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A Speculative
History of Japanese Cinema
Sheer Brilliance
, Norimasa Kaeriyama , 1918 The first film with female actors
rather than the Kabuki tradition of men in drag ("annagata").
(voie lactee)
Sanji Goto
, Thomas Kurihara, Harry Williams , 1919 Early instance of
"joint-venture" by Japanese and American co-directors.
The Loyal 47
Ronin , Shozo Makino , 1919 The first version of the most
popular story in Japanese cinema. Shozo Makino was the first
"pro"-film director in Japan. (Ben-113)
Souls on the
Road , Minoru Murata and Kaoru Osanai , 1921 Two crosscut
stories about pennyless wanderers. The first integrated use
of pretty much all cinematic techiques known at the time.
Richie calls this "the first great Japanese film". (Ben-113)
The Mountains
Grow Dark , Kyohiko Ushihara , 1921 One of the earliest
realist melodramas. (Ben-113)
Orochi ,
Buntaru Futagawa , 1925 "Tsumasaburoo Bandoo, known as Bantsuma,
is one of the biggest samurai movie stars of all time." (ST)
A Page of Madness
, Teinosuke Kinugasa , 1926 Teinosuke Kinugasa's mind-boggling
silent masterpiece of 1926 was thought to have been lost for
40 years until the director discovered a print in his garden
shed.The film's expressionist style is all the more surprising
because Japan had no such tradition to speak of; Kinugasa
hadn't even seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari when he made
this. (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
A Paper Doll's
Whisper of Spring , Kenji Mizoguchi , 1926 Generally considered
the first evidence of directorial style in Japanese cinema.
(Ben-113)
Chuchi's Travel
Diary , Daisuke Ito , 1927 The film was considered lost
after WWII, but was recently rediscovered. Oshima considers
this like THE most important Japanese film, and calles the
period it was made "the first golden age" of Japanese Cinema.
(Ben-113)
I Have Sinned
Sakubei , Sasaki Kojiro , 1930 One of The most popular
film genres in Japan during the 1910's and 1920's was the
Shimpa (new theater) tragedy. Shimpa was strongly influenced
by contemporary European and American theater and novels.
Kikuchi Yuko's 1899 novel, Your Sin, was performed on stage
and became a representative Shimpa piece. (ST)
Madame's Neighbor
, Heinosuke Gosho , 1931 First Japanese talkie which marks
the disappearence of the "Benshi" or narrator who was often
more famous than the actors in the silent films themselves.
Their enormous popularity slows down the penetration of the
sound film. (voie lactee)
I Was Born,
ButÉ , Yasujiro Ozu , 1932 Ozu's understanding of his
characters and their social milieu is so profound and his
visual style--which was much less austere and more obviously
expressive during his silent period--so compelling that the
film carries one along more dynamically than many of the director's
sound classics. (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Our Neighbor
Yae-chan , Yasujiro Shimazu , 1934 Shimazu and the famous
studio director Shiroo Joodo stayed in Tokyo and produced
the films to set the tone for Shoochiku films to come. This
was the birth of so-called Kamata-choo films. Would-be important
directors such as Heinosuke Gosho, Koozaburoo Yoshimura, and
Keisuke Kinoshita studied under Shimazu. (ST)
Wife, Be Like
a Rose , Mikio Naruse , 1935 Naruse went on to make great
films after the war, but this one was his first major success
in the pre war era. (ST)
Sisters of the
Gion , Kenji Mizoguchi , 1935 The master's first great
work, and one of his most stinging attacks on the geisha laws
that his films ultimately helped overturn. (bkamberger)
Kakita Akanishi
, Mansaku Itami , 1936 Along with Sadao Yamanaka highly important
for breaking the conventions of period drama, in Itami's case,
by combining it with contemporary social criticism. Itami
was also a great defender of American cinema at the time,
and was very important for many later directors, like Ichikawa,
who cites him as an influence. (Ben-113)
Humanity and
Paper Balloons , Sadao Yamanaka , 1937 Sadao Yamanaka's
last film. Still voted as one of the best Japanese films of
all time. (ST)
The Five Exploratory
Soldiers , Tomotaka Tasaka , 1937 Quintessential example
of wartime filmmaking.
Fighting Soldiers
, Kamei Fumio , 1939 Propaganda film from pioneer of Japanese
documentary.
Singing Lovebirds,
Masahiro Makino, 1939 A rarity: the Japanese musical.
Soil ,
Tomu Uchida , 1939 Tomu Uchida was one of the first to explore
realism in Japanese cinema. This is his major achievement
in the pre-war period. (ST)
The Battleship
from Hawaii to Malaysia , Kajiro Yamamoto ,1942 Wartime
propaganda piece by Akira Kurosawa's mentor.
Momotaro's Gods-Blessed
Sea Warriors , Mituyo Seo , 1945 Japan's first animated
feature: a juvenile adventure showing the Imperial Navy as
brave, cute anthropomorphic animal sailors resolutely liberating
Indonesia and Malaysia from the buffoonish foreign-devil (with
horns) Allied occupiers
Aoi sanmyaku
, Imai Tadashi , 1949 This is the director whose films have
been voted among the ten best films of the year by Kinema
Junpoo more often than anybody else's. Does that make him
the best Japanese director?
Rashomon
, Akira Kurosawa , 1950 The film that put Japanese cinema
on the global stage.
Carmen Goes
Home , Keisuke Kinoshita , 1951 This is the first Japanese
color film.
Children of
the Atomic Bomb , Kaneto Shindo , 1952 This film is based
on the essays by Hiroshima children who were A-bombed. (ST)
Ikiru ,
Akira Kurosawa , 1952 A rare portrait of a man experiencing
a genuine insight into what his wasted years have been leading
to. (Don Druker)
Vacuum Zone
, Satsuo Yamamoto , 1952 The making of kamikaze soldiers is
detailed in this chilling account of the life of Japanese
soldiers in WWII. With his strong political beliefs, Yamamoto
always turned the lights and camera to the wrongs of society.
(ST)
Samurai Trilogy
, Hiroshi Inagaki , 1953
Tokyo Story
, Yasujiro Ozu , 1953
Ugetsu ,
Kenji Mizoguchi , 1953
Late Chrysanthemums
, Mikio Naruse , 1954 I've never seen drug abuse handled so
tastefully and yet so harrowingly, and he's no less incisive
in portraying the less blatant cruelties that beset aging
prostitutes. He's particularly good at using voiceover narration
of a character's thoughts to comment ironically on the action
as it plays out, and the last scene is as quietly devastating
in its lack of sentimentality as any ending I've ever seen.
(bkamberger)
Sansho the Bailiff
, Kenji Mizoguchi , 1954
Seven Samurai
, Akira Kurosawa , 1954
Godzilla
, Ishiro Honda , 1956 Godzilla remains one of the most potent
mythic structures of the 50s. (Dave Kehr)
Giants and Robots
, Yasuzo Masumura , 1958 Yasuzo Masumura (1924-'86) tended
to alter his visual style with every film, according to the
needs of the story; this 1958 effort is a heavy-duty satire
about three competing candy companies trying to outdo one
another's promotional campaigns. (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Panda and the
Magic Serpent , Yasuji Mori , 1958 Japan's entry into
professional animation came with the company's first theatrical
feature.
Fires on the
Plain , Kon Ichikawa , 1959 No other film on the horrors
of war has gone anywhere near as far as Kon Ichikawa's 1959
Japanese feature. (Dave Kehr)
Floating Weeds
, Yasujiro Ozu , 1959
The Human Condition
, Masaki Kobayashi ,1959
Cruel Story
of Youth , Nagisa Oshima , 1960 Considered the first film
of the "Japanese New Wave" and it's influence in Japan was
incredible. It took the conventions of the 50s Sun Tribe films,
but left out the glorification of the youth, pointing to a
complete political apathy and ideological vacuum in Japanese
society. (Ben-113)
When a Woman
Ascends the Stairs , Mikio Naruse , 1960 A major work
by an overlooked master, it stars an important actress in
her finest role. (bkamberger)
An Autumn Afternoon
, Yasujiro Ozu , 1962 Ozu's serenely beautiful swan song.
(bkamberger)
High and Low
, Akira Kurosawa , 1963 Aside from the timeless Ikiru, this
is Kurosawa's most compelling work set in the modern era.
(bkamberger)
Insect Woman
, Shohei Imamura , 1963
Gate of Flesh
, Seijun Suzuki , 1964
Kwaidan
, Masaki Kobayashi , 1964
Onibaba
, Kaneto Shindo , 1964
Woman in the
Dunes , Hiroshi Teshigahara , 1964
Tokyo Olympiad
, Kon Ichikawa , 1965
Sword of Doom
, Kihachi Okamoto , 1966
Branded to Kill
, Seijun Suzuki , 1967
Nanami, First
Love , Susumi Hami , 1968 First attemt to combine documentary
style and fiction into a kind of cinema verti?. Also important
for 60s counterculture and youth culture in Japan. (Ben-113)
Summer in Narita
, Shinsuke Ogawa , 1968 About the displacement of a rural
community, with the construction of Narita Airport. Also,
the first work of cinematpgrapher Tamura Masaki. (Ben-113)
A Thousand and
One Nights , Osamu Tekuza , 1969 The first erotic anime
feature, directed by the "God of Manga"
Am I Trying
aka It's Tough Being a Man , Yoji Yamada , 1969 Introduced
the Tora-san series, one of the most popular film series of
all time.
Double Suicide
, Masahiro Shinoda , 1969
Go, Go, Second
Time Virgin , Koji Wakamatsu , 1969Not only are his films
stylistically innovative, and politically challenging, they
were also highly popular in the Japan in the 60s and 70s.
Further, Wakamatsu was one of the first directors in the 60s
to start his own, independent production company, to bypass
studio-codes. (Ben-113)
Tenchu ,
Hideo Gosha ,1969
Throw Away Your
Books and Go Out , Shuji Terayama, 1970
Zatoichi v Yojimbo
, Kihachi Okamoto , 1970
Ceremony
, Nagisa Oshima , 1971 It charts the self destruction of a
"traditional" Japanese family in the post-war period. Everything
in the film refers allegorically to the contradictions of
contemporary Japanese society, and to the treatment of its
WWII legacy. (Ben-113)
Hellish Love
, Chusei Sone , 1972 The kind of quintessential Nikkatsu Pink
Film, and very well made at that. (Ben-113)
Minamata: The
Victims and their world , Noriaki Tsuchimoto,1972 About
the victims of the Minamata mercury poisoning. (Ben-113)
Battles Without
Honor and Humanity , Kinji Fukasaku ,1973 The quintessential
"realistic" Yakuza series. (Ben-113)
Lady Snowblood
, Toshiya Fujita , 1973
Lone Wolf and
Cub: Sword of Vengeance , Kenji Misumi , 1974
Pastoral: To
Die in the Country , Shuji Terayama , 1974
In the Realm
of the Senses , Nagisa Oshima , 1976 Nagisa Oshima's depiction
of the obsessive lovemaking between a prostitute and the husband
of a brothel keeper, which leads ultimately to the death of
the man (with his own consent), is one of the most powerful
erotic films ever made. (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Lupin III:
Castle of Cagliostro , Hayao Miyazaki , 1979 Breakthrough
film for Hayao Miyazaki, the modern master of Japanese animation.
Vengeance is
Mine , Shohei Imamura , 1979 Shohei Imamura was one of
the few important filmmakers working in 80s Japan; this film,
which won the 1979 Japanese critics' poll, is often cited
as his masterpiece.(Dave Kehr)
Crazy Thunder
Road , Sogo Ishii , 1980 Independent feature that foresaw
a new wave of underground ÒpunkÓ filmmakers.
The Go Masters
, Junya Sato , 1983 Places the Japanese role before and after
WWII within a pan-Asian context. (Chris-435)
Family Game
, Yoshimitsu Morita , 1984 Important comedy in it's portrayal
of the family as basically a completely doomed social entity.
(Ben-113)
Taifu Club
, Shinji Soomai , 1984 Considered by many to be the best Japanese
live-action film of the 1980s. (Ben-113)
Tampopo
, Juzo Itami , 1986
Robot Carnival
, various directors , 1987 An anthology of short animated
films, in which the Japanese fascination with robots is distilled
into its purest form. It also functions as a primer on the
breadth of style found in Japanese animation--no two sequences
look alike. (Chris-435)
The Emperor's
Naked Army Marches On , Kazuo Hara , 1987 About a former
soldier's quest to get his wartime superiors to acknowledge
the eating of human flesh on New Guinea during WWII. (Ben-113)
Wings of Honnemaise
, Hiroyuki Yamaga , 1987 The plot is one of the most ambitious
and modern, which is saying something for an anime in the
80's period, and this tale of a space race is one of the best.
(TheHood)
Akira ,
Katsushiro Otomo , 1988 It is almost solely because of AKIRA
that Anime has such a great popularity outside of Japan today.(Ben-113)
Grave of the
Fireflies , Isao Takahata , 1988
My Neighbor
Totoro , Hayao Miyazaki , 1988 This 1989 animated feature
is a key early work by Hayao Miyazaki, a cofounder of Studio
Ghibli who's been called the Japanese Disney. It exemplifies
Ghibli's style of fanciful realism, paying close attention
to minute details as well-drawn figures move across a fluid
backdrop. (Ted Shen)
Tetsuo: The
Iron Man , Shinya Tsukamoto , 1988 Black Rain , Shohei
Imamura , 1989 Circus Boys , Kaizo Hayashi , 1989
Okoge ,
Takehiro Nakajima , 1992
The Bedroom
, Hisayasu Sato , 1992 This could represent Porn in the 80s
and 90s, after the studio system collapsed, and as it became
a kind of underground-filmmaking practice. (Ben-113)
Sonatine
, Takeshi Kitano , 1993
Ghost in the
Shell , Mamoru Oshii , 1995
Maborosi
, Hirokazu Kore-Eda , 1995
Swallowtail
, Shunji Iwai , 1996 A visually stunning J-Pop tour-de-force,
I think it is a perfect example of what is fine Japanese popular
cinema. (Ben-113)
Cure , Kiyoshi
Kurosawa , 1997 The prolific Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
has been at work for nearly two decades, sometimes making
straight-to-video features but more recently receiving some
belated international recognition. Stylistically it's the
most inventive Japanese feature I've seen in some time. (Jonathan
Rosenbaum)
Hana-bi
, Takeshi Kitano , 1997
Perfect Blue
, Satoshi Kon , 1997 This is also one of the few 90's anime's
worth mentioning in bringing well needed originality to the
style. (TheHood)
Suzaku ,
Naomi Kawase , 1997 A touching documentary-esque exploration
of people trying to cope with rural depopulation. (kerpan)
The Ring
, Hideo Nakata , 1998 The resurgence of the Japanese horror
film as a serious genre. (Chris-435)
After Life
, Hirokazu Kore-Eda , 1999 In my mind Kore-eda made the two
best Japanese films of the 90s. This is also an interesting
combination of documentary and fiction. (Ben-113)
Audition
, Takashi Miike , 1999 One of the strongest cinematic arguments
for a woman's sexual equality that Japan's ever produced.
(TheHood)
Eureka ,
Shinji Aoyama , 2000 Aoyama is one of the most important young
directors next to Kore-eda in Japan at the moment, and I think
he will exert a huge influence in the future. (Ben-113)
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