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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Japanese Cinema Spotlight

Now that the World Cup is over, the backlog of the various film spotlights can start. The Japanese spotlight is first with the following assorted titles on tap:

The Only Son (1936, Yasujirô Ozu)
There was a Father (1942, Yasujirô Ozu)
Tales of Ugetsu (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)
Bakumatsu Taiyoden (1957, Yuzo Kawashima)
Good Morning (1959, Yasujirô Ozu)
Tokyo Olympiad (1965, Kon Ichikawa)
Patriotism (1966, Yukio Mishima)
Samurai Rebellion (1967, Masaki Kobayashi)
Cure (1997, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Fish Story (2009, Yoshihiro Nakamura)

The original intent was to find titles spread across a few decades but somehow the selection is more tilted towards the 1950's - late 1960's, with 3 titles from each decade. Also, Ozu has three titles but I had my eye on these three films for a while. Cure is the only 90's title and Fish Story is the only new selection which screened last week at Fantasia in Montreal.

The one big unknown is Bakumatsu Taiyoden, a title helmed by a director I have never read about. So I am quite excited to see if this is a rare discovery.

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