jd3's - JD3 Best of Japan List
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Female Prisoner No. 701: Scorpion (1972)Joshuu 701-gô: Sasori
Feature is "Jailhouse Rock" for the stay-at-home generation: an amphetamine-fueled descent into the humid cells of a women's lock-up. High-pulse nymphomania, bone-shattering violence, and a gruesomely gynaecological approach to torture rear their collective head in the workyard, in the cafeteria,... and in the showers of this messed-up big-house - more akin to a hen-house where all types of filthy birds come to roost. Take Meiko Kaji for instance - she's serving time as a result of circumstances that went a little, well...beyond her control. But whether she's tied down or chained up, Kaji (a.k.a. Nami "Matsu the Scorpion" Matsushima) knows how to channel her sense of vengeance into that delta-sized libidinal urge known by any prison-vixen of the sensational 70s - and thereby makes the most of her incarceration. - Director:
- Shunya Itô
- Cast:
- Meiko Kaji, Rie Yokoyama, Yayoi Watanabe
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The Eel (1997)Unaqi
With 'The Eel', the late Shohei Imamura became the only Japanese filmmaker to have twice won the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or. After an eight-year prison sentence for murder, Tajuro chooses to start a new life as a barber in a small town, which offers perfect isolation from his fears. As a favour to the town priest he agrees to help a young woman with a troubled past by offering her job as his assistant. However, when he least expects it, her past will collide with his. - Director:
- Shôhei Imamura
- Cast:
- Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baishô, Kôji Yakusho
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Cold Fish (2010)Tsumetai nettaigyo
Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop. His second wife, Taeko, does not get along with his daughter, Mitsuko, and this worries him. One day Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a grocery store. There they meet a friendly man named Murata, who helps to settle things between Mitsuko and the store manager. Since Murata also runs a tropical fish shop, Shamoto establishes a bond with him and they become friends; Mitsuko even begins working for Murata and living at his house. What Shamoto doesn't know, however, is that Murata hides many dark secrets behind his friendly face. He sells cheap fish to his customers for high prices with his artful lies. If anyone detects his fraud or refuses to go along with his moneymaking schemes, they're murdered and their bodies disposed of by Murata and his wife in grisly ways. Shamoto is taken in by Murata's tactics, and by the time he realizes that Murata is insane, and a serial killer who has made over fifty people disappear, he is powerless to do anything about it. But now Mitsuko is a hostage at Murata's home and Shamoto himself has become the killer's unwilling accomplice. Cruel murders gradually cripple his mind and finally the ordinary man is driven to the edge of the abyss. - Director:
- Sion Sono
- Cast:
- Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi
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Guilty of Romance (2011)Koi no tsumi
A dramatic account of three women and their lives, seen through the looking glass of sex, words, madness, death, and family, 'Guilty Of Romance' - the new crime noir from the award-winning director Sion Sono - tells the tale of three women entangled in a mystery... a mystery that is the gate to a hell-bound love like no other! Set just before the turn of the 21st century, a grisly murder occurs in Maruyama-cho, Shibuya - a love hotel district - a woman was found dead in a derelict apartment in the pouring rain. Whilst the police investigate, the story interweaves with that of Izumi, the wife of a famous romantic novelist whose life seems just a daily repetition without romance. One day, to break away from the loveless monotony, she decides to follow her desires and accepts a job as a naked model faking sex in front of the camera. Soon she meets with a mentor and starts selling her body to strangers, whilst at home she hides behind the facade that she is still the wife she is supposed to be. - Director:
- Sion Sono
- Cast:
- Miki Mizuno, Makoto Togashi, Megumi Kagurazaka
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