|
キネマ旬報
, commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' has been published twice a month. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Technical High School at the time). In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three issues were printed on art paper and had four pages each. ''Kinejun'' initially specialized in covering foreign films, in part because its writers sided with the principles of the Pure Film Movement and strongly criticized Japanese cinema. It later expanded coverage to films released in Japan. While long emphasizing film criticism, it has also served as a trade journal, reporting on the film industry in Japan and announcing new films and trends.加藤幹郎 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battles Without Honor And Humanity
, also known in the West as ''The Yakuza Papers'', is a Japanese yakuza film series produced by Toei Company. Inspired by a series of magazine articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi that are based on memoirs originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō, the films detail yakuza conflicts in Hiroshima Prefecture. Five films directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Bunta Sugawara as Shozo Hirono, who was based on Minō, were produced between 1973 and 1974. They were both critically and commercially successful and popularized the subgenre of yakuza film called '' Jitsuroku eiga'', which are often based on true stories. Fukasaku directed an additional three standalone films under the ''New Battles Without Honor and Humanity'' title between 1974 and 1976. Three more films by different directors were produced in 1979, 2000 and 2003. Sources The ''Jingi Naki Tatakai'' series of articles written by Kōichi Iiboshi that began in magazine in 1972, are rewrites of a manuscript origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. Upon release, it did not immediately gain international recognition and was considered "too Japanese" to be marketable by Japanese film exporters. It was screened in 1957 in London, where it won the inaugural Sutherland Trophy the following year, and received praise from U.S. film critics after a 1972 screening in New York City. ''Tokyo Story'' is widely regarded as Ozu's masterpiece and one of the greatest films in history of cinema. It was voted the greatest film of all time in the 2012 edition of a widely-respected poll of film directors by ''Sight & Sound'' magazine. Plot Retired couple Shūkichi and Tomi Hirayama live in Onomichi in western Japan with their daughter Kyōko, a primary school teacher. They have five adult children, four of whom are living. The couple travel to Tokyo to visit their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Samurai
is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven rōnin (masterless samurai) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. At the time, the film was the most expensive film made in Japan. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. It was the second-highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 1954. Many reviews compared the film to westerns. Since its release, ''Seven Samurai'' has consistently ranked highly in critics' lists of the greatest films in cinema history, such as the BFI's ''Sight & Sound'' and Rotten Tomatoes polls. It was also voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's 2018 international critics' poll. Its influence on the film industry has been unprecedented, and it is often regarded today as one of the most "remade, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taiyō O Nusunda Otoko
, also known as ''The Man Who Stole the Sun'', is a 1979 Japanese political satire spy film, directed by Hasegawa Kazuhiko and written by Leonard Schrader. Plot Makoto Kido, a high school science and chemistry teacher, has decided to build his own atomic bomb. Before stealing plutonium isotopes from Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant, he is involved in the botched hijack of one of his school's buses during a field trip. Along with a police detective, Yamashita, he is able to overcome the hijacker and is publicly hailed as a hero. Meanwhile, Makoto is able to extract enough plutonium from his stolen isotopes to create two bombs—one genuine, the other containing only enough radioactive material to be detectable, but otherwise a fake. He plants the fake bomb in a public lavatory and phones the police and demands that Yamashita take the case. Since Makoto speaks to the police through a voice scrambler, Yamashita is unaware that Makoto is behind the whole thing. Makoto manages to extort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breathless (1960 Film)
''Breathless'' (french: À bout de souffle, lit=Out of Breath) is a 1960 French crime drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a wandering criminal named Michel, and Jean Seberg as his American girlfriend Patricia. The film was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough as an actor. ''Breathless'' is an influential example of French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') cinema. Along with François Truffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' and Alain Resnais's ''Hiroshima mon amour'', both released a year earlier, it brought international attention to new styles of French filmmaking. At the time, ''Breathless'' attracted much attention for its bold visual style, which included then unconventional use of jump cuts. Upon its initial release in France, the film attracted over two million viewers. It has since been considered one of the best films ever made, appearing in ''Sight & Sound'' magazine's decennial polls of filmmakers a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten), who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Welles), only to learn that Lime has died. Viewing his death as suspicious, Martins elects to stay in Vienna and investigate the matter. The atmospheric use of black-and-white expressionist cinematography by Robert Krasker, with harsh lighting and largely subtle "Dutch angle" camera technique, is a major feature of ''The Third Man''. Combined with the iconic theme music by zither player Anton Karas, seedy locations and acclaimed performances from the cast, the style evokes the atmosphere of an exhausted, cynical post-war Vienna at the start of the Cold War. Greene wrote the novella of the same name as preparation for the screenplay. Karas's title composition "The Third ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxi Driver
''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and morally bankrupt New York City following the Vietnam War, the film follows Travis Bickle (De Niro), a veteran working as a taxi driver, and his deteriorating mental state as he works nights in the city. With ''The Wrong Man'' (1956) and '' A Bigger Splash'' (1973) as inspiration, Scorsese wanted the film to feel like a dream to audiences. With cinematographer Michael Chapman, filming began in the summer of 1975 in New York City, with actors taking pay cuts to ensure that the project could be completed on a low budget of $1.9 million. Production concluded that same year. Bernard Herrmann composed the film's music in what would be his final score, finished just several hours before his death; the film is dedicated to him. The film was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Side Story (1961 Film)
''West Side Story'' is a 1961 American musical romantic drama film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. With a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, the film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same title, which in turn was inspired by Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet''. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris, and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp in Super Panavision 70. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received praise from critics and viewers, and became the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (in addition to a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a musical. ''West Side Story'' is regarded as one of the greatest musical films of all time. The film has been deemed "culturally, historically, or aes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. It is the first installment in ''The Godfather'' trilogy, chronicling the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando) from 1945 to 1955. It focuses on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Pacino), from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss. Paramount Pictures obtained the rights to the novel for $80,000, before it gained popularity. Studio executives had trouble finding a director; the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film but disagreement followed over casting several characters, in particular, Vito (Marlon Brando) and Michael (Al Pacino). Filmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Family Game
is a 1983 Japanese movie directed by Yoshimitsu Morita. ''The Family Game'' received several awards including the best movie of the year as selected by Japanese critics. Although the movie missed the Japan Academy Prize for the Best Picture (losing out to Palme d'Or Winner '' The Ballad of Narayama''), Ichirōta Miyagawa was awarded Newcomer of the Year. Plot summary The Numata family consists of the father, Kōsuke (Juzo Itami); mother, Chikako (Saori Yuki); and two sons, Shinichi (Jun'ichi Tsujita) and Shigeyuki (Ichirōta Miyagawa). Shigeyuki is a junior high school student. He will soon be taking a high school entrance examination. Unlike his high school student brother, Shinichi, who lives up to the father's expectations, Shigeyuki’s grades are poor, and he is only interested in roller coasters. His father finds a private tutor, Yoshimoto (Yūsaku Matsuda), for Shigeyuki and imposes all responsibilities for his exam on the tutor. Yoshimoto's behaviour is extremely strange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Million Ryo Pot
is a 1935 black and white Japanese comedy film directed by Sadao Yamanaka and starring Denjirō Ōkōchi. Cast * Denjirō Ōkōchi: Tange Sazen * Kiyozo: Ofuji * Kunitaro Sawamura: Genzaburo Yagyu * Reisaburo Yamamoto: Yokichi * Minoru Takase: Shigeju * Ranko Hanai: Ogino Story A man gives an old pot to his brother, not realizing there is a treasure map inside. His sister-in-law sells the pot to a junk dealer, who in turn sells it to a boy named Yasu. A cast of colorful characters are all looking for this pot, and when the child runs away after being chided by Ogino, everyone goes after him. The end, however, is covered in disappointment - the hope of each character that their world will get better is each individually crushed, in a humorous manner. Reception Mark Schilling of ''The Japan Times'' noted that the film was "universally considered the best of all the Tange Sazen Tange may refer to: People: *Arthur Tange (1914–2001), Australian senior public servant * Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rashomon
is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as various people who describe how a samurai was murdered in a forest, the plot and characters are based upon Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story "In a Grove", with the title and framing story being based on "Rashōmon (short story), Rashōmon", another short story by Akutagawa. Every element is largely identical, from the murdered samurai speaking through a miko, Shinto psychic to the bandit in the forest, the monk, the assault of the wife and the dishonest retelling of the events in which everyone shows his or her ideal self by lying. The film is known for a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident. ''Rashomon'' was the first cinema of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
