#425 – Love Exposure, (愛のむきだし), 2008, Sion Sono
The story of a teenage boy named Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an “up-skirt” photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that’s a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#426 – Red Beard, (赤ひげ), 1965, Akira Kurosawa
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
#428 – Yearning, (乱れる), 1964, Mikio Naruse
After a bombing raid destroys the family store and her husband, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.
#433 – The Life of Oharu, (西鶴一代女), 1952, Kenji Mizoguchi
Follows a woman’s fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of the society.
#434 – Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, (風の谷のナウシカ), 1984, Hayao Miyazaki
After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.
#436 – Still Walking, (歩いても 歩いても), 2008, Hirokazu Kore-eda
Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger’s life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion. Younger son Ryota still feels that his parents resent that he isn’t the one who died; his new wife, Yukari, is awkwardly meeting the rest of the family for the first time. Daughter Chinami strains to fill the uncomfortable pauses with forced cheer.
#451 – Death by Hanging, (絞死刑), 1968, Nagisa Ōshima
A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.
#457 – Battle Royale, (バトル・ロワイアル), 2000, Kinji Fukasaku
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#472 – Nobody Knows, (誰も知らない), 2004, Hirokazu Kore-eda
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
#488 – Howl’s Moving Castle, (ハウルの動く城), 2004, Hayao Miyazaki
When Sophie, a shy young woman, is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 