Top Ten Japanese Classic Movies

<Seven Samurai> (Shichinin no samurai)(1954)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa (Akira Kurosawa)

Written by Shinobu Hashimoto (Shinobu Hashimoto)

Synopsis

This is the first period drama by the famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa to really add the flavor of Western movies. Although director Akira Kurosawa intended the film to be a thoroughly entertaining action movie, the fact is that the entire work still fully reveals Kurosawa's humane spirit. The characterization of the seven samurai, on the whole, can be said to be quite successful, especially Joe Shimura as Kambei, who brings out the wisdom and maturity of the character to the fullest. The war scenes in this movie adopt many consecutive plural shots, which are more tense and shocking than the general westerns, fully revealing Kurosawa's profound skill in camera operation. Therefore, this period drama with both entertainment and artistic value, without losing the Japanese flavor, was labeled as the first of the "Ten Best Films" in the history of Japanese cinema by the Japanese magazine "Movie Weekly".

2

Ukigumo

Alias: Floating Clouds

Release Date: January 15, 1955 Japan

Directed by: Saikio Naruse

Written by: Fumiko Hayashi novel Yoko Mizuki

Produced by: Masazumi Fujimoto

The film is a Japanese period drama with artistic value and Japanese flavor. p>Produced by Masumi Fujimoto

Script by Yoko Mizuki

Cinematography by Masao Tamai

Music by Ichiro Saito

Starring Hideto Komine, Masanaka Mori, Chieko Kitachi, Jasmine Okada, Hoon Yamagata, Daisuke Kato

Synopsis:

Floating Clouds, which starred Hideto Komine as Fumiko Hayashi's tragic original the heroine. The story follows a young woman's love affair with a married man during the war (which stretches into the post-war period).

Kanekichi Tomioka, who has a wife and family, is a grafter in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and during the war is sent to India, which is under Japanese invasion, to manage forest resources. He falls in love with Yukiko Yukita, who volunteers to work here as a typist after being raped by her cousin. After the war, Tomioka promises Yukiko that he will divorce his wife and live with her when he returns to Japan. Soon after, Yukiko returns to Japan and finds Yukioka, who panics and explains to her why she is not divorced. Yukiko leaves in silence and borrows a dilapidated barn to live in. Tomioka comes back to Yukiko again, and the two of them are still in love with each other. When Tomioka's business fails, he takes Yukiko to the Ikaho Hot Springs and has an affair with the wife of the owner of the hot spring bar, Sei, and Yukiko returns to Tokyo in anger. Yukiko returns to Tokyo in a fit of pique. She later realizes that she is pregnant and goes back to Tomioka. By this time Tomioka is living with Ashi. Once again, Yukiko was in trouble and she had to borrow money to abort the child. After her husband kills Seki, Tomioka comes back to Yukiko, and Yukiko forgives Tomioka once again. Yukiko forgives Tomioka once again. By this time, Tomioka's wife is dead and he returns to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and is assigned to work in Onjushima. Yukiko travels with him, but on the way, Yukiko falls ill and dies soon after. Tomioka Kanekichi has mixed feelings and weeps over the corpse.......

The 100 Best Japanese Movies by Japan Movie Weekly, No. 2

2005 is an unusual year for Japanese cinema, with a number of master directors from the studio era celebrating their centennials, such as Hiroshi Inagaki, who specializes in samurai films and portrays the city's most famous characters, and the director of a film about an old man. Inagaki Hiroshi, who specialized in the samurai genre, Toyota Shiro, who portrayed the delicate emotions of men and women in the urban areas (his "Good Couple" was featured in Dish Market), and Naruse Miyoshi, who specialized in women's inner worlds in a realist manner.

This weekend (August 20) is the centennial of Naruse's birth, and commemorative events are being held all over Japan to pay tribute to the master, including the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, which from this weekend will focus on 61 Naruse's masterpieces, the largest Naruse retrospective in Japan since 1979. There are also a lot of Naruse fans in the Chinese region. Starting from July 9, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society has been showing 12 of Naruse's masterpieces for 12 consecutive weeks, and invited renowned film critics such as Shu Qi, Tang Zhenzhao, and Li Zhuo Tao to host lectures. In Taiwan, a Naruse Film Festival will also be held in Taoyuan County in December, screening 10 of his works.

The highlight of the album market is Toho's release of "Naruse Sikio Toho Masterpiece Selection" DVD on July 22nd and August 26th in two separate episodes, featuring 10 works, which is the largest and most exquisite digitalization of Naruse's works to date, and which is believed to be ready to meet with local movie fans soon.

3

Hungry Straits (?kami to buta to ningen) (1964)

Directed by:Tumi Uchida

Written by Junya Sato

Starring:Lentaro Mikuni, Yuko Saeko, Ken Takakura

Synopsis:

The movie is a realistic recreation of the social situation in Japan after the end of the World War II. After the end of World War II, the film realistically reproduces the social landscape of Japan. During the post-war recovery period, Japan was in a state of extreme poverty and hunger, which led to a series of robberies and murders. This potential for instability continued long after the war, just as there was a ten-year gap between the second murder of Yukai, renamed Tarumi, in the film. The director's objective and dispassionate portrayal of such a manly man, who had both a brutal and wild side and a humane and compassionate human side, eschews simple glorification and vilification, and is profoundly significant to the understanding of post-war Japanese society. Lentaro Mikuni stars as Yukai and Ken Takakura as a criminal police officer. The story depicts the sinking of a passenger ship on the day of a major typhoon in the Utsugaru Strait. When the bodies are recovered, there are two more passengers than registered. Inspector Kousaka believes that the incident is related to the fire at the Sada Pawn Shop a few days before, and opens a case to investigate Yukai, who works at the pawn store. In fact, Yugai, Kijima and Numata killed Sada's family, robbed 800,000 yen and set the pawnshop on fire. When the three of them were fleeing, they fought over the difference of the stolen goods, and Kijima and Numata died and sank into the sea, while Yukai fled to Hokkaido and left 40,000 yen to Yae, a prostitute, after she stayed there for one night. When Kousaka and the police come to investigate, Yae denies having seen Yukai, and the trail ends there. Yukai arrives in Maizuru (renamed Tarumi) and makes a fortune with the money he stole from a business, and becomes a big philanthropist in the area, often supporting other people. Yae sees Tarumi's picture in the newspaper and recognizes him as Yukai. She goes to see Tarumi. Tarumi refuses to admit it and strangles Yae to prevent leakage. The Coastal Police Station discovers the body, and recognizing that Yae might have seen Yukai, they deduce that Yukai is the same as Tarumi and arrest Tarumi. Tarumi throws himself into the sea during the transportation. The ending of the movie is a wonderful picture, in the vast sea the boat stirs up the water waves on the surface of the arc trajectory, accompanied by the echo of the Kuregory hymn, as if the sea embraces all the desires of the human world, sins and sorrows, it makes people sigh and think. CCTV had broadcast this movie in the early 90s.

4

Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari)

Released: 1953

Film Director: Yasujiro Ozu

Film Actors:

Chishu Ryu (笠智众). ...... Shukishi Hirayama

Chieko Higashiyama ...... Tomi Hirayama

Setsuko Hara ...... Noriko

Haruko Sugimura ...... Shige Kaneko

S? Yamamura ...... Same per

Kuniko Miyake (Kuniko Mi

Synopsis

Tokyo Story is widely regarded as the finest film Yasujiro Ozu made in his long career, as well as one of those classic art-house films, and Ozu's most moving post-war film.

Tokyo Story tells the story of two generations of a large family. Affection and alienation, love and obligation, death and loneliness are slowly unfolded in a series of small, ordinary events that are all too familiar to the audience. This is the story of an ordinary Japanese family, but it is also the story of all families, no matter you and me, we may find our own place in the movie. The movie opens with a conversation on the platform between an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Shokichi Hirayama, who are traveling to Tokyo to meet their other children. On their way through Osaka, they meet Keizo Mio, who serves on the national railroad, and then go straight to the home of Yuko Nagao in Tokyo. After two or three days, the old couple, out of boredom, move to the home of their eldest daughter, Shiko, who runs a beauty salon, but Shiko is very stingy, and only Noriko, the daughter-in-law of the late second son, gives the two old men warm hospitality. When he is scolded by his daughter for drinking with his old friends, Choukichi returns to his hometown in anger. Mrs. Choukichi died of a cerebral hemorrhage soon after. The movie ends with a touching and heartwarming farewell to Noriko. In this movie, Ozu's simple video style is almost perfect, everything is so natural that the filmmaker does not need to sensationalize or tell the audience who is right and who is wrong, because this is how life is supposed to be. Perhaps the director's only inclination is the kind of gentle irony in the movie, but never a righteous criticism, because Ozu doesn't believe in a once-and-for-all solution, and not only does he want to show life as it is, he also wants us to accept the fact that human nature is not perfect.

"Tokyo Story" is one of Ozu's own favorite films, but he rarely talks about it. After the movie won second place in Movie Lunch's annual selection, Ozu said, "I wanted to depict how traditional Japanese families fall apart through the experiences of parents and children. Of all the movies I've made, this one is the most popular drama." .

No ups and downs are the plot of the movie, nor is there the tedious entanglement of love and hate. There is just a hint of faint sadness, and this sadness is just like a piece of autumn leaves falling process. But more than that, what we feel is a kind of down-to-earth warmth. It slowly, so slowly seeps into our hearts, and then is soothed for a long time. This 1953 black-and-white film is Yasujiro Ozu's early masterpiece. As a cinematic master of his generation, Ozu gives us a world of images that are completely lived in. I love his movies indissolubly. Ozu only made movies on one subject in his life, and that was the family. Fixed camera positions, strict compositions, down-to-earth characters, storylines that never have a bad guy, and smooth narratives. That's pretty much all that marks his work. Ozu is all but unmarried, living with his mother until her death. I really don't understand how Ozu's movies can be so simple yet move me so y. I think it may really be the warmth in a calmness that comforts me. This fall was really a harvest, and I found the deepest touch in Ozu's movie. It won't bring me to tears, but it will warm me for a long, long time.

5

Bakumatsu Taiyoden ( 幕末太阳傳)

Year 1957

Directed by Yuzo Kawashima

Starring

In the third year of the Bunkyu era, Sahiraji, an idler, is living and working in a poor brothel environment, and is able to make a living through clever deception. Although he is often held back from paying his bills through part-time work, he gradually becomes a favorite in the geisha house, and then meets Shinsaku Shōshi, a politician at the end of the Shogunate. Then he meets Shinsaku, a politician at the end of the Shogunate. He helps Shinsaku rescue a young girl who has been sold into a brothel, and plots to burn down the British Consulate in Shinagawa. ...... This is a typical Japanese black humor comedy. The film is supplemented by Japanese comic monologue "Rakugo", which makes the whole storyline even more interesting, and makes everyone feel the shortcomings of goodness and the helplessness of life of the protagonist, Sajeiji, a liar, without realizing it in the sound of laughter. Director Yuzo Kawashima, known in Japan as a comedy genius, in order to shoot this movie, had asked "Nippon Living Company" to provide a lot of money to assist, although the company also promised that no matter how much it cost no matter what, but still secretly set a ceiling of 23 million yen, which makes Kawashima very disappointed, but he, as always, in accordance with the original plan! As a result, the film cost nearly 30 million yen to make, and was hailed as "the pyramid of Japanese comedy films", surpassing Yuzo Kawashima's other masterpieces to become a masterpiece of post-war Japanese cinema. After the completion of the film, director Kawashima immediately left Nikkatsu Films to join Toho's third-largest company, Tokyo Cinematheque.

6

Rashomon

Date 1950

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyou, Masayuki Mori

Synopsis

The story unfolds as a trio of men take refuge from the rain by the gate of Rashomon. They are a traveling monk, a woodcutter and a beggar. The woodcutter muttered to himself, "I really can't understand it, I can't understand it. In the beggar repeatedly asked, the wood cutter told the following story:

Three days ago, the wood cutter went into the mountains to cut wood, in the mountains to see in a woman with a wooden comb next to the body of a warrior. The woodcutter rushed to the court to report the incident. The police caught the robber who killed the samurai. In the courtroom, the robber confessed that he had seen the beauty of the samurai's wife and raped her. The samurai's wife insisted on a duel between the two of them, and he killed the samurai after 23 duels. The robber wanted to boast about his martial arts skills. The samurai's wife, however, said that she had been insulted by the robber, thrown herself on the samurai and cried, and fainted, killing him by mistake with a short sword in her hand. At this point, the court asked the sorceress to summon the samurai's spirit for interrogation, and the samurai said that his wife had instigated the robber to kill him, and that he was so ashamed that he had taken the knife and killed himself. The woodcutter also said, in fact, he saw the bandit and the samurai two duel, the beginning of due not to speak, in fact, two people's martial arts is very ordinary not like the bandit boasted that, is the bandit cut the samurai to death.

Being three people talk to the end when suddenly heard the baby crying, the beggar found the abandoned baby, want to peel the clothes of the abandoned baby, was prevented, the woodcutter said, I have six children, do not care to raise the seventh child, let me adopt it, the monk gave the child to the woodcutter. The monk gave the child to the woodcutter. The rain cleared and the setting sun shone on the woodcutter's departing back.

7

RED KILLER (Akai satsui)

Released: 1964

Directed by Shohei Imamura

Written by Keiji Hasebe, Shinji Fujiwara story

Cast:

Masumi Harukawa ..... Sadako Takahashi

Ko Nishimura ..... Koichi Takahashi

Shigeru Tsuyuguchi ..... Hiraoko

Y?ko Kusunoki ..... Yoshiko Masuda

Ranko Akagi ..... Tadae Takahashi

Haruo Itoga ..... Yasuo Tamura

Yoshi Kato ..... Seizo Takahashi

Ei Kitabayashi Tani ..... Kinu Takahashi

Kazuo Kitamura ..... Seiichiro Takahashi

Seiji Miyaguchi ..... Genji Miyata

Synopsis:

The story takes place in Takahashi, a traditionally conservative family in Sendai. Sadako, a girl born to Seizo and his concubine's daughter who sells sex, is raped by mandarins at the age of twenty-one, and although she has a child, she is unable to marry her because she is a close relative. She is later captured by a robber, Hiraoka, and raped several times. Although Hiraoka later does fall in love with Sadako, Sadako has resolved to kill him. In a hot spring area, Sadako gives Hiraoka, who is having a heart attack, a drink of water laced with pesticide and cruelly leaves him behind. From then on, Sadako becomes a strong woman who fights for her own fame and status, as well as that of her son.

Film Lunch's 100 Best Japanese Films of the Century #7

This is a dissertation-style movie that explores the ancient Japanese family system. It depicts the reality of the old customs that are still very much inherited in the modernized Japanese society. Through a very realistic portrayal of daily life, the roughness and weakness of Japanese men are outlined. For example, when he has a bad day at work, he changes his usual brutality towards Sadako and seeks spiritual comfort from her as a mother in his private life, which is a unique Japanese mental structure. At the same time, the heaviness and strength of Japanese women are also outlined. For example, Sadako is like a maid in the family who can only listen to her husband's orders and scoldings, and is oppressed to the lowest level, but after being raped, she still has the confidence to live with her endurance, which is transformed into a courageous motivation to fight against her rapist and her husband's bullying, which is echoing the theme of women being the last of the strongest, as expressed in many works of literature and art, and it has become a striking piece of works of Director Imamura's "Theory of the Japanese People. 8

Non-Interesting Battles

Episodes 1-5 (1974-1974)

Directed by Fukasaku Kinji

Starring Fumihara Hiromu Saikata Nobuo Kaneko Kunio Tanaka Kunio 9

Twenty-Four Eyes

Directed by Kinoshita Keisuke

Directed by Kishu Keiwa

Director Kishu Kinoshita Keisuke

Starring Hideko Takako Sumi Takahiro Tamura Yumemaro Tsukigaoka Tomonobu Kasa

Synopsis

Plot:

On April 4, 1928, Hisako Oshii goes to her job at a branch of an elementary school on Kodojima Island in the Seto Inland Sea. Children in this area are only transferred from the branch school to the main school, five miles away, when they reach the fifth grade. When she appeared in the village on a new bicycle wearing a suit, it was a great shock to the village. Thus, for the first time, she took to the pulpit of the branch school, which had only 12 students. But the next day, she twisted her foot and was hospitalized, and the children walked eight kilometers to visit their teacher and take commemorative photos. Oishi transferred to teaching at our school because she could not ride a bicycle. Five years later, when Japanese militarism was advancing, the children were transferred from the branch school to our school, and Oishi got married. As the children suffered a lot because of the war, Oishi became skeptical about education and wanted to quit his job as a teacher. In the eighth year after the graduation of "24 Eyes," the children of that year died and were crippled. When Oishi stepped on the podium of the branch school again, he was so excited that he shed tears.

Behind the Scenes:

The film depicts the life of a female elementary school teacher on a small island in the Japanese archipelago, and it is a classic of lyrical films in the history of Japanese cinema that is appreciated by both Chinese and foreign audiences for its insinuating and subtle approach. Keisuke Kinoshita, the director of the film, was absolutely praised by the Japanese film industry as the first-rate director of lyrical films. This is a work that completely moves people with emotions, without any sermon or concept, and the rich emotions of the work are nurtured in the beautiful scenery of Kodo Island, which shows Kinoshita's talent as a writer of lyrical movies. The movie is photographed in soft tones, with a sense of haze, and in a painterly style. The film was awarded the first place in the 1954 Movie Lenten Top Ten Award, and was selected as one of Japan's top 200 films.

Twenty-Four Eyes celebrates women's perseverance and loyalty, and the value of simplicity and integrity. It is so touching that those who have not seen it will not be moved, and is one of Keisuke Kinoshita's most famous masterpieces.

Twenty-Four Eyes is based on the novel of the same name by the famous Japanese author Ei Kuboi. The movie tells the story of a young female teacher, Oishi, who, after graduating from a teacher's training school, has been working as a teacher for 12 children on the countryside island of Kodomo, during which time she experiences a variety of poignant and y moving events. In director Keisuke Kinoshita's camera, there are no shells flying and corpses strewn all over the place, but the war penetrates through the ordinary people's lives at that time, and it is even more profoundly painful to count the cruelty and unhealable wounds brought by the war to the people. Twenty-Four Eyes is a masterpiece of great artistic achievement in director Keisuke Kinoshita's creative career, and it is also a movie that makes the audience cry the most and the deepest in the history of Japanese cinema. Especially in the ending part, when the survivors of the twelve students have grown up and are holding a reunion for Mr. Oishi, and one of them, a boy named Kirikichi, has lost his eyes on the battlefield, and I don't know who pulls out a picture taken at the teacher's house in first grade, and Kirikichi forgets to say let's show it to him, and while he touches it with his hand, he says who's in which position, and next to him, and who... ...

Keisuke Kinoshita's unobtrusive narrative and soft, poetic imagery contrasts the goodness of the common people with the cruelty of war, and in doing so, protests angrily against it. The actors playing the teachers and students in the movie are real and natural, making this a heartfelt and thought-provoking film that brings tears to the eyes of the audience, and gives Japan a great deal of reflection on the meaning of war in the post-war period.

Located in the northeast of Shikoku, Kodo Island is sandwiched between Shikoku and Honshu, and of the 3,000 islands in the Seto Inland Sea, it's the second-largest, as well as a popular and sought-after vacation island. The "24 Eyes" Movie Village was preserved as the setting for the movie "24 Eyes", which depicts the friendship between teachers and students, and many Japanese elementary school students love to come here for hiking. The statue of twelve teachers and students at the plaza is entitled The statue of twelve teachers and students in the plaza, titled "Teacher, Let's Play", was completed only in 2000. is a work completed only in 2000.

10

"Tales Of Ugetsu" (Tales Of Ugetsu)

Release Date: 1953

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi (Kenji Mizoguchi)

Starring: Kyo Machiko Juan-Yo Tanaka Masayuki Mori

Synopsis:

The story of the World War II period. The story of two couples during World War II. During the war, prices are soaring, Genjiro wants to make a fortune by doing business; while his younger brother wants to join the army and make a name for himself in the war. Soon, both of them get what they want, but Genjuro becomes infatuated with Wakasa, a beautiful woman in the guise of a ghost, and his wife in his hometown is stabbed to death while soldiers are robbing for food. Fuji Hyoe is transformed from a poor peasant into a guard with ten men, but his wife, Hama, is turned into a prostitute by dozens of soldiers, and Fuji Hyoe gives up his military service in order to be reunited with his wife. Kenji Gouguchi's story is based on the work of Akisei Ueda, and the use of special effects and camera work throughout the film makes the film full of a hazy, mysterious, poignant, and demonic atmosphere, with a variety of Japanese percussion instruments, beautiful images, and vivid performances by actors such as Kyomachi Kono, Moriyuki Mori, and Ei Ozawa, all of which are able to captivate the audience. It is a movie that deserves to be savored. Although the film is set in the era of war, it is not successful in the portrayal of war, the protagonist of the film, Juro himself did not come into direct contact with the war and its scourges, so in the real portrayal of the war and the protagonist's fantasies, there are indeed contradictions in the Tang Dynasty.