しあわせ

The program for the 51st LFF has been published and bookings open at the end of this month.

This year I see 7 films from Japan listed as well as 2 shorts. None of which I’ve seen before although a couple of directors I’m familiar with; such as Kitano Takeshi, the famous actor/director; Nobuhiro Yamashita, the director of リンダリンダリンダ; and Masayuki Suo, the director of Shall We Dansu.

Does Your Soul Have a Cold? Sun 21 Oct, Tue 23 Oct Documentary.
EXTE - hair extensions Thur 25 Oct, Fri 26 Oct
Glory to the Filmaker Thur 18 Oct. Kitano Takeshi
I Just Didn’t Do It Fri 26 Oct, Mon 29 Oct. Masayuki Suo
Matsugane Potshot Affair Tue 23 Oct, Wed 24 Oct. Nobuhiro Yamashita
Mourning Forest Sun 28 Oct, Tue 30 Oct
Vexille Sat 20 Oct, Sun 21 Oct. CG Anime

Ticket prices are from £6, £8.50 or £11 depending on time and venue.

めし dir:成瀬 巳喜男　1951

After going to the NFT Naruse retrospective and being dissapointed in the film I saw, I’ve finally managed to see some of his films on Eureka DVD.

めし, made in 1951 is much better than When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.
Visually not very exciting, but this film has more of a sense of place. Parts of it were even shot on location in Osaka. It was interesting to see places I recognised such as Dontonburi, Shin Kabukiza and the Kuidaore Ningyo.

The characters were believable and this time I could empathise with them. Maybe unusually for any film of this period the major characters are women. The men are definitely the supporting cast and apart from the husband character very much in the background. Indeed this is a recurring motif for Naruse.

The story mainly is about a young housewife, Michiyo, who is dissatisfied with her endless lot of cooking and cleaning for her husband. They are not well off and live in a small house. And yet the husband isn’t a bad man. Maybe a bit absorbed in his job and newspaper but not demanding and quite sympathetic and even kind. Michiyo’s dissatisfaction is made worse when a young niece comes to stay after running away from her home in Tokyo. The young girls freedoms (and possible designs on the husband) do not make for a happy household.

It is an interesting period film. I think maybe the attitudes would be unknown and strange to modern Japanese. The resolution I found very Japanese but true to it’s time I’d say.

As usual worth a rental.

花と怒濤　dir:鈴木清順　1964

Suzuki Seijun is best known for a very strong visual style seen in such films as Tokyo Drifter, and Branded to Kill that ultimately got him fired from his studio. And in more recent years has made Pistol Opera and Princess Tanuki, both of which are very visual but fairly incomprehensible I think.

This film is from the period just before Tokyo Drifter and his split from Nikkatsu Studios. It was towards the start of his collaborations with Production Designer Takeo Kimura. Seijun was making an enourmous amount of B movies at this time. Mainly in the Yakuza genre. Essentially these were to Japan what the B Western was to America. He made about 3 a year under an incredible 40 day schedule. (Contrast this with todays films where directors will seldomn make 1 a year and schedules from pre production to post production lasts many months if not well over a year and many millions of dollars)

So on the face of it this is standard Yakuza fare. Love story, gangs, fights, cops, period feel. But something of the director’s talents shine through and you get really interesting visuals and something more than a B-movie.

His later films are much more visual masterpieces but the story in this one is easier to follow. Worth a rental.

暗殺　dir: 篠田正浩　1964

Another title in Eureka’s Masters of Cinema. This is by Masahiro Shinoda who was unfortunately eclipsed by his contempories Kurosawa, Ozu and Naruse outside Japan.

This is a jidaigeki, period drama, in the style of the Japanese New Wave. It’s set in Edo in the unrest after the Black Ships forced open the country. It was a time of impending civil war at the end of the hundreds of years of appartent peace of the Shogunate. It’s a fairly complex plot in some ways with a lot of political intrigue. So it’s definitely not an average Samurai movie.

What really attracted me was it’s look. Widescreen black and white, shallow focus, great composition, panning to cover dialog, freeze frames (I find this like the poses struck in Kabuki) handheld camerawork. For a film made in 1964 it still looks surprisingly fresh, maybe because it’s techniques have been mined by others.

Worth a rental.

二十四の瞳 dir: 木下恵介 1954

I saw this today on a Eureka Masters of Cinema DVD release. I quite liked it. I was interested in what film could beat Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in an Awards competition. However despite enjoying it I don’t think it has the classic quality of the former.

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