#214 – Dead Man, 1995, Jim Jarmusch
On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange North American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
Tag: Japan
#223: Your Name.
#223 – Your Name., (君の名は。), 2016, Makoto Shinkai
High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other.
#225: Samurai Rebellion
#225 – Samurai Rebellion, (上意討ち 拝領妻始末), 1967, Masaki Kobayashi
Toshiro Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord’s mistress, who has recently displeased the ruler. Reluctantly, father and son take in the woman, and, to the family’s surprise, the young couple fall in love. But the lord soon reverses his decision and demands the mistress’s return. Against all expectations, Isaburo and his son refuse, risking the destruction of their entire family. Director Masaki Kobayashi’s Samurai Rebellion is the gripping story of a peaceful man who finally decides to take a stand against injustice.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#227: Street of Shame
#227 – Street of Shame, (赤線地帯), 1956, Kenji Mizoguchi
The personal tales of various sex workers who occupy a Japanese brothel.
#233: Floating Weeds
#233 – Floating Weeds, (浮草), 1959, Yasujirō Ozu
A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son Kiyoshi, even though Kiyoshi believes Komajuro is his uncle. The leading actress Sumiko is jealous and so, in order to humiliate the master, persuades the younger actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi.
#235: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
#235 – The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, (かぐや姫の物語), 2013, Isao Takahata
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her – but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.
#238: The Burmese Harp
#238 – The Burmese Harp, (ビルマの竪琴), 1956, Kon Ichikawa
In the War’s closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
#239: Ran
#239 – Ran, (乱), 1985, Akira Kurosawa
With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare’s King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa’s late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#246: Early Summer
#246 – Early Summer, (麦秋), 1951, Yasujirō Ozu
Noriko lives in postwar Tokyo with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her friends, her more traditionally minded family worries about the fact that she’s still single at the advanced age of 28. When 40-year-old business associate Takako proposes marriage, Noriko’s family press her into accepting. But when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.
#250: Hiroshima Mon Amour
#250 – Hiroshima Mon Amour, 1959, Alain Resnais
The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple – lovers turned friends – recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 