jd3's - JD3 Best of Japan List
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Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu
Directed by the acclaimed Japanese master Shohei Imamura, this brilliant parable for adults follows an unemployed businessman who travels to a remote fishing village in search of hidden treasure. Once there, he finds the house in which the riches are hidden, and discovers that it is occupied by a beautiful young woman and her aged grandmother. Taking measures to ingratiate himself with the young woman, he soon ends up receiving a more unique gift than he bargained for. - Director:
- Shôhei Imamura
- Cast:
- Kôji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baishô
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Red Angel (1966)Akai tenshi
When Sakura Nishi (Ayako Wakao) is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan's war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr. Okabe (Shinsuke Ashida) conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction. - Director:
- Yasuzô Masumura
- Cast:
- Ayako Wakao, Shinsuke Ashida, Yûsuke Kawazu
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Seven Samurai (1954)Shichinin no Samurai
In 16th century Japan a poor village is raided every year by a group of bandits until, driven to the brink of starvation, the villagers decide to hire professional warriors to protect them. With only three meager meals a day to offer as payment, their request seems an impossible one. A simple plot, flawlessly executed - 'Seven Samurai' combines comedy, pathos, memorable characters, gripping tension and some of the finest action scenes ever filmed. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima
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A Fugitive from the Past (1965)Kiga kaikyô / Straits of Hunger
In 1947, a freak typhoon sends a passenger ferry running between Hokkaido and mainland Japan plunging to the ocean depths, with hundreds of lives lost. During the chaos, three men are witnessed fleeing a burning pawnshop in the Hokkaido port town of Iwanai. The police suspect theft and arson, and when Detective Yumisaka (Junzaburo Ban) discovers the burned remains of a boat and the corpses of two men, he sets about tracking the shadowy third figure. Meanwhile, the mysterious Takichi Inukai (Rentaro Mikuni) takes shelter with a prostitute, Yae (Sachiko Hidari), a brief encounter that will come to define both of their lives. A decade later, long after the trail has gone cold, Yumisaka is called back by his successor Detective Ajimura (Ken Takakura) as two new dead bodies are found. - Director:
- Tomu Uchida
- Cast:
- Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Kôji Mitsui
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Shoplifters (2018)Manbiki Kazoku
After a successful shoplifting spree, Osamu (Lily Franky) and his son rescue a little girl in the freezing cold and invite her home with them. Osamu's wife Nobuyo (Sakura Ando) reluctantly agrees to shelter her. Although the family is poor, they live happily together until an unforeseen incident upsets the delicate balance they have created, revealing long-buried secrets... - Director:
- Hirokazu Koreeda
- Cast:
- Rirî Furankî, Sakura Andô, Mayu Matsuoka
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Ikiru (1952)Living
Opening with a shot of an x-ray, showing the main character's stomach, 'Ikiru' tells the tale of a dedicated, downtrodden civil servant who, diagnosed with a fatal cancer, learns to change his dull, unfulfilled existence, and suddenly discovers a zest for life. Plunging first into self-pity, then a bout of hedonistic pleasure-seeking on the frenetic streets of post-war Tokyo, Watanable (Takashi Shimura) - the film's hero - finally finds satisfaction through building a children's playground. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
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The Bullet Train (1975)Shinkansen daibakuha
A group of bombers announce that they have placed speed-triggered bombs aboard a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Hakata, the "Hikari 109". If the train slows below 80km/h, it will be destroyed. When the terrorists demand five million dollars, the police find themselves in a frantic race against time to find the bombers, defuse the bomb and save the innocent passengers. Pre-dating Speed by almost two decades, The Bullet Train is a gripping, edge of your seat thriller that as well as boasting blistering action sequences also focuses on the simmering political tensions between the civilians, the government and the surprisingly sympathetic bombers. Cult action star Sonny 'Street Fighter' Chiba features as the train operator who must find the device and there's a characteristically stirring performance from Ken Takakura (dubbed the Japanese Clint Eastwood) as a bomber with a serious grudge. - Director:
- Jun'ya Satô
- Cast:
- Ken Takakura, Shin'ichi Chiba, Kei Yamamoto
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High and Low (1963)Tengoku To Jigoku
Based on the Ed McBain novel, 'High and Low' is a gripping police thriller starring Toshiro Mifune. Wealthy industrialist Kingo Gondo (Mifune) faces an agonising choice when a ruthless kidnapper, aiming to snatch his young son, takes the chauffeur's boy by mistake - but still demands the ransom, leaving Gondo facing ruin if he pays up. An anatomy of the inequalities in modern Japanese society, High and Low is a complex film noir, where the intense police hunt for the kidnapper is accompanied by penetrating insight into the kidnappers state of mind. Kurosawa's virtuoso direction provides no easy answers, and in short, intense sequences, he portrays the businessman, the police and the criminal as equally brutal but nonetheless human. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai
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Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020)Droste no hate de bokura
Café owner Kato (Kazunari Tosa) is relaxing after a long day when an image of himself suddenly appears on his television speaking from the future of two minutes. Soon Kato, his staff and regular customers are trapped in a time prison eager to learn about the distant future. But a Time Echo accelerates the paradox fiasco and a mysterious duo pays a visit as the future strikes back. - Director:
- Junta Yamaguchi
- Cast:
- Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida
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Black Test Car / The Black Report (1963)Kuro no tesuto kâ / Kuro no hôkokusho (Black Statement Book)
Maverick director Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast) helms a bitingly satirical espionage thriller set in the heart of the Japanese auto industry in his 1962 landmark 'Black Test Car', which launched a series of similarly themed "Black" films. In a bitter, take-no-prisoners corporate war between the Tiger Motorcar Company and their competitors, the Yamato Company, undercover spies have infiltrated both sides. As Tiger prepares to launch its newest "Pioneer" car and a prototype bursts into flames, Onada (Hideo Takamatsu, The Last Emperor) heads a secretive task force to root out Yamato's spy, and find out what they can about the competitor's familiar-looking new model. Making its worldwide debut, 'Black Test Car' is paired here with the English-language video premiere of its follow-up 'The Black Report', also directed by Masumura. - Director:
- Yasuzô Masumura
- Cast:
- Jirô Tamiya, Junko Kanô, Eiji Funakoshi
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Pigs and Battleships / Stolen Desire (1961)Buta to gunkan / Nusumareta yokujô
Imamura finally answered his true calling as Japanese cinema's most dedicated and brilliant chronicler of society's underbelly with the astonishing 'Pigs and Battleships' (Buta togunkan). A riotous portrait of sub-Yakuza gangsters battling for control of the local pork business in the U.S. Navy-occupied coastal town of Yokosuka, Imamura conjures a chaotic world of petty thugs, young love, tough-headed women, and underworld hypochondria, with one of the most unforgettable climaxes ever filmed. 'Pigs and Battleships' immediately became a cornerstone of the Japanese New Wave and remains perhaps Imamura's most well known work. The Masters oi Cinema Series is proud to present the film on its 50th anniversary in a Dual Format edition, alongside Imamura's rarely seen 1958 debut, 'Stolen Desire'. - Director:
- Shôhei Imamura
- Cast:
- Hiroyuki Nagato, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Masao Mishima
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After washing up, penniless and destitute in Hong Kong in 1901, lheiji Muraoka (Ken Ogata) assimilates straight away into the local Japanese expatriate community, and is soon set up in the city as an apprentice barber. The Japanese consul has higher goals for him in mind, however, and he finds himself dispatched on a spying mission to investigate Russian military activity in Manchuria. After discovering an enclave of young Japanese women being held as prostitutes, lheiji spots an opportunity to prove his loyalty to the Emperor and make a quick buck in the process, partnering with his former sweetheart Shiho (Mitsuko Baisho) and rehabilitating a group of ex-convicts to build an enterprise that stretches to Malaysia and the Philippines. - Director:
- Shôhei Imamura
- Cast:
- Ken Ogata, Mitsuko Baishô, Chun Hsiung Ko
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Black Rain (1989)Kuroi Ame
In 1950, middle-age couple Shigematsu (Kazuo Kitamura) and Shigeko (Etsuko Ichihara) lead a tranquil village existence with Yasuko (Yoshiko Tanaka), the 25-year-old niece they have taken in as their own daughter. While Shigematsu seeks solace whiling away the long summer days with his companions and fellow bomb survivors at the local carp fishing pond, the dark oppressive clouds of the devastation of five years before loom ever present, as the couple find their repeated attempts to find a suitable marriage match for Yasuko fall through due to the suspicion that her blood is tainted from the blast. - Director:
- Shôhei Imamura
- Cast:
- Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara
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"Hiroshima" (1953) is a powerful evocation of the devastation wrought by the world's first deployment of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, based on the written eye-witness accounts of its child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 book 'Children of the A-Bomb: Testament of the Boys and Girls of Hiroshima'. Adapted for the screen by independent director Hideo Sekigawa (Listen to the Voices of the Sea, Tokyo Untouchable) and screenwriter Yasutaro Yagi (Theatre of Life, Rice), Hiroshima combines a harrowing documentary realism with moving human drama, in a tale of the suffering, endurance, and survival of a group of teachers, their students, and their families. It boasts a rousing score composed by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla) and an all-star cast including Yumeji Tsukioka (Late Spring, The Eternal Breasts), Isuzu Yamada (Throne of Blood, Yojimbo), and Eiji Okada (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Woman in the Dunes), appearing alongside an estimated 90,000 residents from the city as extras, including many survivors from that fateful day on 6th August 1945. "Hiroshima" was produced outside of the studio system by the Japan Teachers' Union after the mixed critical reception to the first dramatic feature to deal directly with the atomic bombing, 'Children of Hiroshima' (1952), directed by Kaneto Shindo the previous year. Although sequences from the film were used in Alain Resnais' classic of French New Wave cinema, 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' (1959), it has been effectively out of circulation since its original release in 1953 due to the force and political sensitivity of its message. - Director:
- Hideo Sekigawa
- Cast:
- Eiji Okada, Yumeji Tsukioka, Yoshi Katô
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The Hidden Fortress (1958)Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
A story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress, 'The Hidden Fortress' is a thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai action movie. It was Kurosawa's first film shot in the widescreen process of Tohoscope, and he exploited this to the full in the film's rich variety of landscape locations, including the slopes of Mount Fuji. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki
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