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Teruo Ishii
was a Japanese film director best known in the West for his early films in the ''Super Giant'' series, and for his films in the '' ero guro'' ("erotic-grotesque") subgenre of ''pinku eiga'' such as '' Shogun's Joy of Torture'' ( 1968). He also directed the 1965 film, ''Abashiri Prison'', which helped to make Ken Takakura a major star in Japan. Referred to in Japan as "The King of Cult", Ishii had a much more prolific and eclectic career than was generally known in the West during his lifetime. Early life Born in Tokyo's Asakusa neighborhood in 1924, Ishii developed a love of cinema early. His parents would often take him to see foreign films, particularly French movies. Ishii worked at Toho Studios as an assistant director beginning in 1942. His film career was interrupted when he was sent to Manchuria during World War II to take aerial photographs for bombing runs. Shintoho In March, 1947 Ishii joined the newly founded Shintoho studios. Ishii would later recall his time with Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastated b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiroshi Shimizu (director)
was a Japanese film director, who directed over 160 films during his career. Biography Early years Shimizu was born in Shizuoka Prefecture and attended Hokkaidō University, but left before graduating. He joined the Shochiku film studio in Tokyo in 1921, making his directorial debut in 1924 at the age of just 21. Career Shimizu specialised in melodramas and comedies. In his most distinguished silent films like ''Fue no Shiratama'' (1929) and ''Japanese Girls at the Harbor (film), Japanese Girls at the Harbor'' (1933), he explored a Japan poised between native and Western ideas, traditionalism and liberalism, while stylistically relying on modernist and avant-garde techniques. The majority of his silent films is nowadays considered lost. In the 1930s, Shimizu increasingly took advantage of shooting on location and with non-professional actors, and was praised at the time by film critics such as Matsuo Kishi and fellow directors as Kenji Mizoguchi. ''Mr. Thank You'' (1936), ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masaru Konuma
is a Japanese film director known for his '' Roman Porno'' films for Nikkatsu during the 1970s. Life and career Early life Masaru Konuma was born in Otaru, Hokkaidō, on December 30, 1937. Konuma retains no memories of his father who was a teacher. Drafted into the army after the outbreak of World War II in 1941, Konuma's father became ill with tuberculosis within a year of the start his military service, and returned home where he died. After the war, Konuma's mother remarried, and Konuma, then 15, was sent away to live in Tokyo. Konuma recalls, "In those days, there was no TV. I had no idea about Tokyo. It was as distant to me as Africa or Alaska is to kids today. I didn't want to go. I cried."Konuma quoted in ''Sadistic and Masochistic'', Chapter 1, 7:20. As a way of dealing with his loneliness and homesickness at this time, Konuma began going to the cinema. He majored in film studies in the Art Department of Nihon University. Soon after graduation, in 1961, Konuma went to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1975 In Film
The year 1975 in film involved some significant events. Highest-grossing films North America The top ten 1975 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: International The highest-grossing 1975 films in countries outside of North America. Worldwide gross The following table lists known worldwide gross figures for several high-grossing films that originally released in 1975. Note that this list is incomplete and is therefore not representative of the highest-grossing films worldwide in 1975. This list also includes gross revenue from later re-releases. Events *March 26: The film version of The Who's '' Tommy'' premieres in London. *May: In order to create the necessary special effects for his film, ''Star Wars'', George Lucas forms Industrial Light and Magic. *June 20: ''Jaws'' is released and becomes the highest-grossing movie of all-time and the highest-grossing movie of the year and the first movie to earn $100 million in US and Canadian thea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōji Wakamatsu
was a Japanese film director who directed such ''pinku eiga'' films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film genre," and one of "Japan's leading directors of the 1960s." His 2010 film, ''Caterpillar'', was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. Early life Kōji Wakamatsu was born in Wakuya, Miyagi, Japan on 1 April 1936, from a poor family of rice farmers. Wakamatsu worked in several menial jobs, namely as a construction worker, before becoming a yakuza, as "a member of the Yasuma-gumi clan in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo". After his criminal experience, he unsuccessfully enrolled in television before beginning his film career with Nikkatsu in 1963. Career Between 1963 and 1965, he directed 20 exploitation films for the studio, based on sensational topics of the day. He became interested in the Pink Film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ero-guro
is an artistic genre that puts its focus on eroticism, sexual corruption, and decadence.Silverberg, Miriam Rom. "By Way of a Preface: Defining ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense''". Galley copy of the preface for ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times''. December 12, 2005. As a term, it is used to denote something that is both erotic and grotesque. The term itself is an example of , a Japanese combination of English words or abbreviated words: from ''erotic'' and from ''grotesque''. The "grotesqueness" implied in the term refers to things that are malformed, unnatural, or horrific. Items that are pornographic and bloody are not necessarily , and vice versa. The term is often mistaken by Western audiences to mean " gore" – depictions of horror, blood, and guts. History art experienced a boom when , a subculture characterized as a "prewar, bourgeois cultural phenomenon that devoted itself to explorations of the deviant, the bizarre, and the ridicul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horrors Of Malformed Men
is a 1969 Japanese horror film directed by Teruo Ishii, who also co-wrote the film. It is based on the novels and by Edogawa Rampo. Plot Hirosuke (Teruo Yoshida), a medical student with almost no recollection of his past, is trapped in an asylum, despite being perfectly sane. After escaping, and being framed for the murder of a circus girl, he spots the photo of a recently deceased man, Genzaburo Komoda, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. By pretending to have been resurrected, Hirosuke assumes the dead man's identity, fooling everyone, including Komoda's widow and mistress. Whilst at the Komoda household, Hirosuke recalls memories that convince him to travel to a nearby island, home of Jogoro, the web-fingered father of Genzaburo. Whilst on the island, Hirosuke not only discovers Jogoro's plans to build his 'ideal community' (by transforming perfectly normal humans into hideous freaks), but also the awful truth behind his own identity. Cast * Teruo Yoshida as Hirosuke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edogawa Rampo
, better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the leader of a group of boy detectives known as the . Ranpo was an admirer of Western mystery writers, and especially of Edgar Allan Poe. His pen name is a rendering of Poe's name. Other authors who were special influences on him were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom he attempted to translate into Japanese during his days as a student at Waseda University, and the Japanese mystery writer Ruikō Kuroiwa. Biography Before World War II Tarō Hirai was born in Nabari, Mie Prefecture in 1894, where his grandfather had been a samurai in the service of Tsu Domain. His father was a merchant, who had also practiced law. The family moved to what is now Kameyama, Mie, and from there to Nagoya when he was age two. At the age of 17, he studied economics at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toei Company
() (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by its subsidiary, T-Joy), studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a shareholder in several television companies. It is notable for creating animated programming known as anime, and live action dramas known as tokusatsu which use special visual effects. It also creates historical dramas ( jidaigeki). Outside Japan, it is known as the controlling shareholder of Toei Animation and the owner of the ''Kamen Rider'' and ''Super Sentai'' franchises. Toei is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and is therefore one of Japan's Big Four film studios. The name "Toei" is derived from the company's former name . History Toei's predecessor, the , was incorporated in 1938. It was founded by Keita Goto, CE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ginza
Ginza ( ; ja, 銀座 ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous internationally renowned department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses located in its vicinity. It is considered to be one of the most expensive, elegant, and luxurious city districts in the world. Ginza was a part of the old Kyobashi ward of Tokyo City, which, together with Nihonbashi and Kanda, formed the core of Shitamachi, the original downtown center of Edo (Tokyo). History Ginza was built upon a former swamp that was filled in during the 16th century. The name Ginza comes after the establishment of a silver-coin mint established there in 1612, during the Edo period. After a devastating fire in 1872 burned down most of the area, the Meiji government designated the Ginza area as a "model of modernization." The g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film-noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ''film noir''. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key lighting, low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionism, German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term ''film noir'', French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1961 In Film
The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with ''West Side Story'' winning 10 Academy Awards. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1961 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Top-grossing films by country The highest-grossing 1961 films from countries outside of North America. Events * May 13 – Legendary actor Gary Cooper dies at the age of 60 in Los Angeles from colon and prostate cancer. Best known for his appearances in classic films such as '' Wings'', '' Meet John Doe'', ''Sergeant York'', ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''High Noon'', Cooper was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age and won two Academy Awards for Best Actor. * June 28 – Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman sign a multi-picture deal with United Artists to produce a series of films based on the novels of Ian Fleming starting with either '' Dr. No'' or '' Diamonds Are Forever''. The series goes on to become the highest-grossing film series of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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