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Movie Going Madness in Japan

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  • We'd all love to be you. You're living the good life! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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    • I dropped by in Tokyo for some extreme movie watching again last week.

      First up was a race Jimbocho Theater, with first screening at 12:00. I had booked an early as motherfucker flight, only for it to be 30 min late. I missed the cheap Keisei train as a result, and had to ride an expensive Narita Express... which was also late because of some "trouble" (probably train suicide). Finally arriving Ueno, I made a desperate run to the metro even though I was one train behind my schedule, only for the train doors close right in front of my face.

      With Plan A and Plan B down the sewer, I improvised a taxi drive to Jimbo. The driver didn't know where the theater was so I just told him to drop me off at the station, and proceeded to talk about Tsunehiko Watase and Etsuko Shihomi with him for 15 min. Finally I did a 300m run to the theatre and sat down 11:59!

      I was wondering if it was worth it at all, the film in question being Crazed Beast (1976), which I hated when I fist saw it on DVD. This time I enjoyed it almost thoroughly, seeing it as the amusing action farce it is, rather than the action thriller I expected upon my first viewing. Favorite line in the film (an old woman to scared children in a hijacked bus): "Don't worry, that uncle will be caught and get death penalty".



      Jimbocho is not a theatre I visit awfully often because they focus on 50s and 60s dramas, comedies and musicals, but this time they had a dynamite program: Japanese Hot-Blooded Men 2 (にっぽんのアツい男たち2, which I'd love to translate as Japanese Hot Guys 2! :lol: ).
      - https://www.shogakukan.co.jp/jinboch...t.html#movie01



      Battles Without Honor and Humanity


      Misumi and Katsu's Tomuraishi tachi (1968), Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth (1960)


      Lost Love (1978) and The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor (1983)




      Kumashiro double: Africa's Light, which I saw in Jimbo a few years ago, and Failed Youth (1974)


      I finally got to see Failed Youth after missing it so many times. I plays in Tokyo in 35mm at least once every year. Below is my mini review:

      Failed Youth (青春の蹉跌) (Japan, 1974) [35mm] - 4.5/5
      Tatsumi Kumashiro's legendary youth film. This was his first movie for Toho, a departure from Roman Porno. The politically conscious script by Kazuhiko Hasegawa (The Youth Killer, The Man Who Stole the Sun) follows indecisive university student Ken'ichi Hagiwara and hopelessly in love younger girlfriend Kaori Momoi in the midst of young confusion, violent student radicalism and an era where modern and traditional clashed. It's a slow-burner, but excellently acted by Hagiwara and Momoi (also look out for Meika Seri as a street beggar) and filmed with loads of meaningful long takes, including an amazing love scene in the snowy mountains near the end. And the score is just beautiful! Kumashiro's masterpiece, no doubt! The film's obscurity shows just how little Toho cares for their own catalogue titles: chosen by the nation's best known film journal Kinema Junpo as the 21st best Japanese film ever made, Toho has not even bothered putting the film out on DVD (though it's finally coming in December 2019).



      I also caught The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor (1983), which I still thought was a pretty dull and boring life-is-shit picture despite a convincing Yuya Uchida performance as a policeman in debt (to the bank, not the yakuza, unfortunately), and the much more fun, if messy action epic Resurrection of the Golden Wolf (1979), which is my favorite Yusaku Matsuda film.

      Some of the other films in the 16 movie program (all 35mm) included Kitano's Sonatine, Gosha's Four Days of Snow and Blood, Suzuki's Fighting Elegy and Ichikawa's The Wanderers.
      Takuma
      Senior Member
      Last edited by Takuma; 09-08-2019, 04:24 AM.

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      • My adventure continued in the afternoon. I headed to National Film Archive who were celebrating dead people with their once-in-two-years R.I.P. retrospective (no, it's not really called that, but that's what I call it). It was a massive series with mostly two films per corpse, approx 80 flicks in total.



        The film I went for was The War of the 16 Year Olds, a lesser known film by Toshio Matsumoto. I haven't seen any of his films so I wasn't sure if I was making the right choice, especially since I was sacrificing a Tetsuya Watari Nikkatsu Action flick (The Judgement of Youth, 1964) at Jimbocho…

        Well, the gamble paid off big time: The War of the 16 Year Olds was bloody excellent!

        The War of the Sixteen Year Olds (十六歳の戦争) (Japan, 1973/1976) [35mm] - 4/5
        Funeral Parade of Roses director Toshio Matsuda's bloody excellent youth film set in rural Japan. This has one of the best opening scenes I've seen since Kiyoshi Nishimura's Too Young to Die (1969), with a young man arriving a town, and falling in love with a 16 year old girl as they watch the police pull two dead bodies from a river, all against a great rock song (the film's soundtrack is absolutely stunning!). Pure cinema! The film then follows their relationship as WWII traumas begin to surface in the town and lead the film down a far darker - and ambiguous - path. There are some jarring cuts and imperfections that make the film no less fascinating, and an amusingly gratuitous topless scene for Akiyoshi who looked pretty stunning at 19. Filmed independently in 1973, but not released until 1976. This became instantly of one my favourite 70s youth films!


        (the film is also available on Japanese DVD, but long OOP and incredibly expensive... 15 000 yen at Amazon right now)

        There was no poster for The War of the 16 Year Olds, but here are photos of some other posters from the screening series that NFA had decorated their walls with.













        Before someone panics, no, Shihomi is not dead!


        Oh, and my visit to a convince store lead to the second brief Etsuko Shihomi discussion of the day (the 1st one was in the taxi / see previous post). The reason: I was wearing my beloved Return of the Sister Street Fighter T-shirt, and the old guy behind the counter recognized her!

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        • ^^Cool post. thanks

          What film is this for?

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          • Originally posted by Jason C View Post
            ^^Cool post. thanks

            What film is this for?
            Thanks.

            The middle one? Sadao Nakajima's Aesthetics of a Bullet (鉄砲玉の美学) (1973) with Watase and Sugimoto.
            Takuma
            Senior Member
            Last edited by Takuma; 09-09-2019, 08:00 PM.

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            • Now that Failed Youth (some call it "Bitterness of Youth") and Africa's Light have home video releases in Japan, I hope they will be released in the west too because they are both excellent...

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              • Originally posted by tetrapak View Post
                Now that Failed Youth (some call it "Bitterness of Youth") and Africa's Light have home video releases in Japan, I hope they will be released in the west too because they are both excellent...
                That would be great, a BD especially since Toho are too lazy to go HD.

                Tokyo is screening Failed Youth this year like it's the end of the world. Shin bungeiza just announced they will be screening it a dozen times next month in a Kazuhiko Hasegawa appreciation, following Jimbocho's 1 week run (the Saturday screening I attended sold out 25 minutes before the screening, btw) and two showings in National Film Center's R.I.P. series...

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                • Continued…

                  As the day was turning into a night, I headed for my final destination, Shin bungeiza, who were doing a brief 6 film Zatoichi series. The double features were:

                  The Tale of Zatoichi (1962) (DCP)
                  Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (1965) (35mm)

                  Zatoichi Challenged (1967) (35mm)
                  Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971) (35mm)

                  Zatoichi (1989) (35mm)
                  Zatoichi (2003) (35mm)



                  A slightly disappointing program for me, as I had already seen Zatoichi Challenged in 35mm, The Tale of Zatoichi was a DCP (rendering it useless), and Kitano's Zatoichi is not worth re-watching anyway. That only left Zatoichi and the Chess Expert, one of my favourites but it played before I got to Tokyo, Zatoichi (1989), which I wanted to re-watch but it overlapped with Failed Youth and Resurrection of the Golden Wolf, and Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman which I did see. An alright film, but pitting genre legends Katsu and Wang Yu against each other on the excuse of language barrier and cultural miscommunication was just lame. There was potential for more.

                  Also, while the 35mm print looked good, it had the same shrill, hard-on-the-ears sound I remember was on the old Animeigo DVD. A fair few of their DVDs had similar issues, e.g. Lady Snowblood and some of the Lone Wolves, but this was the first time I came across the same in a 35mm screening although I've seen all the fore-mentioned films in 35mm.

                  A good friend of mine was supposed to join me for Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman but got “stuck in the train, cannot get out because some dumbass pushed the emergency stop button”. So he made it to the late screening only, which was…

                  A Rutger Hauer memorial. The night's film was the excellent Salute of the Jugger (1989), which I saw for the first time and had a blast with. It was a BD screening, and while I normally wouldn't pay for such, this time it wasn't about presentation, it was about being there and now, remembering Rutger Hauer! And while it was a BD screening, the print on the disc looked like an early DVD transfer which nevertheless was not entirely unfit for a film of this nature!



                  Ads for upcoming programs, including a Battles without Honor and Humanity all night marathon... they had this last year as well.




                  We closed the night with some beef, fish and Dutch beer in a nearby Ikebukuro restaurant. It was the annual shared birthday party for us. I gave away my French Cat Girl Gambling BD set away as birthday present, and received some Japanese boobs book, as typical (last year it was a 'visual guide to breast sizes', and the year before that 'Mana Sakura Nude Photo Book').

                  The following day I've already mostly covered in an earlier post. I went back to Jimbocho for Failed Youth, Resurrection of the Golden Wolf and The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor, before heading back to the airport. I had the usual by-the-minute schedule to make it to my flight. I had to rush out of Mosquito the second it ended, and I still missed my sub because I had been looking at a weekday schedule by accident though it was Saturday! As a result I needed to make Hibiya-Yurakucho transfer (500 metres + the ticket purchasing hassle and boarding the next train) in 5 minutes, which by some miracle I did! Etsuko got all wet in the process, but thankfully I had a clean shirt in the bag. I reached the airport 9 min before the check-in closed!

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                  • Originally posted by Takuma View Post
                    That would be great, a BD especially since Toho are too lazy to go HD.

                    Tokyo is screening Failed Youth this year like it's the end of the world. Shin bungeiza just announced they will be screening it a dozen times next month in a Kazuhiko Hasegawa appreciation, following Jimbocho's 1 week run (the Saturday screening I attended sold out 25 minutes before the screening, btw) and two showings in National Film Center's R.I.P. series...

                    it's also interesting that many Kumashiro rp films have been released in the west and he is probably THE rp director more widely known outside Japan but his (IMO superior) non-rp films are virtually unknown in foreign markets...
                    tetrapak
                    Senior Member
                    Last edited by tetrapak; 09-18-2019, 10:06 AM.

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                    • Originally posted by tetrapak View Post
                      it's also interesting that many Kumashiro rp films have been released in the west and he is probably THE rp director more widely known outside Japan but his (IMO superior) non-rp films are virtually unknown in foreign markets...
                      Have you seen Invitation of Lust (櫛の火) (1975)? I'm wondering how does it compare to Failed Youth and Africa's Light? It's in Cinema Vera's Kumashiro retro next month, but I don't know if I can afford to go so soon again... especially with Laputa's Toho New Action series coming up later this year...

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                      • Originally posted by Takuma View Post
                        Have you seen Invitation of Lust (櫛の火) (1975)? I'm wondering how does it compare to Failed Youth and Africa's Light? It's in Cinema Vera's Kumashiro retro next month, but I don't know if I can afford to go so soon again... especially with Laputa's Toho New Action series coming up later this year...
                        Sorry for the late reply... yes it's a good film similar in tone to the other toho films, but not as good as "Failed Youth" ... It's a melodrama mostly shot in interiors that Kumashiro imbues with his trademark quirkiness. The musical comment is nice. Unfortunately the great Kaori Momoi has only a small role and Meika Seri makes a brief, intense (and rare?) non-sexy appearance as a nurse. Drags a bit at times but it's still worthy if you liked Kumashiro's other Toho films... well if then you need to catch a plane only for this movie, well I don't know if it's THAT good...
                        tetrapak
                        Senior Member
                        Last edited by tetrapak; 09-22-2019, 11:55 AM.

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                        • Thanks.

                          Well, there are other Kumashiro movies as well, and a 60s Detective Movie series at Shin bungeiza at the same time. But I think I can only afford one more Tokyo trip this year, and maybe another one early next year, and I'm thinking about going for the Toho New Action series at Laputa. Dying to see Attack on the Sun (1970) and The Target of Roses (1972) by Kiyoshi Nishimura. And maybe Bullet Wound as well. The others I've seen.

                          The whole program is pretty damn great:

                          11/09(土)~11/15(金) 「狙撃」(Sun Above, Death Below) (Hideichi Nagahara, 1968)
                          11/16(土)~11/25(月) 「弾痕」(Bullet Wound) (Hideichi Nagahara, 1969)
                          11/26(火)~12/02(月) 「白昼の襲撃」(Attack on the Sun) (Kiyoshi Nishimura, 1970)
                          12/03(火)~12/12(木) 「豹(ジャガー)は走った」( The Creature Called Man) ()Kiyoshi Nishimura, 1970)
                          12/13(金)~12/19(木) 「野獣都市」(City of Beasts) (Jun Fukuda, 1970)
                          12/20(金)~12/26(木) 「ヘアピン・サーカス」 (Hairpin Circus) (Kiyoshi Nishimura, 1972)
                          1/06(月)~1/12(日) 「薔薇の標的」(Target of Roses) (Kiyoshi Nishimura, 1972)
                          1/13(月)~1/19(日) 「野獣狩り」(Beast Hunt) (Eizo Sugawa, 1973)









                          Hairpin Circus


                          The Creature Called Man
                          Takuma
                          Senior Member
                          Last edited by Takuma; 09-23-2019, 11:06 AM.

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                          • Originally posted by Takuma View Post
                            Thanks.

                            Well, there are other Kumashiro movies as well, and a 60s Detective Movie series at Shin bungeiza at the same time. But I think I can only afford one more Tokyo trip this year, and maybe another one early next year, and I'm thinking about going for the Toho New Action series at Laputa. Dying to see Attack on the Sun (1970) and The Target of Roses (1972) by Kiyoshi Nishimura. And maybe Bullet Wound as well. The others I've seen.

                            The whole program is pretty damn great:
                            very cool! those Toho films have all great posters and I am sure they are terrific...I think most (all?) have never been seen in the west. Also I hope to see the complete program and chirashi of the Kumashiro retro soon...

                            EDIT: I found the program http://www.cinemavera.com/preview.php ... well too bad you don't go. All those kumashiro posters all together on display at Cinema Vera will be surely great...
                            tetrapak
                            Senior Member
                            Last edited by tetrapak; 09-23-2019, 01:04 PM.

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                            • Yumiko Katayama update!

                              Originally posted by Takuma View Post
                              She was telling some great stories about Toei and how she got into Inferno of Torture, where she plays the first girl tattoeed by both Asao Koike and Teruo Yoshida. She said she joined Toei via Toei's new faces competition (like Sonny Chiba and Ken Takakura before her). Toei brought the screenplay to her but she refused it on basis of the nudity and its extreme nature. The film later went into production with a different actress, who however quit in the middle of filming because she couldn't take it! Meanwhile Katayama had agreed to do a bikini shoot for Heibon Punch, but it turned out a nude photo shoot! She used a fake name, but Toei found out said now she has no excuse not to do (replace the missing actress in) Inferno of Torture.
                              Finally got this! Feb 10, 1969 issue!







                              No wonder Toei spotted her photos. The name she used was 塔 えい子/ To Eiko (= Toei-ko = Toei-girl))

                              (there's a few more photos in the magazine but I feel I shouldn't post them all. Fans ought the hunt down the magazine by themselves).

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                              • Originally posted by tetrapak View Post
                                Sorry for the late reply... yes it's a good film similar in tone to the other toho films, but not as good as "Failed Youth" ... It's a melodrama mostly shot in interiors that Kumashiro imbues with his trademark quirkiness. The musical comment is nice. Unfortunately the great Kaori Momoi has only a small role and Meika Seri makes a brief, intense (and rare?) non-sexy appearance as a nurse. Drags a bit at times but it's still worthy if you liked Kumashiro's other Toho films... well if then you need to catch a plane only for this movie, well I don't know if it's THAT good...
                                I agree with your assessment. It failed to captivate me and I think part of that had to do with Kusakari, whom I readily admit is not one of my fave actors. I also saw this flick for the first time earlier this year as 2019 is the year of Kumashiro and a lot of his works are making their way to the usual sites via custom subs and rips. I will also recommend the DVDRip over the more readily available TVRip for quality (known by the alternate title, LOVE IN A SMALL ROOM).

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