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Hiroshima (1953 Film)
Hiroshima (ひろしま) is a 1953 Japanese docudrama film directed by Hideo Sekigawa about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its impact. It tells the story of a group of teachers, their students, and their families in the years after the bomb. In a flashback sequence, tens of thousands of extras from Hiroshima, many of them survivors, helped recreate the "hellscape" immediately following the bombing. The film was based on the eye-witness accounts of the bombing's child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 best-selling book ''Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys And Girls Of Hiroshima (Genbaku no ko)''. Produced with the backing of the Japan Teachers Union, the film's "anti-American" stance and graphic content prevented it from gaining a wide release. It fell into obscurity, but has resurfaced in the late 2010s. Many of the cast and crew went on to play important roles in post-war Japanese cinema. Summary ''Hiroshima'' opens in a classroom as students a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yumeji Tsukioka
was a Japanese film actress. She appeared in more than 150 films between 1940 and 1994. She starred in the film ''The Temptress and the Monk'', which was entered into the 8th Berlin International Film Festival. Her husband was the director Umetsugu Inoue. Selected filmography * ''Late Spring'' (1949) * ''The Bells of Nagasaki'' (1950) * ''Hiroshima'' (1953) * ''Ojōsan shachō'' (1953) * ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) * ''A Hole of My Own Making'' (1955) * ''The Eternal Breasts'' (1955) * ''The Temptress and the Monk'' (1958) * ''Love Under the Crucifix'' (1962) * ''Karei-naru Ichizoku is a 1973 novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. It has been adapted into a film in 1974 and then three times as a television series in 1974, 2007, and 2021. Plot Set in the post-World War II climate of the 1960s in Kobe, the show explores the struggle for po ...'' (1974) References External links * * 1922 births 2017 deaths Japanese film actresses 20th-century Japanese actresses Actors from Hirosh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godzilla (1954 Film)
is a 1954 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., it is the first film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, and Takashi Shimura, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla. In the film, Japan's authorities deal with the sudden appearance of a giant monster, whose attacks trigger fears of nuclear holocaust during post-war Japan. ''Godzilla'' entered production after a Japanese-Indonesian co-production collapsed. Tsuburaya originally proposed for a giant octopus before the filmmakers decided on a dinosaur-inspired creature. ''Godzilla'' pioneered a form of special effects called suitmation, in which a stunt performer wearing a suit interacts with miniature sets. Principal photography ran 51 days, and special effects photography ran 71 days. ''Godzilla'' was theatrically released in Japan on November 3, 1954, and ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese New Wave
The is a group of loosely-connected Japanese filmmakers during the late 1950s and into the 1970s. Although they did not make up a coherent movement, these artists shared a rejection of traditions and conventions of classical Japanese cinema in favor of more challenging works, both thematically and formally. Coming to the fore in a time of national social change and unrest, the films made in this wave dealt with taboo subject matter, including sexual violence, radicalism, youth culture and delinquency, Korean discrimination, queerness, and the aftermath of World War II. They also adopted more unorthodox and experimental approaches to composition, editing and narrative. The trend borrows its name from the French ''Nouvelle vague'', a concurrent movement that similarly scrapped the established traditions of their national cinema. Unlike the French counterpart, Japanese New Wave originated within the film studio establishment in an attempt to invigorate local cinema (which was b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiroshima Mon Amour
''Hiroshima mon amour'' (, lit. , ), is a 1959 romantic drama film directed by French director Alain Resnais and written by French author Marguerite Duras. Resnais' first feature-length work, it was a co-production between France and Japan, and documents a series of intensely personal conversations (or one long conversation) over slightly more than a 24-hour period between an unnamed French actress and Japanese architect. The film is notable for Resnais' innovative use of brief flashbacks to suggest flashes of memory, which create a nonlinear storyline. Along with films such as '' Breathless'' (1960) and ''The 400 Blows'' (1959), ''Hiroshima mon amour'' brought international attention to the new movement in French cinema and is widely considered to be one of the most influential films of the French New Wave. In particular, it was a major catalyst for Left Bank Cinema. Plot A series of closeups of the backs and arms of a man and woman embracing, amidst falling ash and then co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ''Night and Fog'' (1956), an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.Ephraim Katz, ''The International Film Encyclopedia''. (London: Macmillan, 1980.) p. 966–967. Resnais began making feature films in the late 1950s and consolidated his early reputation with ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959), ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (1961), and '' Muriel'' (1963), all of which adopted unconventional narrative techniques to deal with themes of troubled memory and the imagined past. These films were contemporary with, and associated with, the French New Wave (''la nouvelle vague''), though Resnais did not regard himself as being fully part of that movement. He had closer links to the "Left Bank" group of authors and filmmakers wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kwaidan (film)
is a 1964 Japanese anthology horror film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales, mainly '' Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things'' (1904), for which it is named. The film consists of four separate and unrelated stories. ''Kwaidan'' is an archaic transliteration of the term , meaning "ghost story". Receiving critical acclaim, the film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Plot "The Black Hair" was adapted from "The Reconciliation", which appeared in Hearn's collection ''Shadowings'' (1900). An impoverished swordsman in Kyoto divorces his wife, a weaver, and leaves her for a woman of a wealthy family to attain greater social status. However, despite his new wealthy status, the swordsman's second marriage proves to be unhappy. His new wife is shown to be callous and selfish. The swordsman regrets leavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harakiri (1962 Film)
is a 1962 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 during the Edo period and the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. It tells the story of the ''rōnin'' Hanshirō Tsugumo, who requests to commit seppuku ''(harakiri)'' within the manor of a local feudal lord, using the opportunity to explain the events that drove him to ask for death before an audience of samurai. The film continues to receive critical acclaim, often considered one of the best samurai pictures ever made. Plot The film takes place in Edo in the year 1630. Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku within the courtyard of the palace. To deter him, Saitō Kageyu (Rentarō Mikuni), the daimyō's senior counselor, tells Hanshirō the story of another rōnin, Chijiiwa Motome—formerly of the same clan as Hanshirō. Saitō scornfully recalls the practice of rōnin requesting the chance to commit seppuku on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masaki Kobayashi
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic (genre), epic trilogy ''The Human Condition (film series), The Human Condition'' (1959–1961), the samurai films ''Harakiri (1962 film), Harakiri'' (1962) and ''Samurai Rebellion'' (1967), and the horror anthology ''Kwaidan (film), Kwaidan'' (1964). ''Senses of Cinema'' described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s." Biography Early life Kobayashi was born in Otaru, then a small port on the island of Hokkaido, the son of a company employee. He was a second cousin of the actress and director Kinuyo Tanaka. In 1933 he entered Waseda University in Tokyo where he studied East Asian art and philosophy. He embarked on a career in film in 1941 as an apprentice director at Shochiku Studios, but was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army in January 1942 and sent to Manchuria. Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist and a socialist, and resisted by refusing promotion to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Throne Of Blood
is a 1957 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada in the lead roles, modelled on the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. As with the play, the film tells the story of a warrior who assassinates his sovereign at the urging of his ambitious wife. Kurosawa was a fan of the play and intended to make his own adaptation for several years, delaying it after learning of Orson Welles' ''Macbeth'' (1948). Among his changes was the ending, which required archers to fire arrows around Mifune. The film was shot around Mount Fuji and Izu Peninsula. Despite the change in setting and language and numerous creative liberties, ''Throne of Blood'' is often considered one of the better film adaptations of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style, strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film '' Sanshiro Sugata''. After the war, the critically acclaimed ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. ''Rashomon'' (1950), which premiered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy '' Macbeth'' (). As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth (a Scottish nobleman), Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes queen of Scotland. After Macbeth becomes a murderous tyrant, she is driven to madness by guilt over their crimes, and commits suicide offstage. Lady Macbeth is a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband's hallucinations. Her sleepwalking scene in the fifth act is a turning point in the play, and her line "Out, damned spot!" has become a phrase familiar to many speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrow Films
Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. It sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online, and also operates its own subscription video on-demand service, Arrow Player. History Arrow Films was established in 1991 as a family firm in Shenley, Hertfordshire. Whilst Arrow Films was the company's primary brand for theatrical releases, the Arrow Video label was created in 2009 specialising in cult and horror home video. In September 2011, the ArrowDrome brand was created for budget DVDs. The Arrow Academy and Arrow TV labels specialised in the world cinema and Nordic noir genres respectively, but since 2021, each has been merged into Arrow Video. In the same year, the company launched Arrow Player, a subscription video on-demand service in the UK, US and Canada. Arrow began releasing films in the North American market in 2015. As of 2022, it operated in the UK, Ireland, US and Canad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
