm of the Senses

Takeshi Kitano and Ryuhei Matsuda in Taboo

Cruel Story of Youth Trailer

2007-04-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the original theatrical trailer for Cruel Story of Youth.

We will be showing the film in all its GrandScope glory.

Subtitled by Molly Vallor.

CinemaScope

2007-04-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

My sincere apologies for the quality of the projected image on Friday night. It was the first CinemaScope (actually TohoScope) film that I have ever screened. After talking to the projectionist, I learned that the problem could have been solved if we had switched lenses and recalibrated the screen. Live and learn.

For those who are curious, here is an explanation of how the wide-screen process works.

Alas, it's too late for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, but now that we know what to expect, we'll be ready for the rest of the films. Rest assured, we won't make the same mistake twice.

Perhaps, though, it was an appropriate viewing experience for a film about unfulfilled expectations and bitter frustrations.

Review of Naruse's film

2007-04-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

Click here for a review of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs written by The Stanford Daily's Brendan Marten.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Trailer

2007-04-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the original theatrical trailer for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.

Subtitled by Joanna Sturiano.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

2007-04-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

The first film in our series is the timeless melodrama, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. The film was released by Toho Studios on January 15, 1960. The date is significant, because Japanese studios typically released their most prestigious films around New Years.

Toho lavished a remarkable amount of talent on the film. The cast is headlined by Hideko Takamine, one of the studio's most popular actresses. Her leading men include Masayuki Mori, just then reaching the peak of his professional career, Tatsuya Nakadai, an emerging heart-throb and action star, Ganjiro Nakamura, the venerable star of stage and screen, and Daisuke Kato, the ubiquitous character actor. Popular Toho starlets Reiko Dan and Keiko Awaji completed the cast.

The script was written by Ryuzo Kikushima. One of the foremost scenarists of the 1950s and 1960s, Kikushima is best known internationally for his work with Akira Kurosawa on Stray Dogs (1949), Yojimbo (1961), and Sanjuro (1962).

At the helm of this production was the renowned director Mikio Naruse. After starting his directorial career in 1930, Naruse quickly rose to prominence, winning the prestigious Kinema Junpo Best Picture and Best Director awards in 1935 for his film Wife, Be Like a Rose!. After this promising start, however, the director hit an artistic slump that lasted for almost two decades. It was only in 1951 that he ressurected his career with the film, Repast, starring Setsuko Hara. This film marked the beginning of the most productive phase of Naruse's career. During the next eight years, he directed some of the most memorable films ever produced in Japan, including Lightening (1952), Mother (1952), Sound of the Mountains (1954), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955), and Flowing (1956). This series of classics culminated with When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.

Naruse in the 1930s

Poster for Wife, Be Like a Rose!

Setsuko Hara and Ken Uehara in Repast

Hideko Takamine and Masayuki Mori in Floating Clouds

Naruse's films typically focus on the plight of women. His female protagonists are ordinary individuals beset by mundane financial, familial, and romantic problems. Yet Naruse was always able to convey the beauty and dignity of these common characters as they struggle to overcome everything that life throws at them.

Hideko Takamine excelled in this type of role. Indeed, she made a total of seventeen films with Naruse, establishing them as one of the great director-actor partnerships of Japanese cinema to rival the collaborations of Kenji Mizoguchi and Kinuyo Tanaka, Yasujiro Ozu and Setsuko Hara, and Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.

Before embarking on this fruitful partnership with Naruse, Takamine had already known considerable success, first as a child star and then as an ingenue. Aside from her work with Naruse, she is best known for films such as Composition Class (1938), Horse (1941), Where the Chimneys Are Seen (1951), The Mistress (1953), Twenty-Four Eyes (1954), and most famously Carmen Comes Home (1951), the rollicking tale of a stripper who returns to her home in the countryside.

Takamine in Tokyo Chorus (1931)

Takamine in Composition Class

Takamine in Carmen Comes Home

Introduction and Schedule

2007-03-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Japan 1960 film series blog. One purpose for this blog is to provide people with information about the films and the series. Another goal for the blog is to offer viewers a forum to convey their impressions of the films. So please don't hesitate to post comments.

I will use this inaugural post as an opportunity to explain the genesis of the series. The title of the series is Japan 1960: Classic Cinema Meets the New Wave. In contrast to earlier series, which were organized around an individual director or star, this new series highlights films released in a single year. I have chosen to focus on the year 1960 for a number of reasons.

First, the year has special significance in the history of Japanese film, since it marks a high point in terms of film production for the industry. More films were produced in Japan in 1960 than in any other year.

Second, 1960 coincides with a peak of creativity among Japanese filmmakers. Established prewar directors, like Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse, continued to exhibit their remarkable talents, each releasing a major film. Akira Kurosawa, the most celebrated Japanese director to emerge in the 1940s, also created a masterpiece. At the same time, two of the most promising directors of the 1950s, Kon Ichikawa and Kaneto Shindo, achieved new levels of artistic maturity with their 1960 releases. Further adding to the excitement of the year was the emergence of two young directors, Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura. 1960 thus marks a rare confluence of talent, ranging from the so-called old masters of classic Japanese cinema to the young Turks who would revolutionize the style and content of Japanese film.

A third reason for focusing on 1960 is the historical significance of the moment. In many respects 1960 denotes an important transition point in postwar Japanese history. The year marked a significant consolidation of the economic gains made during the second half of the 1950s and the solidification of a new era of prosperity, noteworthy for heightened consumerism and the exponential growth of the middle class. The year also saw considerable civil turmoil as students and activists demonstrated against the US-Japan Security Alliance. Related to both these developments was the emergence of a vigorous youth culture, which began to occupy an increasingly prominent position in mainstream culture. All of these economic, political, and cultural trends exerted an influence on the films released in 1960. Indeed, the sense that Japanese society was entering into a period of profound change contributed to the creative ferment that resulted in this exceptional body of work.

The program I have organized emphasizes the variety and richness of the film culture that flourished in this remarkable year.

All films will be shown in Cubberley Auditorium on the Stanford Campus. All screenings begin at 7:30 PM. All films are 35mm prints with English subtitles.

April 13: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Director: Mikio Naruse. Cast: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan, Tatsuya Nakadai, Ganjiro Nakamura. Toho Studios. B/W. 111 minutes.
Naruse's moving portrait of the trials and tribulations of a bar hostess named Keiko. Unlucky in both business and love, Keiko struggles to maintain her dignity as she contends with amorous clients, callous family members, and relentless creditors. Surrounded by a cast of some of Toho's brightest stars, Hideko Takamine gives a superlative performance in this exemplary woman's film.

Hideko Takamine

April 20: No screening this evening.

April 27: Cruel Story of Youth

Director: Nagisa Oshima. Cast: Yusuke Kawazu, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga, Fumio Watanabe. Shochiku Studios. Color. 96 minutes.
Oshima's groundbreaking entry into the burgeoning genre of youth films. Eschewing the idealistic optimism previously associated with this form, Oshima created a film that highlights the anger and cynicism of Japan's postwar youth. The film paints a stark portrait of disillusioned youngsters who recklessly engage in the badger game to extort money from middle-aged men. Matching the chaotic, unfocused energy exhibited by his young protagonists, Oshima utilized a film style that exudes kinetic force. Largely shot on location in neighborhoods like Shinjuku and Shibuya, the film offers a glimpse of the shifting topography of Tokyo in the early 1960s.

Miyuki Kuwano

May 4: The Bad Sleep Well

Director: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyoko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi. Toho Studios. B/W. 150 minutes.
Kurosawa's brilliant reworking of the tale of Hamlet, set in the corridors of power in the Japanese corporate world. Kurosawa intensifies the atmosphere of this tale of revenge by employing the moody lighting, deep-focus black and white photography, and oppressive camera angles associated with the classic Hollywood film noire. As the brooding hero, Mifune adds another striking performance to his list of legendary collaborations with Kurosawa.

Toshiro Mifune

May 11: Her Brother

Director: Kon Ichikawa. Cast: Keiko Kishi, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka, Hiroshi Kawaguchi. Daiei Studios. Color. 98 minutes.
Among the many memorable films produced during 1960, Ichikawa's stark depiction of a dysfunctional prewar family emerged as the work most praised by critics, awarded the coveted Kinema Junpo Best Film award for the year. Oddly, though, the film is rarely revived either in Japan or abroad. This is a shame, since the film is so distinctive visually and thematically. Resisting the temptation to sentimentalize his material, Ichikawa offers a moving, yet never cloying, story of a sister who cares for her dying brother. Heightening this tone is the muted color palette achieved by the renowned cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.

Keiko Kishi

May 18: The Island

Director: Kaneto Shindo. Cast: Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horimoto. Kindai Eiga Kyokai. B/W. 96 minutes.
Pursuing an artistic dream, Shindo produced this unique cinematic poem with his own money. Without dialogue, the film depicts the endless struggles of a farming family to subsist on a small island in the Inland Sea. Hikaru Hayashi's lyrical score plays a crucial role in establishing the tone of the film, which runs the gamut from light-hearted to poignant.

Masanori Horimoto

May 25: Late Autumn

Director: Yasujiro Ozu. Cast: Setsuko Hara, Yoko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada, Keiji Sada, Shin Saburi. Shochiku Studios. Color. 128 minutes.
One of Ozu's last masterpieces, this film revisits the familiar theme of a widowed parent trying to convince a sheltered daughter the leave the nest and marry. Exhibiting a lighter touch than his earlier treatments of this issue, Ozu enlivens the scenario with a trio of meddling middle-aged men who all carry a torch for the widowed mother. The choice of Hara to play the mother underscores the cyclical nature of life, since just 11 years before she had excelled in the role of the reluctant daughter in an earlier Ozu film.

Setsuko Hara

June 1: Hogs and Battleships

Director: Shohei Imamura. Cast: Hiroyuki Nagato, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Tetsuro Tanba. Nikkatsu Studios. B/W. 108 minutes.
Perhaps the most striking contrast in the entire film series is between Ozu's Late Autumn and Imamura's Hogs and Battleships. The difference is especially noteworthy given that Imamura toiled for years as Ozu's assistant director at Shochiku. With this film, Imamura finally had the opportunity to display his signature style, which could not depart more radically from Ozu's. Known for his appreciation of the messy side of life, Imamura explores the underbelly of Japanese postwar society in this film. Specifically, he considers at the corrupting effects of the US-Japanese relationship from the perspective of the gangsters and prostitutes who cater to the needs of US sailors stationed in Japan. The film climaxes with a bravura scene in which Imamura has a pack of pigs rampage through the streets of Yokosuka.

Jitsuko Yoshimura