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Shomingeki
, literally "petty bourgeois film" or "lower middle class film", is a genre of Japanese realist films which focus on the everyday lives of ordinary or middle class people. An alternate term for the is the pseudo-Japanese word , literally "common people drama", which had been invented by Western film scholars. The term as a definition of a specifically Japanese film genre presumably first appeared in 1932 in articles by critics Yoshio Ikeda and Ichiro Ueno. Themes Film historians Joseph L. Anderson and Donald Richie define the (addressing it as ') as " sentially a film about proletarian or lower-middle-class life, about the sometimes humorous, sometimes bitter relations within the family, about the struggle for existence, ..the kind of film many Japanese think of as being about 'you and me'." In her book ''Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s'', Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano sees the depicting a "newly emerging modern subject, the salaried man, and his middle-class ...
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:Category:Japanese Words And Phrases
{{Commons Words and phrases by language Words Words A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ... Words ...
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Kenji Mizoguchi
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Ugetsu'' (1953), and '' Sansho the Bailiff'' (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema. Biography Early years Mizoguchi was born in Hongō, Tokyo, as the second of three children, to Zentaro Miguchi, a roofing carpenter, and his wife Masa. The family's background was relatively humble until the father's failed business venture of selling raincoats to the Japanese troops during the Russo-Japanese War. The family was forced to move to the downtown district of Asakusa and gave Mi ...
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History Of Film Of Japan
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries. History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its usefulness to give perspective on the problems of the p ...
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Tendency Film
is a genre of socially conscious, left-leaning films produced in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Tendency films reflected a perceived leftward shift in Japanese society in the aftermath of the 1927 Shōwa financial crisis. Japan's left-wing literary figures also influenced tendency films, with films such as ''A Living Puppet'' and ''What Made Her Do It?'' being adaptations of realist ''shingeki'' plays. Tendency films are commercial melodramas led by working-class or lower middle-class protagonists, in contrast to the documentaries produced by the Proletarian Film League of Japan. Daisuke Itō's ''jidaigeki'' films increasingly featured heroes in revolt against the social system of historical Japan, beginning with ''Servant'' (1927) and culminating with ''Man-Slashing, Horse-Piercing Sword'' (1929). Tomu Uchida's ''A Living Puppet'' is the story of an "insincere but talented man who cannot survive within the structure of a capitalist society." ''Behold This Mother'' (1930) cr ...
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Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo
is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as , a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. The series itself is often referred to as "Tora-san" by its fans. Spanning 48 installments released between 1969 and 1995, all of the ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' films except episodes 3 (Azuma Morisaki) and 4 (Shun'ichi Kobayashi) were directed by Yōji Yamada, who also wrote (or co-wrote) all the screenplays. Each film featured a different leading lady, called a Madonna, and a different region of Japan. (There were also episodes that featured scenes in Arizona and Vienna.) Two films were usually made each year between 1969 and 1989, one for summer and one for New Year release. From 1990 to 1995 only one film was made each year, for New Year release. AnimEigo released a box-set of the first four films in the United States in 2009 under the title "Tora-san". The series holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running movie series starring a single actor. The film series ...
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Occupation Of Japan
Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States with support from the British Commonwealth and under the supervision of the Far Eastern Commission, involved a total of nearly 1 million Allied soldiers. The occupation was overseen by American General Douglas MacArthur, who was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers by US President Harry Truman; MacArthur was succeeded as supreme commander by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951. Unlike in the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union had little to no influence over the occupation of Japan, declining to participate because it did not want to place Soviet troops under MacArthur's direct command. This foreign presence marks the only time in Japan's history that it has been occupied by a foreign power. However, unlike in Germany the Alli ...
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Repast (film)
is a 1951 Japanese drama and shomin-geki film directed by Mikio Naruse and starring Setsuko Hara. It is based on the final and unfinished novel by Fumiko Hayashi, and was the first in a series of adaptations of her work by the director. Plot Michiyo has moved from Tokyo to settle down in Osaka with her salaryman husband, whom she married against her parents' wishes. A few years later into the marriage, her husband treats her carelessly, and she is slowly worn down by domestic drudgery. The situation worsens when her pretty niece, fleeing from her parents' plans for an arranged marriage, comes to stay and the husband responds to her flirtatious behaviour. Dissatisfied with his efforts to improve their household life, she leaves with her niece for Tokyo to stay with her family for a time, but finally returns, resigning to marital conventions. Cast * Ken Uehara as Hatsunosuke Okamoto * Setsuko Hara as Michiyo Okamoto * Yukiko Shimazaki as Satoko Okamoto * Yōko Sugi as Mitsuko Mura ...
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Burden Of Life
is a 1935 Japanese comedy-drama and shōshimin-eiga film directed by Heinosuke Gosho. Plot Elderly couple Shōzō and Tamoko have just successfully married away the third and youngest of their daughters, but get into an argument over their son Kanichi, who is still in elementary school. Shōzō argues that he and Tamoko had Kanichi far too late, and instead of paying for his education another twenty years, he should be taken out of school and sent to work. Tamoko protests his proposition, which infuriates Shōzō so much that he demands that she leaves the house. Tamoko and Kanichi move into the apartment of daughter Itsuko and her husband. Shōzō has increasing doubts about his attitude towards Kanichi, and when his son shows up at his former home, he indulges him and feeds him his favourite food. Tamoko, asked to show more understanding for her husband's perspective by her acquaintances and Itsuko, follows their advice and returns to Shōzō. Cast * Tatsuo Saitō as Shōz ...
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I Was Born, But
''I Was Born, But...'' ( ''Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo'' "An Adult's Picture Book View — I Was Born, But...") is a 1932 black-and-white Japanese silent comedy film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It became the first of six Ozu films to win the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year. Ozu later loosely remade the film as ''Good Morning'' (1959). The film's story centers on two young brothers whose faith in their father, an office worker, is shaken by what they perceive as his kowtowing to the boss. Plot The Yoshi family has just moved to the Tokyo suburbs, close to where the father Kennosuke's (Tatsuo Saitō) direct boss, Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto), is staying. Kennosuke's two young sons Keiji and Ryoichi (Tomio Aoki and Hideo Sugawara) are supposed to be going to school, but owing to the threats of a group of neighborhood and school bullies, they decide to play truant. After the teacher speaks to their father, Keiji and Ryoichi have no choice but to go to s ...
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Tokyo Chorus
is a 1931 silent film produced by Shochiku Company, directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Tokihiko Okada and Emiko Yagumo. It was based on various stories in the Shoshimin-gai (Middle Class Avenue) series and shares influences with King Vidor's '' The Crowd''. Most of the film takes place in Tokyo during a depression-like time in the beginning of the Shōwa period. Plot The story starts with a group of young men attending school drills under the direction of Mr. Omura (Tatsuo Saitō). Shinji Okajima (Tokihiko Okada) is seen goofing off, misbehaving, and upsetting his teacher. Okajima is disciplined, the drills resume. and the boys eventually graduate and go into the working world. Okajima has grown up, has a family, and works as an insurance salesman. On the day of their annual bonuses, the men are all anxious. Okajima's son (Hideo Sugawara) has his heart set on a bicycle. After receiving his bonus, Okajima writes the list of presents he will buy for his family. A co-worker ...
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Our Neighbor, Miss Yae
is a 1934 Japanese comedy-drama film written and directed by Yasujirō Shimazu. It is regarded as one of Shimazu's major films, and a representative work of the shōshimin-eiga ("lower middle class film") genre. Plot In a Tokyo suburb, Keitarō, the older son of the Arai family, and Yae, the younger daughter of the Hattori family, are not only neighbours and schoolmates, but also have developed unspoken feelings for each other. When Yae's older sister Kyōko leaves her husband and returns home, she becomes a cause of concern for her parents and also for Yae, as Kyōko starts taking an interest in Keitarō. After Mr. Hattori is transferred to Korea by his employer, Yae's and Keitarō's separation seems inevitable, but the Hattoris decide to leave Yae as a boarder with the Arais to finish high school. Cast * Yukichi Iwata as Shōsaku Hattori * Chōko Iida as Hamako Hattori * Yoshiko Okada as Kyōko Hattori * Yumeko Aizome as Yaeko Hattori, called Yae * Sanae Takasugi as Etsuko ...
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Keisuke Kinoshita
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirō Ozu, he was a household figure in his home country, beloved by both critics and audiences from the 1940s to the 1960s. Among his best known films are '' Carmen Comes Home'' (1951), Japan's first colour feature, '' Tragedy of Japan'' (1953), ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954), '' You Were Like a Wild Chrysanthemum'' (1955), ''Times of Joy and Sorrow'' (1957), '' The Ballad of Narayama'' (1958), and ''The River Fuefuki'' (1960). Biography Early years Keisuke Kinoshita was born Masakichi Kinoshita on 5 December 1912, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, as the fourth of eight children of merchant Shūkichi Kinoshita and his wife Tama. His family manufactured pickles and owned a grocery store. A film fan already in early years, he vowed to become ...
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