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Samurai Vendetta
is a 1959 Japanese chambara film directed by Kazuo Mori starring Raizo Ichikawa and Shintaro Katsu that was originally released by Daiei Film. It is a depiction of the early years of the samurai Horibe Yasubei, who was one of the Forty-seven Ronin. The film is also known as ''Chronicle of Pale Cherry Blossoms'', a poetic reference to the Forty-Seven Ronin. Plot The film features Raizo Ichikawa as Tange Tanzen, and Shintaro Katsu as Yasubei Nakayama (later becoming Yasubei Horibe when he is adopted into another family), and opens with Yasubei simultaneously dueling several members of a rival dojo (school of swordsmanship). Yasubei deftly beats his opponents, but is expelled from his school as a result so as not to create enmity between the two schools. Tange, who is the best swordsmen of the defeated school, is expelled from the school because he was present at the duel but failed to intervene to help his fellow dojo-mates. He argued that he could not interfere because he was th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daiei Film
Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing not only artistic masterpieces, such as Akira Kurosawa's '' Rashomon'' (1950) and Kenji Mizoguchi's ''Ugetsu'' (1953), but also launching several film series, such as ''Gamera'', ''Zatoichi'' and ''Yokai Monsters'', and making the three ''Daimajin'' films (1966). It declared bankruptcy in 1971 and was acquired by Kadokawa Pictures. History Origin Daiei Film was the product of government efforts to reorganize the film industry during World War II in order to rationalize use of resources and increase control over the medium. Against a government plan to combine all the film studios into two companies, Masaichi Nagata, an executive at Shinkō Kinema, pressed hard for an alternative plan to create three studios. His efforts won out and Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chambara
, also commonly spelled "''chambara''", meaning "sword fighting" films,Hill (2002). denotes the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western and swashbuckler films. ''Chanbara'' is a sub-category of ''jidaigeki'', which equates to period drama. ''Jidaigeki'' may refer to a story set in a historical period, though not necessarily dealing with a samurai character or depicting swordplay. Chanbara also refers to a martial arts sport similar to Fencing. While earlier samurai period pieces were more dramatic rather than action-based, samurai films produced after World War II have become more action-based, with darker and more violent characters. Post-war samurai epics tended to portray psychologically or physically scarred warriors.Silver (1977), p. 37. Akira Kurosawa stylized and exaggerated death and violence in samurai epics. His samurai, and many others portrayed in film, were solitary figures, more often concerned with concealing their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kazuo Mori
, also known by his street name , was a Japanese film director who primarily worked in popular genres like the jidaigeki. Mori directed over 100 films in his life. Career Born in Ehime Prefecture, Mori graduated from Kyoto University before joining Nikkatsu's Uzumasa studio in 1933. A favorite of the producer Masaichi Nagata, he followed him to Daiichi Eiga and Shinkō Kinema before getting a chance to direct in 1936 with ''Adauchi hizakurige''. When Shinkō Kinema was merged with other studios to form Daiei Film, Mori became one of Daiei's core directors of genre films, making primarily samurai films with stars such as Raizō Ichikawa, Kazuo Hasegawa, and Shintaro Katsu. While not an auteur, he was a solid craftsman in the genre. After Daiei went bankrupt in the early 1970s, Mori continued directing ''jidaigeki'' on television. He directed over 130 films in his career. The National Film Center The is an independent administrative institution and one of Japan's seven nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raizo Ichikawa
Raizo or Raizō is a Japanese-origin masculine given name. It is uncommon as a surname. People with the name or its variants include: * Raizo Ichikawa, Japanese film and kabuki actor * Raizo Matsuno (松野頼三 Matsuno Raizō; 1917 - 2006), Japanese politician * Raizō Tanaka, admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II * Morita Raizō was a renowned Japanese photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Dutie ... (守田 来蔵, Morita Raizō? もりた らいぞう, 1830 - 1889), Japanese photographer {{given name Japanese masculine given names ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shintaro Katsu
was a Japanese actor, singer, and filmmaker. He is known for starring in the ''Akumyo'' series, the ''Hoodlum Soldier'' series, and the ''Zatoichi'' series. Life and career Born Toshio Okumura (奥村 利夫 ''Okumura Toshio'') on 29 November 1931. He was the son of Minoru Okumura (奥村 実), a noted kabuki performer who went by the stage name Katsutōji Kineya (杵屋 勝東治) and who was renowned for his nagauta and shamisen skills, and younger brother of actor Tomisaburo Wakayama. Shintaro Katsu began his career in entertainment as a shamisen player. He switched to acting because he noticed it was better paid. In the 1960s he starred simultaneously in three long-running series of films, the Akumyo series, the Hoodlum Soldier series, and the Zatoichi series. He played the role of blind masseur Zatoichi in a series of 25 films between 1962 and 1973, in 100 episodes across a four season television series from 1974 to 1979, and in a 26th and final film in 1989, which h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horibe Yasubei
was a warrior in Japan. Yasubee was born to , a samurai of the Shibata Domain (a Han (country subdivision), ''han'' in present-day Niigata Prefecture) . When Yasubee was 13, his father lost his position and became a rōnin. Soon afterwards, Yajiemon died, and as Yasubee's mother had died shortly after giving birth to him, Yasubee was thus orphaned. Eventually, Yasubee ended up in Edo and became successful as a master swordsman at the dōjō. In 1694, Yasubee came to the aid of his dōjō mate and pledged uncle in a duel at Takadanobaba in Edo, killing three opponents. He received acclaim for his role, and Horibe Yahei of the Akō Domain asked Yasubee to marry his daughter and become the heir to Yahei's family. Yahei was so impressed with Yasubee that he pleaded to his liege, Asano Naganori, to allow Yasubee to keep his Nakayama surname while marrying into the Horibe family. Yasubee eventually took on the Horibe surname and became a successful retainer of the Akō Domain. In 1701 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forty-seven Ronin
47 (forty-seven) is the natural number following 46 and preceding 48. It is a prime number. In mathematics Forty-seven is the fifteenth prime number, a safe prime, the thirteenth supersingular prime, the fourth isolated prime, and the sixth Lucas prime. Forty-seven is a highly cototient number. It is an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form . It is a Lucas number. It is also a Keith number because its digits appear as successive terms earlier in the series of Lucas numbers: 2, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, ... It is the number of trees on 9 unlabeled nodes. Forty-seven is a strictly non-palindromic number. Its representation in binary being 101111, 47 is a prime Thabit number, and as such is related to the pair of amicable numbers . In science * 47 is the atomic number of silver. Astronomy * The 47-year cycle of Mars: after 47 years – 22 synodic periods of 780 days each – Mars returns to the same position among the stars and is in the same r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hinamatsuri
, also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is a religious (Shinto) holiday in Japan, celebrated on 3March of each year. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005)"Hina Matsuri"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 313. Platforms covered with a red carpet–material are used to display a set of representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. Customs is one of the that are held on auspicious dates of the Chinese calendar: the first day of the first month, the third day of the third month, and so on. After the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, these were fixed on 1January, 3March, 5May, 7July, and 9September. The festival was traditionally known as the , as peach trees typically began to flower around this time. Although this is no longer true since the shift to Gregorian dates, the name remains and peaches are still symbolic of the festival. The primary aspect of is the display of seated male and female dolls (the and ), wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people during the Shōwa period (particularly officers near the end of World War II) to restore honour for themselves or for their families. As a samurai practice, ''seppuku'' was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honour rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely be tortured), as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offences, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a ''tantō'', into the belly and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the belly open. If the cut is deep enough, it can sever the abdominal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryosuke Kagawa
was a Japanese actor. His son was child actor Sō Shuntarō. He appeared in more than 400 films between 1928 and 1986. His final film role was in the 1986 film ''Dixieland Daimyō'' directed by Kihachi Okamoto. Selected filmography * ''Story of a Beloved Wife'' (1951) * ''Dedication of the Great Buddha'' (1952) * '' Gate of Hell'' (1953) * ''Ugetsu'' (1953) * ''Sansho the Bailiff'' (1954) * '' The Second Son'' (1955) * ''The Renyasai Yagyu Hidden Story'' (1956) * '' Suzakumon'' (1957) * ''Enjō'' (1958) * ''The Loyal 47 Ronin'' (1958) * '' Nichiren: A Man of Many Miracles'' (1958) as Hōjō Sanemasa * ''Samurai Vendetta'' (1959) * ''Scar Yosaburo'' (1960) * ''The Story of Osaka Castle'' (1961) as Michiiku Itamiya * '' Akō Rōshi'' (1961) as Matsumae Izunokami * ''Hangyakuji'' (1961) as Ōkubo Tadayo * ''Love Under the Crucifix'' (1962) * '' 13 Assassins'' (1963) as Rōjū * ''Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963) as Kōzuki Genza * '' Kojiki Taishō'' (1964) * ''Zatoichi's Flashing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daisuke Itō (film Director)
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who played a central role in the development of the modern jidaigeki and samurai cinema. Career Born in Ehime Prefecture, Itō joined the actors school at Shōchiku in 1920, but soon began writing screenplays under the recommendation of Kaoru Osanai. He made his directorial debut in 1924 at Teikoku Kinema with ''Shuchū nikki''. After trying to start his own production company, he settled at Nikkatsu and established his name in 1927 with the three-part ''Chūji tabi nikki'', which is considered one of the masterpieces of ''jidaigeki''. Especially in the silent era, he was known for a very mobile camera style that earned him the nickname "Idō daisuki" (Loves Motion), which is a pun on his name. The heroes of his films, such as Tange Sazen and Kunisada Chūji, were often disaffected, nihilistic loners and thus Itō's early films were sometimes considered tendency films. He was criticized, however, for being more of a stylist than a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiroki Matsukata
, better known by his stage name , was a Japanese actor. He was the son of ''jidaigeki'' actor Jūshirō Konoe and actress Yaeko Mizukawa and has a younger brother, Yūki Meguro, who is also an actor. With ex-wife actress Akiko Nishina he had two children; son Masaki Nishina and daughter Hitomi Nishina are both in the entertainment industry. Career As a young man, he aspired to be a singer, but turned to acting, making his debut while still in high school. His first film was 1960's for Tōei, where his father worked. He specialized in romantic leads in ''jidaigeki'' and yakuza films. But he soon switched to modern yakuza for films such as ''Bakuto'' (1964) and ''Showa Zankyoden'' (1965), and starred in Kinji Fukasaku's '' Blackmail Is My Life'' (1968). In 1969 he switched to Daiei as a replacement for the recently deceased Raizo Ichikawa, starring in nine films including two in the ''Nemuri Kyōshirō'' series and ''Mission: Iron Castle'', the final entry in the ''Shinobi no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
