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Zenzo Matsuyama
was a Japanese screenwriter and film director. He was born in Kobe and grew up in Yokohama. After leaving school, he began training to become a doctor but dropped out of medical school to take up a career in films. In 1948 he became an assistant director at Shochiku studios. With the support of Keisuke Kinoshita, he also began writing film scripts. His first filmed script was ''Kojo no tsuki'', based on the song " Kōjō no Tsuki", filmed in 1954. In 1955 he married actress Hideko Takamine. He made his debut as a director with a film called ''Na mo naku mazushiku utsukushiku'' in 1961. He continued to work as a scriptwriter for films like ''Proof of the Man'' as well as a director. He also wrote the lyrics for a song "Ippon no enpitsu" for Hibari Misora was a Japanese singer, actress and cultural icon. She received a Medal of Honor for her contributions to music and for improving the welfare of the public, and was the first woman to receive the People's Honour Award, which wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which makes up the southern side of the main island of Honshū, on the north shore of Osaka Bay. It is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kyoto. The Kobe city centre is located about west of Osaka and southwest of Kyoto. The earliest written records regarding the region come from the '' Nihon Shoki'', which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD 201.Ikuta Shrine official website – "History of Ikuta Shrine" (Japanese) [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hideko Takamine
was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) and ''Floating Clouds'' (1955) being among her most noted films. Biography Takamine was born in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, in 1924. At the age of four, following the death of her mother, she was placed in the care of her aunt in Tokyo. Her first role was in the Shochiku studio's 1929 film ''Mother'' (''Haha''), which brought her tremendous popularity as a child actor. Many of the films of her early career were imitations of Shirley Temple films. After moving to the Toho studio in 1937, her dramatic roles in Kajirō Yamamoto's ''Tsuzurikata kyōshitsu'' (1938) and ''Horse'' (1941) brought her added fame as a girl star. She toured as a singer to entertain Japanese troops and, after the war, sang for American occupation troops in Tokyo. After ini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu. Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin region, Keihin Industrial Zone. Yokohama was one of the cities to open for trade with the Western world, West following the 1859 end of the Sakoku, policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city, after Kobe opened in 1853. Yokohama is the home of many Japan's firsts in the Meiji (era), Meiji period, including the first foreign trading port and Chinatown (1859), European-style sport venues (1860s), English-language newspaper (1861), confectionery and beer manufacturing (1865), daily newspaper (1870), gas-powered street lamps (1870s), railway station (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shochiku
() is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all, anime films produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks). Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada. It has also produced films by highly regarded independent and "loner" directors such as Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Taiwanese New Wave director Hou Hsiao-hsien. Shochiku is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and the oldest of Japan's "Big Four" film studios. History As Shochiku Kinema The company was founded in 1895 as a kabuki production company and later began producing films in 1920. Shochiku is considered the oldest company in Japan involved in present-day film production, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proof Of The Man
is a Japanese film from 1977 directed by Junya Satō, starring George Kennedy and Yūsaku Matsuda. It was produced by Haruki Kadokawa. Plot A young black man from New York named Johnny Hayward (Joe Yamanaka) receives a sum of money. He buys new clothes and takes a flight to Japan. After he arrives, he is found fatally stabbed in a lift in a Tokyo hotel at the same time as a fashion show by designer Kyōko Yasugi (Mariko Okada) is being held. The police department, including Munesue (Yūsaku Matsuda) and his partner (Hajime Hana), come to investigate. The only clue is the dying man's last words "straw hat". At the same time, a woman having an extramarital affair, Naomi (Bunjaku Han), is accidentally run over by Yasugi's son (Kōichi Iwaki). He and his girlfriend dump her body in the sea, but drops his watch at the scene. He is haunted by his actions and confesses to his mother, Kyōko, who suggests he flee to New York with his girlfriend. Munesue starts to suspect that Ky ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hibari Misora
was a Japanese singer, actress and cultural icon. She received a Medal of Honor for her contributions to music and for improving the welfare of the public, and was the first woman to receive the People's Honour Award, which was conferred posthumously for giving the public hope and encouragement after World War II. Misora recorded a total of 1,200 songs and sold 68 million records. After she died, consumer demand for her recordings grew significantly, and, by 2001, she had sold more than 80 million records. By 2019, record sales surpassed 100 million. Her swan-song is often performed by numerous artists and orchestras as a tribute to her, including notable renditions by The Three Tenors (Spanish/Italian), Teresa Teng (Taiwanese) and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan (Mexican). Each year there is a special on Japanese television and radio featuring her songs. A memorial concert for Misora was held at the Tokyo Dome on November 11, 2012. It featured numerous musicians such as Ai, K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Human Condition (film Trilogy)
is a series of three Japanese epic war drama films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, based on the novel of the same name written by Junpei Gomikawa. The films are subtitled No Greater Love (1959), Road to Eternity (1959), and A Soldier's Prayer (1961). The trilogy follows the life of Kaji, a Japanese pacifist and socialist, as he tries to survive in the totalitarian and oppressive world of World War II-era Japan. Plot ''The Human Condition'' follows the journey of the well-intentioned, yet naïve Kaji who transitions from being a labor camp supervisor to an Imperial Army soldier and eventually Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and time again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. ''No Greater Love'' (1959) In World War II-era Japan, Kaji marries his sweetheart Michiko despite his misgivings about the future. To gain exemption from military service, he moves his wife to a large mining operation in Japanese-colonized Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burari Bura-bura Monogatari
''Burari Bura-bura Monogatari'' ( ja, ぶらりぶらぶら物語) is a 1962 Japanese comedy film directed by Zenzo Matsuyama. It was Matsuyama's second film as a director. Plot Komako (Hideko Takamine) is a confidence trickster who pretends to be an atom-bomb victim with keloids who is collecting money for charity but actually just has a burn scar. Junpei is a confidence trickster who is beaten up after falsely claiming there is a fly in his udon. They meet in a police station. Komako tells Junpei to get a proper job, then steals his money, food and clothes. Two children are abandoned by their aunt at Shimonoseki Station, and go with Junpei to Tokyo to find her, visiting many sites along the way, including the Kintai bridge, Himeji Castle and the Kurama Fire Festival. Junpei pretends to be a war victim, a blind man and a cripple to beg money but his begging often ends in failures. When Mariko gets a fever, no-one will treat her because of Junpei's appearance, until Komako helps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Journey Into Love
is a 1973 Japanese film directed by Masanobu Deme. It received a theatrical release in Japan on 7 July 1973 where it was distributed by Toho. The film received the award for Best Art Direction (Shinobu Muraki) at the Mainichi Film Concours. Cast * Komaki Kurihara as Chika * Go Kato as Yozo * Kyoko Maya *Misako Watanabe * Choichiro Kawarazaki *Eitaro Ozawa , also credited as Sakae Ozawa (小沢栄), was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1988, directed by notable filmmakers such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Kaneto Shindō. Selected fi ... See also * List of Japanese films of 1973 Footnotes Sources * External links * * Toho films 1970s Japanese-language films 1970s Japanese films {{1970s-Japan-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Twilight Years
''The Twilight Years'', a 1972 Japanese novel by Sawako Ariyoshi, sold over a million copies in her home country and was praised by the Japan-studies community in foreign countries as a singular novel, "the closest representation of modern Japanese life" according to Donald Keene and a forthright, insightful work into the experience of modern Japanese women. The work, which begins with the married protagonist's father-in-law seemingly doddering around in senility on a winter street underdressed, deals with the twin issues of Aging of Japan and role of women in Japan, who were/are de facto expected to be caretakers of elderly parents or grandparents in a household. Although the novel at times digresses into what may be characterized as a mere extended complaint about the subservient role women experience in Japan (most poignantly, as the protagonist realizes that her husband may very well forget her name as he grows dodderingly old), the work was prescient in that it foreshadowed th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
