REVIEW: Cinema Kabuki: Hokaibo

法界坊 (Hokaibou)

Released: 2008

Director:
Kazuyoshi Kushida

Starring:
Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII
Kantaru Nakamura
Shichinosuke Nakamura
Takashi Sasano
Hashinosuke Nakamura

Running time: 154 min.



Reviewed by Chris MaGee

A noble family from Kyoto has lost a precious carp scroll that was given to them by the Emperor. The family is left in tatters its young lord Yoshida Matsuwaka is hiding in Edo, passing himself off as a common clerk at an antique dealers in hopes he can track down his family's treasure. His fiancée, the Princess Nowake, is also hiding in Edo as a fren seller as she searches for Matsuwaka. This might get a bit complicated as Okumi, the daughter of the antique dealer that Matsuwaka is working for, is in love with him. An older man named Kanjuro actually has the carp scroll in his possession, and guess what? He's in love with Okumi, and he wants to use the scroll as an engagement gift for his beloved. While all this romance is going on Matsukawa's friend Jinza watches over the disguised nobleman and his search for the scroll. Into this elaborate plot of cross, double-cross and sometimes triple-cross comes Hokaibo, a "depraved priest" with an agenda of his own. This whole cast of characters (and a few unmentioned here) arrive on the stage for Kazuyoshi Kushida's "Memories of the Sumida River: Hokaibo", one of the latest film installments in Shochiku's Cinema Kabuki project coming to the Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto between February 22nd and 23rd. If you were thinking that the title conjures up a delicate, intriguing and quaint film of a kabuki stage drama think again. This film, it's title shortened to "Hokaibo" for its Canadian run, is straight out farce which uses its circuitous plot as a jumping off point for wicked humor, jest, the occasional grizzly violence and some truly spectacular dance.

There are more than a few classic and deliciously mannered kabuki performances on display (especially from Kantaru Nakamura and Shichinosuke Nakamura as the deposed nobles) that take place as those pursuing the carp scroll converge on a tea house in Fukagawa in Old Edo, but these are not the focus or intent of "Hokaibo". It's contemporary kabuki actor extraordinaire Kanzaburo Nakamura as the impoverished priest Hokaibo and Takashi Sasano, who many will recognize from his recent film roles in Yojiro Takita's "Departures" and Amir Naderi's "Cut", as Kanjuro who are the pace cars for the rest of the cast of this comic tragedy. As the players all fall into the various schemes, kidnappings and even dismemberment and murders as the jockey for this coveted scroll Nakamura XVIII's and Sasano's characters are there to, as the British would say, "take the piss" out of the kabuki pageantry of it all. "Quiet! Quiet!" Hokaibo tells the accompanying musicians at the side of the stage as he digs a hole to drop an unsuspecting enemy into, "I'm telling you in normal Japanese!" No kabuki refinement here just a moment mocking Hamlet's great "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio," speech in which Hokaibo (or is it Nakamura) calling an unearthed skull Takashi Sasano and then putting the cranium with his shovel for a hole in one. There are many moments like this in "Hokaibo" when the artistry of the kabuki theatre seems to break down and things look more like a stand-up comedy act for the 56-year-old Nakamura. He wades into the audience to ask them to read a note crucial to the plot then proceeds to ask people where they are from like a Las Vegas lounge lizard. He mocks fellow actors and their stiff kabuki poses and slow, deliberate line delivery, and he even breaks character and makes an off colour joke about the current U.S.. President Barack Obama. Sasano stand right along side him, making a joking reference to the 43rd U.S. president George W. Bush. It's strange to think that Nakamura XVIII's and Sasano's characters are the bad guys of this play/ film, responsible for some of the most gory moments right before the 10-minute intermission.

It's what happens after the intermission in "Hokaibo" that truly surprises and makes this over two and a half hour performance the must see of this round of Cinema Kabuki's Canadian screenings. Suddenly, as the curtain is pulled back, we are back in the world of traditional kabuki theatre, or if not traditional kabuki then a production that takes its mission to wow its audience very, very seriously. Ghosts of certain characters killed in the play (we won't give away exactly who they are) assemble on the banks of the Sumida River to perform a dance that is equal parts classic Japanese artistry as it is Busby Berkley. cheery blossom petals fall from the rafters and then suddenly the back wall of the Heisei Nakamura Tent Theater in Asakusa is pulled back and we are on the tree-lined banks of the real Sumida River. It's a breathtaking moment to behold, and one fans of Japanese theatre, film and culture won't want to miss.

Read more about the Japan Foundation's presentation of "Hokaibo" and three other of Shochiku's Cinema Kabuki films at the Scotibank Theatre by clicking here.

J-Film Pow-Wow on a month long break -- See you March 1st!

by Chris MaGee

There are probably more than a few of our regular readers who have been checking the blog and scratching their heads recently. Where have those guys gone? Where are the latest updates? Well, the good news is that we're still here, and in fact very busy at the moment, both with personal and professional duties. That especially goes for J-Film Pow-Wow editor and chief Chris MaGee. The bit of bad news is that this has kept us from our blogging duties, for which we sincerely apologize.

After deliberation amongst all of the crew we have decided to take a brief month long break from regular posts. THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE J-FILM POW-WOW! Far from it, so please don't worry about that. As those of you who have followed us since the beginning you'll know that we're one of the most regularly updated Japanese film blogs. Still, we're human, so please be patient while we tie up our extra-curricular duties and recharge our batteries. During this break we will be doing occasional news drops, so please check back!

One huge, and very good thing, that has been taking up time here at the J-Film Pow-Wow is Toronto's Shinsedai Cinema Festival. Chris has been very hard at work on the 4th edition of the festival, coming to The Revue Cinema between July 12th and 15th, and he will be continually tweeting and updating the festival's Facebook page, so please check him out there!

So, again, our apologies... but this isn't goodbye, it's just a see you in exactly one month!

REVIEW: Tokyo Drifter

トーキョードリフター (Tokyo Dorifuta)

Released: 2011

Director:
Tetsuaki Matsue

Starring:
Kenta Maeda





Running time: 72 min.


Reviewed by Nicholas Vroman

“Tokyo Drifter” begins on a black screen with the briefest of announcements. "Latest news on the tsunami situation…” An ad jingle comes up alternating with street noise. A murky shot of a Japanese flag in the darkness gives way to an empty office building with all the lights on. A quick cut to black. A building with a sign – Olympus goes out of focus. Cut to black A long shot of a dark building flashing a couple lights. A train station’s light illuminates many commuters who once they exit find the exterior plunged into darkness. A darkened Toyota sign foregrounds a ribbon of red car taillights snaking away into the night.

The camera zooms in on a traffic island, a handful of folks bustling by, cars zipping by. The auto focus makes the image snap in and out of focus. The camera shakes as singer songwriter, Kenta Maeno, far away unpacks his guitar and begins singing.

The offhand editing is anything but. The shaky and soft images specifically reference the iconic images of the earthquake and tsunami of 3.11 – those awesome and horrifying lo-fi images taken from ketais and digital cameras. These are the aesthetic tools and motifs that make up Tetsue Matsuaki’s off-kilter love letter to Tokyo and the darkness it was thrust into after the great Tohoku earthquake. For months after the earthquake, businesses and public offices turned off neon lights and signs. Streetlights were turned off. Tokyo, famous for its illuminated nightscape was an eerily changed city.

A couple of years ago, Matsuaki and Maeno made the indie sensation, “Live Tape” – a single shot feature that followed Maeno singing and improvising on a long walk through Kichijoji, a hip neighborhood in western Tokyo. He revisits a similar trope in “Tokyo Drifter” with Maeno singing an album’s worth of material over one rainy night, this time in different neighborhoods around Tokyo. The new film, however, finds the director and his singing muse much more focused, even as Maeno drifts around different sites on his motorcycle a couple months after the disaster.

Maeno’s first song, sung on a dimly lit traffic island with passersby consciously ignoring him builds images of people traveling via a night bus - young lovers and old men, rain and snow and lonely stations. The bittersweet ideas of drifting travelers filled with hopes and broken dreams set the stage for Maeno’s own seemingly aimless travels through the darkened quarters of the city he both loves, but has a fair share of criticism for.

Next we see him in Ginza, in a dark alley, a Louis Vuitton store’s sign casting a ghostly glow in the background. He signs a questioning love song…

A woman's friendship's an enigma
A woman's friendship's what I need

… followed up with another song – a slacker’s remembrance of a sticky past summer. He hits the road singing:

Blue sky and the sun are calling
… these days of youth
Off we go staying young and fearless
Off we go on a journey
through these days of youth
When in tears of in joy
We'll stay friends as we journey on

We next find him sitting in front of a closed hair salon in Meidaimae, another hip area on the west side of town, singing a sad and beautiful song suggesting that the words love and loneliness are words that he longs to be gone. Maeno is a romantic at heart. He gets up and wanders down a dark shotnegai, again singing a reminiscence of a hot summer. Next we see him in front an anonymous apartment, still in darkness, where he sings another bittersweet love song. Through these songs he speaks of hot unbearable days, cockroaches and generally nasty stuff with a longing and appreciation for what life in Tokyo is really about.

Next we find him in Shibuya where he delivers a wickedly funny song of pure self-revulsion, “Fuck Me.” He wanders toward the famous crossing singing a set of songs loosely built around wistful impressions and celebrations of rainy nights and days, 120-yen coffee and the crass consumption that’s the essential metaphor for life in Tokyo. When he reaches the crossing the huge video monitors, neon lights and signs that usually keep the place in constant daylight are off. The Shibuya crossing is rarely seen like this.

He hits the road as the rain grows stronger singing the AKB 48 hit of last spring, “Heavy Rotation.”

I want you
I need you
I love you
My mind…
Love's on heavy rotation
Heavy rotation

Next he’s in front of a convenience store, its sign off. He’s silhouetted only by the interior neon. The rain pours down as he sings a couple more songs – one about the impossibility of knowing others’ lives and the other a tortured love song to Tokyo itself.

This worn down magnificent city
Tokyo
Dreams, hope and passion
Pathetic, but it's
Tokyo
Breaking up with your
First meeting you
I realized that I loved this city
This worn down city of youth
Tokyo
The lights go down
The young move out
Tokyo

The final scene finds Maeno at dawn on a dike by a river, the city in the background. He sings a rather heroic song binding ideas of the past and future, looking to “the new morning sunrise.” He tosses his pick away as the camera goes into a close up of his dirty fingers playing a circle of fifths. A blackout as the music continues and a studio mixed band fills in the final “Tokyo Drifter’ song (not the Hajime Kaburagi version). Shots of Maeno on his motorcycle continuing his journey give way to the credits.

“Tokyo Drifter,” Tetsuaki and Maeno’s paean to the darkness, to Tokyo as physical presence – in all it’s filth and glory - and a state of mind, boldly takes the defining national tragedy of 2011 and turns it on its head, finding a bit of light and hope from it all. As he told me, “The Tokyo now and the Tokyo then is different. In May everyone was on edge. They didn’t know what was happening. I prefer Tokyo then in May, rather than the Tokyo we’re in now.”

Read more by Nicholas Vroman at his blog

Stills and plot details of new Toshiaki Toyoda film "I'm Flash" appear online

by Chris MaGee

Our first story from our friends at Twitch (via Ryuganji) today. Toshiaki Toyoda is one of my personal favorite filmmakers of all time, so I am always on the look out for news on the director of "9 Souls" and "Hanging Garden". Toyoda's recent activity has been a little contradictory of late though. For the longest time there was low level but consistent buzz that after his 2008 comeback film "Blood of Rebirth", which surprised many with its abstract pacing and minimal narrative, that Toyoda was working on a yakuza film partially set in Okinawa. Then, this past fall Toyoda released "Monsters Club", an art house film based on the writings of Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber. So what happened to the yakuza film?

It now looks like Toyoda is finally putting the finishing touches on his long discussed yakuza drama, a film that reunites him with a favorite actor from his early films and an actor known to fans of such films as "Battle Royale" and "Death Note". Toyoda's "I'm Flash" (yes, that's the title) is being prepped for a September release in Japan, and a couple of stills featuring its two lead actors, Ryuhei Matsuda and Tatsuya Fujiwara, have been posted online. As many fans of Toyoda know Matsuda starred in two of Toyoda's defining films, 2001's "Blue Spring" and 2003's "9 Souls", so it's great to see him back in the fold for this project. In the film Fujiwara plays a popular religious cult leader who heads to an Okinawan island with his gangster bodyguard (Matsuda) to recuperate from a car accident. It's on the island that the bodyguard begins to suspect that his boss has been involved in something sinister. Interesting stuff, although maybe not the straight ahead gangster flick everyone might have been expecting. Still, it's Toyoda, so it'll definitely be worth a look. We'll be checking for more details on this as they surface.

Wakamtsu's "United Red Army" and "Caterpillar" come to DVD this week!

by Chris MaGee

It's been a busy time behind the scenes at the J-Film Pow-Wow that last week or so, which has been difficult seeing that there has been a lot of great news coming down the pipe for fans of Japanese film. One especially good piece of news for folks who prefer art house fare is that not one, but two critically-acclaimed films by veteran indie director Koji Wakamastu are coming to DVD... this week!

Kino Lorber have announced that Wakamatsu's 2007 political docudrama "United Red Army" and his 2010 Edogawa Rampo adaptation "Caterpillar" (above) will be released tomorrow, January 17th on DVD and VOD. As many of you will remember, both films received a limited theatrical run last year (they screened here in Toronto last summer), but now Japanese cinephiles will be able to add these two contemporary classics to their personal collections.

Thanks to Crunchyroll for this great news.

"Sakuran" director Mika Ninagawa returns with manga adaptation "Helter Skelter"

by Chris MaGee

Our second piece of news coming via Twitch today reveals what one filmmaker who has seemingly been M.I.A. in the past couple years is up to next. Many of you will remember 2007's "Sakuran" starring Anna Tsuchiya as a young woman rising through the ranks of geisha house. That film, based on a manga by Moyoco Anno, marked the directorial debut of fashion photographer Mika Ninagawa. With her photographic background (and a bit of good genes from her dad, prominent stage director Yuki Ninagawa) "Sakuran" ended up a gorgeous but a little slim account of fame and beauty in Japan's Edo Era. Since "Sakuran", though, Ninagawa went back to fashion photography, and many wondered if she'd make the leap to filmmaking again.

Now word has come that Ninagawa (above left) has cast actress/ model/ singer Erika Sawajiri (above right) in her sophomore film "Helter Skelter". Once again the film is based on a manga, bu artist Kyoko Okazaki, and again it deals with themes of fame and beauty. This time out though the drama takes place in a world Ninagawa knows very well -- that of high fashion. Sawajiri stars as Ririko, a hugely successful model who is hiding a terrible secret -- her astonishing beauty is not natural but is instead the result of extensive plastic surgery.

The film boasts a truly impressive supporting cast. Award-winning actress Shinobu Terajima stars as Ririko's manager, Nao Omori stars as prosecuting attorney, Yosuke Kubozuka stars as Ririko's boyfriend and Mieko Harada portrays the head of the plastic surgery clinic whicch created Ririko's gorgeous face and body.

Expect to see "Helter Skelter" hit Japanese theatres on July 14th.

REVIEW: Boys on the Run

ボーイズ・オン・ザ・ラン (Boizu On Za Ran)

Released: 2010

Director:
Daisuke Miura

Starring:
Kazunobu Mineta
Mei Kurokawa
Ryuhei Matsuda
You
Kaoru Kobayashi

Running time: 114 min.


Reviewed by Eric Evans

Like the John Hughes teen angst films it echoes, "Boys on the Run" chronicles one desperate yet sincere outcast's struggle for romance. The film is an adaptation of Kengo Hanazawa's manga, with a screenplay co-written by Hanazawa and director Daisuke Miura. It is relentless in its emulation and subversion of escapist formula. "Boys" might be a realist's response to films like "Pretty In Pink" in that it hits many of the same narrative tropes one by one but without the Hollywood gloss. Grand gestures result not in a sweep of music and the lover running into your arms, but in abject public humiliation and violence. The film's great strength is in how it sets up and fulfills the story's major beats, but subverts the hero's (and audience's) expectations of each.

Girls can be scary. Just ask Tanishi (Kazunobu Mineta), a 29-yr-old virgin who muddles through his sales job at a small vending machine novelty toy company. Like most guys his age he's got a healthy interest in sex, but shyness and a lack of experience make interacting with women near impossible. Enter Uemura Chiharu, a pretty and demure young woman who works in the creative services department at his company. They lock eyes at an after-hours izakaya party and Tanishi dares to hope that, should the stars align just so, his nights of furiously masturbating to phone sex lines and internet porn might be over.

Amusing and emotionally resonant, "Boys on the Run" might be the feel-bad movie of 2010. It's boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy fights to win her back by making increasingly bad decisions dictated by the storylines of comics, TV shows and movies. All the lessons Tanishi has learned from a lifetime of reading manga and watching TV are revealed as escapist bullshit. In time the film abandons the pretense of having Tanishi follow movie clichés subconsciously and has him openly embrace his own hollowness: he rents "Taxi Driver" and publicly announces his Travis Bicklization with a mohawk hairdo. This final grand gesture will either validate Tanishi's actions thus far or result in sublime humiliating failure. That he's still willing to take such a risk after the preceding episodes is testament to both his foolish determination and his hopeless immaturity.

The ensemble cast is uniformly good; Mineta and Kurokawa hit the right balance as leads. In the film's first half Tanishi is intended as a cypher for the countless young men he represents and in the second half he's an idealized, vision-questing hero. Mineta manages to imbue both with both boyish sincerity and a nervous uncertainty that lets the viewer know he's not following his instincts, but doing the things that a lifetime spent ingesting manga and movies demands he do. Kurokawa's Uemura, the object of Tanishi's increasingly unwanted affection, gives a deceptively simple performance. As the story progresses she conveys an air of polite disinterest and revulsion while remaining a convincing romantic goal for the protagonist. In other words, she must be both unlikable yet likable without seeming capricious—no simple task. As their respective parent figures, You and Kaoru Kobayashi (as Shiho, the been-there, seen-that sex worker neighbor and Suzuki, the grizzled, alcoholic senpai who trains Tanishi to box, respectively) are excellent. That they are both broken-down people in dead-end careers is evident to the audience, but not their charges. It's also clear to all but the characters themselves that, had neither of them been involved, Tanishi and Uemura might have gotten together, or at very least their discomfort would have been minimized.

This lack of character self-awareness is key to the film. Tanishi is 29 yet lives at home and behaves like a teenager; Uemura, also in her 20s, has a cheap, sloppy studio apartment in the red light district and displays all the emotional maturity of a cheerleader. Shiho and Suzuki are mentors but have no answers. Shiho is an aging "sex bath" escort who advertises herself as a 25-yr-old, drawing snickers from even Tanishi; Suzuki openly drinks at work, assuring incredulous co-workers that beer "doesn't count" as drinking. This emotional immaturity goes all the way up to the top, as the CEOs of the two feuding novelty companies address on-the-job fighting, drinking, and other HR horrors with a schoolyard mentality of encouragement. At no point does anyone react to Tanishi's increasingly unhinged behavior with adult concern.

Of course a movie needs a bad guy and here it's Aoyama, Tanashi's slick, polished rival in novelty sales and Uemura's affections. Played with charm and a practiced, casual cruelty by Ryuhei Matsuda, he's not so much Tanashi's opposite as a variation, an illustration of how a similarly emotionally stunted boy can grow into a functional sociopath. He does exactly what is necessary to get what he wants from others—whether for amusement, sexual gratification, or business success—without the hinderance of conscience. Matsuda doesn't get the credit he deserves as a compelling and versatile actor: he's equally at home playing the tough guy as he is the tortured soul, and his presence here elevates a small yet pivotal role.

"Boys on the Run" really works, even as it induces a fair bit of cringing. Tonally, the movie is closer to the Larry David/Ricky Gervais theater of embarrassment than the feel-good Hughes rom-coms it resembles. It can be read as the Japanese indie film response to decades of Hollywood's simplification of the solutions to life's troubles, or as a particularly singular version (or perversion) of same. The title of the film is both a gag and a warning: these are not boys, and if they're running from anything, it's reality.

Rejoice, Toronto anime fans! Studio Ghibli retro comes to TIFF Bell Lightbox

by Chris MaGee

The thing that made our recent mini-break from posting here on the blog all the more difficult was that we couldn't share our immediate joy regarding a very important announcement here in our hometown of Toronto. As many of you will remember, we posted about how a full retrospective of the films of Studio Ghibli at New York's IFC Center between December 16th to January 12th. At that time there was an indication that this retrospective, which included 35mm prints of such Ghibli classics as "My Neighbor Totoro", "Princess Mononoke", "Only Yesterday", "Porco Rosso" (above) and "The Cat Returns", would start touring around North America with a potential stop here in Toronto. Would it happen? It turns out it is!

The official site for the Toronto International Film Festival Group announced that "Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli" will be coming to the TIFF Bell Lightbox here in the city from March 10th to April 8th. 15 films from the animation studio founded by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata in 1984 will screen on the big screen, something that rarely happens here in Canada as new Ghibli releases only tend to get very limited theatrical runs before hitting DVD. Most likely this will be the case when Ghibli's "The Secret World of Arrietty" gets released in North America in February, but this retrospective will make whatever select screenings of "Arrietty" that take place become a appetizer for this full feast of Ghibli goodness.

Head to the TIFF Bell Lightbox website here for a full listing of the films in the programme, as well as details on purchasing tickets.

Japanese superstar Ken Watanabe narrates documentary on quake/ tsunami recovery

by Chris MaGee

There are few Japanese actors with the kind of public profile as Ken Watanabe. He's continually appeared in major Hollywood blockbusters as "The Last Samurai", "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Inception", while it is nearly impossible to escape his handsome profile on TV, in movies and on billboards at home in Japan. The 52-year-old actor has increasingly used this notoriety to talk about social causes close to his heart (in fact his English Twitter feed is dedicated to such social advocacy). Now there is word that Watanabe will be heading to Switzerland to discuss the one cause that Watanabe holds most dear: Japan's recovery from the March 11th Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Jason Gray over at Screen Daily has reported that Watanabe will be heading to Davos, Switzerland next week to give a speech at The World Economic Forum. He will not only be speaking about the aftermath of this historic disaster, but he will also be premiering an as yet untitled documentary which he narrated about quake and tsunami recovery in the crippled Tohoku region. This premiere comes just short of two months before the documentary gets its official release on the first anniversary of the massive 9.0 quake.

As many of you already know, Watanabe has been active during the past 10 months increasing awareness about the aftermath of the quake and tsunami, as well as calling on his Japanese and Hollywood stars to spread hope to those affected by the disaster through his kizuna311 ("kizuna" meaning bond) website. A very worthy cause, and we wish Watanabe success on his trip to Switzerland.

REVIEW: Sleepy Eyes of Death 2: Sword of Adventure

眠狂四郎 勝負 (Nemuri Kyōshirō 2: Shōbu)

Released: 1964

Director:
Kenji Misumi

Starring:
Raizo Ichikawa
Koichi Aihara
San'emon Arashi
Shinjiro Asano
Okuzan Asao

Running time: 83 min.


Reviewed by Matthew Hardstaff

"Sleepy Eyes of Death 1: The Chinese Jade" laid the groundwork pretty well for the development of Nemuri Kyoshiro. They don’t spend much time establishing who Kyoshiro is, assuming the audience already knows from the tales on which the series is adapted from, or leaving it as a mystery, basing our entire knowledge of Kyoshiro on his actions. It spent its opening scenes separating itself from the then contemporary film series Shinobi No Mono, which also starred Kyoshiro himself, Raizo Ichikawa, by having him open the film slaughtering a group of ninja. And so what better way to start the sequel by immediately separating it from its predecessor. Part 1 ended with Kyoshiro’s love being killed, and him bitter and mad at the world. And so here, after being introduced to the busy urban scene, meeting the young boy Rentaro and the old financial assistant to the Shogun Akaza Gunbei, we catch a glimpse of a female pickpocket running through the crowd, plying her trade. Unfortunately for her, a crowd of people catches her, and in a second her flayed clothes fly into the air and a naked female thief darts off through the crowd. Nemuri Kyoshiro also leaves the crowd, wallet in hand, having plied his trade. This is not the Kyoshiro from the first film, this is a different man entirely, who will not only catch a female trickster, but also make her the laughing stock of her peers.

From there, we learn more about Rentaro and Akaza Gunbei. Rentaro is now living on the streets, his father dead after a ronin challenged him to a duel, killing him and taking over his dojo. Kyoshiro immediately perks up. Soon he finds himself dueling with the ronin and quickly dispatching him. From there his fate becomes intertwined with Akaza Gunbei. Gunbei has been put in charge of finding ways to cut costs for the Shogun, a task that doesn’t always bode well with people who in the end may loose out financially. One of these people is the Shoguns own daughter Takahime, the most beautiful of all his daughters. She lives off a stipend given to her by her father, a stipend Gunbei believes is wasteful. She obviously sees only one way to save herself from financial ruin, as she lounges in lavish luxury: kill Gunbei. Of course Kyoshiro finds himself not only standing between the two, but also a vessel of lust the hedonistic princess. But of course, this new Kyoshiro disdains the romantic notion of love, and will do everything in his pour to reject her and any other woman he meets.

This film is notably different as I already pointed out, but also in the same mold. The writer, Seiji Hoshikawa, wrote many films in this series, as well as Zatoichi, so he’s not only a seasoned pro at writing for a film series, but he also brings a subtle sense of continuity between films. On the surface it may appear that Kyoshiro is helping the boy Rentaro and the old man Akaza Gunbei because he wants to help fight injustice. However his actions speak differently. Take the duel with the ronin who killed Rentaro’s father. His interest is peaked after Gunbei tells him his father ran a dojo and speaks of the feats of martial prowess he achieved. Kyoshiro smells a fight. He also fights the ronin in the style of the deceased master, which is only possible if he studied the style, giving him another reason to defeat the ronin in a duel. And this is how much of the film plays out. Kyoshiro starts following the old man Gunbei around, always remaining in his vicinity, after he discovers people are out to get him, people with swords that like to duel. He could have easily acted as Gunbei's bodyguard, and helped evade the man from danger, but he prefers to hover around Gunbei until danger strikes, using him as bait. Where as the first film seems to intertwine Kyoshiro’s fate with that of dispatching death, here Kyoshiro tempts fate but putting himself directly in the path of violence and destruction, through the guise of good nature and the battle of injustice. His nihilistic nature is subtle, but it is brewing within him.

Director Kenji Misumi also sets the film apart visually though his usually stunning imagery and vicious yet stylistic staging of swordplay. In the first film the duels were more like a dance, there was more beauty not just in Raizo Mishawaka’s movements, but also in the visual composition and montage. Here Misumi has a slightly more aggressively visual style, which forms a wonderful symbiosis with Kyoshiro’s chosen path.

Kyoshiro the nihilist here we come!!

Read more by Matthew Hardstaff at his blog.

Weekly Trailers

Zombie Ass - Noboru Iguchi (2011)

Danger! Noboru Iguchi, the man who brought us "The Machine Girl" and "RoboGeisha" returns with the tale of a battle between high school girls and zombies... and there's a lot of ass involved. Okay, there's more than just ass going on in the trailer for "Zombie Ass". There's exploding heads too! "Zombie Ass" is due for a Japanese theatrical release next month.




Tarao Bannai - Norifumi Suzuki (1978)

Famed early 70's exploitation director Norifumi Suzuki shifted gears in '78 to bring to screen the adventures of fictional detective Tarao Bannai. Lead actor Akira Kobayashi, famous for portraying tough guy gangsters is nearly unrecognizable as the titular sleuth.

Japanese Weekend Box Office, January 14th to January 15th

1. Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol (Paramount)
2. Admiral Yamato* (Toei)
3. Magic Tree House* (GAGA)
4. Friends:Naki On The Monster Island* (Toho)
5. Inazuma Eleven Go: The Movie* (Toho)
6. Kaibutsu-kun:The Movie* (Toho)
7. Kamen Rider ~Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO Movie Taisen Megamax* (Toei)
8. Real Steel (Disney)
9. Tale Of Genji: A Thousand Year Enigma* (Toho)
10. Fright Night (Disney)

* Japanese film

Courtesy of Box Office Japan.

REVIEW: The Woodsman and the Rain

キツツキと雨 (Kitsutsuki to Ame)

Released: 2011

Director:
Shuichi Okita

Starring:
Koji Yakusho
Shun Oguri
Kanji Furutachi
Asami Usuda
Tsutomu Yamazaki

Running time: 129 min.


Reviewed by Chris MaGee

There are two kinds of Japanese films that you never think would cross paths: the small town "gambatte" heart-warmer and the minimalist, downbeat indie comedy. One appeals to families heading to movie theatres and the other (in a lot of cases) is made to appeal to young, disaffected Japanese youth. They'd be cinematic oil and water, right? Well, at least most would think so, but one film that has managed to combine these polar opposite genres into a satisfying whole is "The Woodsman and the Rain". What makes this... well, minimalist "gambatte" indie heart-warmer... truly interesting is how it accomplishes this not just from behind the camera, but also by the combination of talent in front of the camera.

Katsu (Koji Yakuzho) is a 60-year-old lumberjack who spends his days at one with nature in the hills and mountains of rural Japan. It's a life that seems to suit this taciturn and pragmatic man. As he methodically (and with great respect) harvests lumber he doesn't need to talk or think about his late wife or his contentious relationship with his slacker son (Kengo Kora). Out in the forest life is uneventful... for the most part. One afternoon Katsu is stopped by a member of the producer of an indie zombie movie (Kanji Furutachi) and asked to refrain from chainsawing until they finish shooting. It's an unlikely event, but it forms the heart of the film.

Soon the producer is asking Katsu to drive them around the area as he, and a sulky, socially withdrawn young man named Koichi (Shun Oguri), scout locations for the film. Katsu really wants no part of this crazy endeavor, and he almost instantly takes a dislike to Koichi. It isn't until Katsu drives this limp young man to the train station one night that he not only learns the full plot of the film (a near future Japan in which all but 6,000 humans battle it out with zombies), but also that Koichi is no lowly crew member. He's the film's screenwriter and director! Soon Katsu is being enticed by the magic of moviemaking, but most importantly it's in 25-year-old Koichi that Katsu has a chance at reassessing his own relationship with his 20-something son. Soon both men are feeding each others lives and creativity, all the while battling zombies.

What director Shuichi Okita, the man who brought us 2009's gentle comedy "Chef of the South Polar", has done "The Woodsman and the Rain" is have one of Japan's most respected actors, Koji Yakusho, portray a character that is little seen on screens these days and contrast him with a character seen regularly in indie Japanese productions. Katsu is closer to the calloused-handed, steely-eyed alpha males portrayed by Ken Ogata and Kinya Kitaoji in films like Shinji Somai's "The Catch" and Mistuo Yanagimachi's "Himatsuri"; but Katsu still ends up being a classic Yakusho character. Like the leads in "Shall We Dance?" and "University of Laughs", Katsu is a man whose mind and heart are opened up by the most unlikely of creative outlets. With this Japanese film archetype alone Okita would have hit on his hands, but he places Katsu alongside Shun Oguri's shuffling and painfully introverted filmmaker. Koichi is a character that comes straight from the films like Yasutomo Chikuma's "Now, I..." or " Kohei Igarashi's Voice of the Rain that Comes at Night". It could have been a disaster, but it wasn't.

Watching "The Woodsman and the Rain" made me think of other great cinematic mash-ups that could have failed miserable, but didn't. Peter Bogdanovich's 1968 thriller "Targets" which pit an aging horror film actor (Boris Karloff) against a new kind of horror -- a Vietnam vet turned mass murderer (Tim O'Kelly), or John Wayne and James Stewart contrasted with the young Ron Howard in Don Siegel's western "The Shootist". "The Woodsman and the Rain" could have been just another feel-good formula film in which Yakusho's character teaches the young Koichi some valuable life lessons and everyone goes home happy. Everyone will go home happy from "The Woodsman and the Rain", but it will be because this is a film that gives us the best from old and new Japanese film and allows its unlikely leading duo to teach each other.

Actor Hideaki Nitani, 1930-2012

by Chris MaGee

Sad news the weekend for fans of Nikkatsu action films of the 1960's. Actor Hideaki Nitani, best known for his supporting roles in such films as "Underworld Beauty" and "Tokyo Drifter" died of pneumonia on Saturday, January 7th at a Tokyo hospital. He was 81.

Born in 1930 in Kyoto, Nitani didn't start his career on the screen but on the airwaves. In 1954 he began work as an announcer for a Nagasaki-area radio station. It wasn't until two years later when Nikkatsu Studios began hiring new onscreen talent that Nitani went from announcer to actor. In 1954 Nikkatsu had finally begun to produce films again after having temporarily shuttering itself during the post-war U.S. Occupation. Joining Nitani during this hiring blitz were stars like Akira Kobayashi, Yujiro Ishihara and Jo Shishido. Nitani made his screen debut in 1956 in Takumi Furukawa's "The People of Okinawa". This would begin a string of roles, mostly as tough guys and gangsters, in the films of Seijun Suzuki, Yuzo Kawashima, Ko Nakahira, and Koreyoshi Kurahara, amongst others.

Nitani would begin to take roles on the small screen beginning in 1968 while still acting in Nikkatsu films; but once the studio shifted production entirely to it's famed Roman Porno line of erotic films in 1971 Nitani, as well as many of Nikkatsu's other stars, moved on. Nitani would find fame starring as veteran police detective Kyosuke Kumashiro in the hit TV Asahi series "Frontline Investigators (Tokuso Saizensen)" which ran from 1977 until 1985. Nitani would continue to act on television and the occasional film while being active with charitable organizations working to rebuild post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. A stroke in 2003 forced Nitani into retirement.

Our sincere condolences go out to Nitani's family, friends and colleagues. We leave you with the trailer for one of Nitani's best known films, Seijun Suzuki's "Tokyo Drifter". Thanks to Don Brown and The Japan Times for the news of Nitani's death and the details of his life.