Movie Going Madness in Japan

[Takuma]

Tokyo-Osaka, part 3/3, the second half

My final destination was one of my favourite places in the whole wide world: Laputa Asagaya. The lovely theater located in a building made of stone and wood, and named and modelled after the Miayzaki anime, does nothing but Japanese film retrospectives from morning to night. The Morning Show is usually golden oldies, the Late Show is genre films from yakuza to pink, and the massive Main Program is anything between. That means there are usually six 35mm screenings every day.

Some stolen photos and image glued together.

Note that the camera really lies here. The screen looks very small. In reality, there are 4 rows and the back row is the only place where the screen (in 2.35:1) won't fill your entire field view. Any closer and it will either fill the entire field view (3rd row), or you won't be able to see the entire screen (1st and 2nd row).

This time the main program was called "50 Film Directors' Debut Movie", which was accompanying a recent book release of the same name (which is something Laputa often does). A lot of the best stuff in this retro (Nakajima's Female Ninja Magic, Murakawa's Delicate Skillful Fingers, Ito's Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion, Ishii’s Red Vertigo etc.) was unfortunately saved for later dates.

The film I caught was Hideo Onchi’s Young Wolf aka Hidden Fangs (1961), a complete blind watch for me, but I figured Toho plus delinquents minus home video release would warrant a viewing. That’s how I discovered the great cop docudrama Car 33 Doesn't Answer (1955) years ago (why hasn’t Criterion released this yet?!). The film was a low key, semi-documentary style drama about a young man trying to go straight after a stint in youth prison (Kunie Tanaka plays fellow inmate), only to find out his gal (Yuriko Hoshi) had developed an attitude and a delinquent girl hairstyle while he was away. Good film and gorgeous print!



Following Young Wolf was the awesome “Toho Pinky Violence” Rica (1972) in the Late Show, which was dedicated to manga artist Bonten Taro. Other films in the retro were the Rica sequels, Sex and Fury, and Female Yakuza Tale. A couple of Roman Porno films + Irezumi also accompanied the program in the neighbouring theater space Zamuza Asagaya. I think the program was split like this because the latter ones only had BDs available for screening whereas Laputa screens everything from film prints. Speaking of which, Rica had sadly been beaten to pulp and turned all pink. I hope they will discover a better print for future screenings.



Laputa went a bit overboard with Bonten Taro merchandise this time




Plus their usual other film books and CDs


These books are for sale, but you can also browse them to kill time


Chirashi




I was too lazy to scan it myself, so I just stole it from here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/BG_WORKSH...24104784916481

Rica finished around 22:30. Then it was time to head back to my capsule for a quick shower and too little sleep. I had to get up at 5:45 to head to the airport and fly not home but to work - yes, I had work on that day. Thank god it was a busy day, I'd have fallen asleep otherwise. Couldn't get any sleep during the flight thanks to Jetstar's "hang your head frontwards" type seats (seriously, who the hell designed those seats?) either.

[Takuma]

Tokyo-Osaka, part 3/3, the first half

Saturday's plan was five films in three different theatres around Tokyo, which I somewhat surprisingly managed to pull off.

My first destination was Meguro Cinema, one of Tokyo's few remaining double feature theatres with a distinctly 90s atmosphere. I like how they ring bells every time a film is about to begin to let people know it's time to get seated. They were also giving small printed program brochures with some hand-drawn, false God worshipping British villagers with animal heads on the cover.



The Britons were from The Wicker Man: Final Cut (1973), which was playing together with Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977). Both were DCP, but since I had nothing better to do at 10:30 am (other than sleep) decided to give Wicker Man a go. I had not seen it since a TV broadcasting when I was a kid. Great film! I didn't have time to stay for Sorcerer, but I've seen that theatrically already and have the BD in my shelf, so no biggie.

Meguro was also doing a one night only 35mm screening of Gappa: The Triphibian Monster (1967) but I sadly had no chance to attend since I had other plans for the night. More about that later.



Upcoming program: The Man Who Stole the Sun, Bullet Train and Family Game




Next up was a trip to Jinbocho, a district perhaps best known for its 5 million small book stores. But I was going to Jinbocho Theater, a pretty cool place with a futuristic design - a bit of a mismatch with their programs which focus on 60s dramas, comedies musicals. They seem to be very popular with the elderly audiences and the screenings are nearly always well attended. I got there 25 min prior to Yagyu Secret Scrolls (1957), and got ticket number 54.

Photos stolen off the internet


Yagyu was a good, although slightly pale 35mm presentation of a passable Toshiro Mifune film - I prefer the more action packed and pulpy 60s Toei films (nine films in 1961-1964) however. The film was playing in a jidai geki novel adaptation retrospective, that also included films like Tai Kato’s Warrior of the Wind (1964), Hideo Gosha’s Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron (1978) and Norifumi Suzuki’s Ninja's Mark (1968).

The latter was the reason for my visit. It was my 2nd time seeing Ninja’s Mark in 35mm, but I didn't remember how gorgeous the print was! Another example of why home cinema will never equal a fine 35mm presentation. The film is a good bit of fun, starting from the opening scene where an evil ninja turns a woman having sex into a fish! Someone should release this on BD in a box set with other ninja films based on Futaro Yamada novels (e.g. Female Ninja Magic, Ninja Wars, Samurai Reincarnation).

Ninja’s Mark also has some historical relevance for being the 1st movie Toei head Okada had producer Amao make in order to milk the eros boom. The film failed at the box office ("men don't forgive eros that only goes half-way", Okada said) and has since been largely forgotten. Their follow-up try History of the Shogun's Harem (1968), however, was a huge hit and went down in history books as the official start of Pinky Violence.







Stay tuned for Tokyo-Osaka, part 3/3, the second half (I know, I screwed up)

[Takuma]

Thank you Takuma, these posts are much appreciated. One day I hope to be able to catch some screenings in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. Been here since Aug but not in a position for any movie exploration so haven't even looked beyond my local mall theater.

Thanks and yeah, if you get a chance you should certainly pay a visit to those Tokyo theaters... Laputa Asagaya, Shin bungeiza, Jinbocho Theater, Cinema Vera, Film Archive... I don't think film prints will be around for much longer so it's now or never.

[Oily Maniac]

Thank you Takuma, these posts are much appreciated. One day I hope to be able to catch some screenings in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. Been here since Aug but not in a position for any movie exploration so haven't even looked beyond my local mall theater.

[Jason C]

Wow, that is so cool. If I were single those posts would be enough to get me on a plane. I would love to experience that. Thank you so much.

[Takuma]

Tokyo-Osaka, part 2/3

Despite the projection issues I enjoyed revisiting the two films, particularly Girl Boss Guerilla which is supremely enjoyable in a laidback way despite not being quite as good as the best Pinky Violence films. After the films I had 10 minutes to grab a few photos of the neighbourhood, and one thing that caught my eye was Shinsekai Kokusai. This must be the only theatre in the world that is displaying Spiderman: No Way Home and a sleazy pink film poster side by side on the street.



Look carefully and you can see Bond is also paired with a Porno.


Spidie with Porno


One good thing about the Shinsekai district is that it’s extremely accessible. There’s a direct train connection from the airport with rapid airport trains stopping at Shin Imamiya Station (it takes about 45 min from the airport). Shinsekai Toei is only a few hundred metre walk from the station. You don’t even need map/navigation, just look for the famous Tsutenkaku Tower: Toei and the Pinks are located right next to it.



After that it was back to the airport for another 5000 yen / $50 flight to Tokyo, followed by an hour train ride to Ueno for my usual capsule hotel. Ramen, shower and hit the sack.

Midnight ramen at 0:30. Had not eaten anything since lunch at 11:00 a.m., besides one onigiri, one ice cream and one chocolate brownie.

[Takuma]

Tokyo-Osaka, part 1/3

I’m back from my movie travels. I had hectic two days after being unable decide between Osaka and Tokyo, and then choosing to visit both cities since the former had Girl Boss Guerilla (1972) and the latter was playing Rica (1972), in 35mm of course. So I made a two day schedule with 2 cities, 4 flights, 7 movies and too little sleep. And then on the third day I’d get up at 5:30 in my capsule hotel, head to the airport and fly to work because I had work on that day! Admittedly not something anyone in their right mind would do.

Day 1

The 1st day was for Osaka, and required a bit of “outside the common sense” thinking to pull it off. With no cheap direct flights in the morning, I ended up flying to Osaka via Tokyo, then spend a mere 7 hours in Osaka to catch two films, and then fly back to Tokyo at night so that I’d be ready for a 5 film set the following day. I had ramen for dinner after midnight because there was no time to dine earlier.

The Osaka trip was for Shinsekai Toei who do nothing but Toei double features from morning to night (they used to do all nighters too, but not now) in 35mm. I had wanted to visit them for years, but since Osaka and Kyoto don’t have that many 35mm screenings, I hadn’t found enough value for money to warrant a trip before. But this time I figured why not, for the sake of the experience, as well as a few movies!

Shinsekai Toei’s program has been rather conservative in the past (mostly ninkyo and samurai films), but they’ve screened more jitsuroku and Pinky Violence films recently so I thought now would be the time to visit. Note that the theatre doesn’t have a webpage: all you can find is Twitter and Facebook fan pages with handwritten weekly screening schedules.
https://twitter.com/FanTouei



This week's program: Girl Boss Guerilla (1972) and Prison Island Riot (1975)


The theatre is located in the Shinsekai district, aptly described by Japan Guide as “developed before the war and then neglected in the decades afterwards” and “has a reputation as one of Japan's more seedy and dangerous neighbourhoods”. I might describe the difference between Tokyo and Osaka in yakuza film terms: Tokyo has Teruo Yoshida type gangsters in suits; Osaka has those sweaty Kawatani and Murota type motherfuckers in rags.

I brought this up because it also describes Shinsekai Toei. The theatre is located in a building that also hosts a pink theatre with two screens: a straight one and a gay one. They all share the same lobby, vending machine, and an employee sitting behind a desk smoking tobacco (he was a nice guy though). The screening room itself has dirty looking floor and walls, and the decently sized screen had two big tears and a few smaller ones. The seats contain ads for cheap apartments! It’s relatively bright in the room even during screenings, and the exit sign above the door can cast some light to the screen in dark scenes.





Alright, so we’re are in genuine grind house setting as opposed to Tokyo’s clean and beautiful (new or old) screening houses. What could go wrong? A lot, it seems. Girl Boss Guerilla is the first film I watch. Mediocre print and surprisingly soft image. And then around halfway into the film the image goes out of focus for the rest of the feature. I thought that was a print issue, but when it happened again with in Prison Island Riot (this time I looked at my watch, it was at approx. 44 min, which sounds like a reel change spot to me) I figured someone just doesn’t know how to do their job. Perhaps the projectionist was drunk or absent on that day, I dunno. Oh well, it was an experience at least.









Ads for the pink screens

[Takuma]

More yakuza mayhem going on in Laputa, who are on their last week of their Battles without Honour and Humanity 5 week screening series.

《仁義なき戦い 阿佐ヶ谷æ»é—˜ç¯‡ RETURNS》
10/31(日)～11/06(土)　「仁義なき戦い」(Battles without Honour and Humanity)
11/07(æ—¥)～11/13(土)　「仁義なき戦い 広島æ»é—˜ç¯‡ã€(Hiroshima Deathmatch)
11/14(日)～11/20(土)　「仁義なき戦い 代理戦争」(Proxy War)
11/21(日)～11/27(土)　「仁義なき戦い 頂上作戦」 (Police Tactics)
11/28(日)～12/04(土)　「仁義なき戦い 完結篇」(Final Episode)
http://www.laputa-jp.com/laputa/prog...nakitatakai_r/





After Battles, they will be screening Hiroki Matsukata films for the next 2½ months

《松方弘樹 ギラギラNIGHTS》
12/05(日)～12/11(土)　「８９３愚連隊」(YA-KU-ZA-Hoodlums)
12/12(日)～12/18(土)　「脱獄広島殺人囚」(Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison)
12/19(日)～12/25(土)　「新 仁義なき戦い」(New Battles without Honour and Humanity)
1/05(水)～1/11(火)　「暴動島根刑務所」(Prison Island Riot)
1/12(水)～1/18(火)　「暴力金脈」(Violent Money Network)
1/19(æ°´)～1/29(土)　「おç¥ã‚Šé‡ŽéƒŽ éšæ²³å²¸ã®å…„弟分」(Festival Champ)
1/30(日)～2/05(土)　「強盗放火殺人囚」(Robbery, Arson and Killer Convicts)
2/06(日)～2/12(土)　「実録外伝 大阪電撃作戦」(Authentic True Account: Osaka Shock Tactics)
2/13(日)～2/19(土)　「沖縄やくざ戦争」(Okinawa Yakuza War)
2/20(日)～2/26(土)　「北陸代理戦争」(Hokuriku Proxy War)
http://www.laputa-jp.com/laputa/prog...tsukatahiroki/



Unlike in Shin bungeiza, ALL films will be screened in 35mm!

[Takuma]

Shin Bungeiza's Toei Yakuza Films series just started today. The program is:

- Tales of Japanese Chivalry (日本侠客伝) (1964) (DCP)
- Brutal Tales of Chivalry: I Sincerely Want to Kill You (æ˜å’Œæ®‹ä¾ ä¼ æ»ã‚“で貰います) (1970) (DCP)
- Gambling Den: A Life of Cards (博奕打ち いのちæœ) (1971) (35mm)
- Gambling Den: Big Time Gambling Boss (博奕打ち 総長è³åš ) (1968) (DCP)
- The Tattooed Hitman (山口組外伝　九州進攻作戦) (1974) (35mm)
- Japan's Violent Islands: Murder in the Capital (日本暴力列島 京阪神殺しの軍団) (1975) (35mm)
- Street Mobster (現代やくざ 人斬り与太) (35mm)
- Graveyard of Honour (仁義の墓場) (1975) (DCP)
- Red Peony Gambler (緋牡丹博徒) (1968) (35mm)
- Red Peony Gambler: Oryu's Return (緋牡丹博徒 お竜参上) (1970) (DCP)
https://www.shin-bungeiza.com/schedule#d1201

Nice program, but why on earth are they doing digital screenings for half of them??? You used to be able to count on Toei when it come to film prints, but looks like now even Toei is pushing digital garbage to theatres.

Now I regret I went to see No Pants Nurses instead of Graveyard of Honour a few years ago. Damn, what a mistake! 😖 Thankfully I have seen Graveyard of Honour from a beautiful 35mm print in Laputa before. I thought there would be more opportunities to view that beauty…

[Takuma]

Complementing Bungeiza's Chiba program was Tokyo Seoul Bangkok Drug Triangle in Laputa Asagaya. Near-excellent print, and the film just keeps getting better every time I see it. I also caught (unrelated to Chiba) Koreyoshi Kurahara's fascinating, unreleased-on-video hippie road movie epic Sunset, Runrise (1973) (shot in France, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and India), screening from a beautiful print. Bad luck my trip finished one day early for Laputa's Battles without Honor and Humanity screenings, starting Oct. 31!













As mentioned before, I also made a brief stop at Jinbocho Theater for A Colt is My Passport, which was such a joy in 35mm! It was playing in a novelist Shinji Fujiwara series. Teruo Ishii's The Flower, the Storm, and the Gang was also included in the series.

[Takuma]

Sonny Chiba Retrospective in Shin bungeiza (Oct. 20-30, 2021)

It's been more than two months since Sonny Chiba's passing, and Shin Bungeiza held a program for him. I took a few days off from work to attend, even if it was a brief program with only 12 films. I had not been to Tokyo since Jan. 2019 (Teruo Ishii and Toho New Action retrospectives).

Chiba on silver screen is always a great thing, even if time had not been kind on the prints. Wednesday's double feature was Killing Machine and Karate Bullfighter, two excellent and violent karate biopics. Both prints were pretty beaten and missing some frames, but very watchable.

Jail Breakers and Golgo 13 were playing on Thursday. Again, relatively beaten and faded prints, but perfectly watchable. In fact, found myself having great time with Golgo's lovely Hong Kong street cinematography and exploitative action projected on the big screen, and I almost exploded when the villain used the drug factory's self-destruction switch, which had a 0 second timer!





I'd been looking forward to Friday's Hiroshima Deathmatch and Okinawa Yakuza War, having only seen Okinawa in 2014 from a print that barely held together and was missing Chiba's final scene entirely! Alas, the wait was for nothing. Hiroshima was switched to DCP on the last moment due to undisclosed issues with print distributor, and while Okinawa was a complete print this time, the heavy green tint it had developed didn't give much reason to celebrate.

Saturday I had to apply a bit of movie slalom to catch Samurai Reincarnation in the morning at 9:45 (packed theater, perhaps due to Kenji Sawada fans), Shogun's Samurai in the evening, and unrelated A Colt is My Passport in the middle at Jimbocho theater. I've fond memories of Reincarnation in Cinema Vera in 2014 as one of the most beautiful projections ever, and while it didn't look quite as great this time, it was still a thing of beauty. Shogun was partly damaged with occasional dirt and missing frames, but otherwise beautiful. I'd rather watch this print anytime than a digital 37K copy!



Saturday also produced a fun little story to tell: between Colt and Shogun, I wandered into a Spanish restaurant for a late lunch or perhaps early dinner, and it turned out the proprietor was a Shaolin Karate practitioner who had appeared in Killing Machine as an extra. It was my Sister Street Fighter t-shirt that initiated the conversation. Then one of the other customers (actually, the only other customer) then informed us that he does "Oyama Karate" (Kyokushin karate, the topic matter of Karate Bullfighter). Whoa! Good thing they didn't fight. Talk about cool random encounter!

Overall, great 4 days! I missed 4 films (The Street Fighter, Karate Warriors, Karate Inferno and Bodyguard Kiba) but I had already seen them in 35mm before. It's a bit of a shame the prints weren't as good as most Toei films screening in Tokyo, and that Bungeiza went really bare-bones with no original posters on display, though the Chiba theme songs playing in the theater between the films nicely upped the atmosphere.





Bonus photo: ads for upcoming Mamoru Oshii, Hiroyuki Sanada and Denis Villeneuve all night programs!

[Killer Meteor]

Well, the HK cut moved the fight to the middle. The alternate version made for Singapore lost the fight altogether, and it was shown on UK TV in 2001, it lost the Dan Inosanto fight due to UK censorship, so there was only one genuine Bruce fight left in the movie!

[Takuma]

The Ji Han Jae fight on the bona fide Japanese print as seen on the SHout! disc had no John Barry music, as it was sourced from the Cantonese version of the film, where that fight was moved to the middle of the movie. The dialogue in this scene on the Japanese print is Cantonese, there is no dialogue in the English version.

That's interesting. I can't imagine how the Cantonese version plays with one of the ending fights moved to the middle of the film!

I don't recall any Cantonese dialogue in the DCP, though. But maybe that was the "some audio issue in either the Ji Han Jae or the Dan Inosanto fight (I forgot which) where the audio source clearly changed to something inferior for about 10 seconds" part that I mentioned.

[Killer Meteor]

The Ji Han Jae fight on the bona fide Japanese print as seen on the SHout! disc had no John Barry music, as it was sourced from the Cantonese version of the film, where that fight was moved to the middle of the movie. The dialogue in this scene on the Japanese print is Cantonese, there is no dialogue in the English version.

[Takuma]

I went to see Game of Death, the last one of the Japanese theatrical re-releases. Quite an awkward Frankenstein job indeed, but it does have a fantastic score, great Lee footage at the end, and a heart-warmingly exploitative touch throughout. It was certainly the right choice to make the film… just not to make it this way. Surely they could have done it with a better plot that doesn't need the lazy Lee insert shots, and without the constant confusion about whether we are supposed to be seeing Bruce Lee or Billy Lo on the screen. And whose idea was it to make Hugh O'Brian the final opponent after Kareem Abdul Jabbar?

The version screened was again (advertised as) a reconstruction of the Japanese theatrical cut. It had the full opening with the John Barry score over the Golden Harvest logo before the Bruce yells. However, the audio was NOT the same Japanese Theatrical track that is on the Criterion BD. This version played the Ji Han Jae fight without the John Barry score, and also had some audio issue in either the Ji Han Jae or the Dan Inosanto fight (I forgot which) where the audio source clearly changed to something inferior for about 10 seconds. There may be other differences, but I wouldn't know since this was probably only the 3rd time I've ever seen the film.

A diehard Lee fan might find this version interesting (if it comes out on Japanese BD later), but the opening aside I think the above mentioned changes are to the worse, so I'll be quite happy the US BDs. And I don't know if those changes are correct or an accident (how is the Japanese print on the Shout disc? Barry in the Ji Han Jae fight?).

Anyway, I must say I had a blast with this “Bruce Lee 4K Revival Festival”, going to cinema every week for 4 weeks. The local (4 screen) theatre also honoured Lee by putting all the films on their biggest screen and having the original Japanese posters on display. I'd say this was the coolest thing to hit mainstream multiplexes in Japan since Nikkatsu's Roman Porno reboot.