The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Velvet Goldmine (1998)Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine (1998) opens with a confession that swiftly becomes a command: “Although what you are about to see is a work of fiction, it should nevertheless be played at maximum volume.” Those words, mischievously repurposed from Martin Scorsese’s concert film The Last Waltz (1978), herald one of the great pop music fantasias: a cinema à clef that reimagines ’70s glam rock in an alternate dimension, where fictional versions of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and others perform a parallel version of history as we know it. Embracing the period’s mutable personae and camp energies, the film evokes the spirit of its patron saint, Oscar Wilde—depicted as the original pop star, descended to Earth from outer space—treating “art as the supreme reality and life as a mere mode of fiction,...
- 8/12/2021
- MUBI
The 29th ceremony took place on December, 28 at the New Otani Hotel, in Tokyo and the list of winners is:
Best Film: 64: Part 1 (Takahisa Zeze)
Best Director: Makoto Shinkai (Your Anme)
Best Actor: Koichi Sato (64: Part 1)
Best Actress: Rie Miyazawa (Her Love Boils Bathwater )
Best Supporting Actor: Satoshi Tsumabuki (Rage, Museum)
Best Supporting Actress: Aoi Miyazaki (Rage, If Cats Disappeared from the World)
Best International Film: Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
New Face Award: Kasumi Arimura (Nanimono, Natsumi’s Firefly)
Yujiro Ishihara Award: Dangerous Cops: Final 5 Days (Toru Murakawa)
Toru Murakawa Kasumi Arimura Rie Miyazawa...
Best Film: 64: Part 1 (Takahisa Zeze)
Best Director: Makoto Shinkai (Your Anme)
Best Actor: Koichi Sato (64: Part 1)
Best Actress: Rie Miyazawa (Her Love Boils Bathwater )
Best Supporting Actor: Satoshi Tsumabuki (Rage, Museum)
Best Supporting Actress: Aoi Miyazaki (Rage, If Cats Disappeared from the World)
Best International Film: Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
New Face Award: Kasumi Arimura (Nanimono, Natsumi’s Firefly)
Yujiro Ishihara Award: Dangerous Cops: Final 5 Days (Toru Murakawa)
Toru Murakawa Kasumi Arimura Rie Miyazawa...
- 1/8/2017
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Pablo Knote to discuss three films from Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara.
About the films:
Over the course of his varied career, Koreyoshi Kurahara made meticulous noirs, jazzy juvenile-delinquency pictures, and even nature films. His free-form approach to moviemaking was perfectly suited to the radical spirit of the 1960s, when he was one of the biggest hit makers working at the razzle-dazzle, youth-oriented Nikkatsu studios. The five films collected here hail from that era of the Japanese New Wave, and encompass breathless teen escapades, cruel crime stories, a Yukio Mishima adaptation, and even a Hollywood-inspired romantic comedy.
Subscribe to...
About the films:
Over the course of his varied career, Koreyoshi Kurahara made meticulous noirs, jazzy juvenile-delinquency pictures, and even nature films. His free-form approach to moviemaking was perfectly suited to the radical spirit of the 1960s, when he was one of the biggest hit makers working at the razzle-dazzle, youth-oriented Nikkatsu studios. The five films collected here hail from that era of the Japanese New Wave, and encompass breathless teen escapades, cruel crime stories, a Yukio Mishima adaptation, and even a Hollywood-inspired romantic comedy.
Subscribe to...
- 6/22/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
The Nikkatsu logo, especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was a bit of a promise – 80-100 minutes of wild guys, sexy ladies, mob showdowns, a handful of visually-striking locations (get ready for nothing but bars, nightclubs, and docks), and a good deal of brooding over morality before the inevitable eruption of violence. These were as programatic as they come, yet within those strictures, the filmmakers under contract to the studio found enough room to practice some pretty wild stuff, or at least have some fun in so doing. Though the true classics from the studio (especially those by Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki) were definitely outliers, to the point that the directors behind them were punished or fired for making them, that baseline promise captured the imaginations of young moviegoers at the time and have remained steadfast pleasures for today’s cinephiles.
For those whose curiosity was piqued...
For those whose curiosity was piqued...
- 3/30/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
In celebration of Japan’s oldest film studio, Nikkatsu, Arrow Video assembles its first collection of titles reflecting the late 1950s inauguration of a star system contracted for their ‘Diamond Line.’ This trio of features reflects the rising popularity of extravagant genre narratives in the evolving system, and includes obscure titles from master auteurs such as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Buichi Saito (early titles from Suzuki and Masuda were also part of a notable 2009 Eclipse series set, Nikkatsu Noir).
The pearl of the collection is Suzuki’s Voice without a Shadow, a rare gem from the master director’s early period. One of four films he made in 1958 (another being the early classic Underworld Beauty), it feels rather heavily modeled after various American film noir tropes, but in true Suzuki fashion, much more complicated. If “Beauty” felt like a generous Sam Fuller riff, then “Voice” seems a recalibration of something like Sorry,...
The pearl of the collection is Suzuki’s Voice without a Shadow, a rare gem from the master director’s early period. One of four films he made in 1958 (another being the early classic Underworld Beauty), it feels rather heavily modeled after various American film noir tropes, but in true Suzuki fashion, much more complicated. If “Beauty” felt like a generous Sam Fuller riff, then “Voice” seems a recalibration of something like Sorry,...
- 3/15/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
When it comes to a name for a collection of movies, you have to admit that Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Volume 1 sounds pretty cool. Featuring three films with three iconic action film actors this is a release that just oozes style… The connection between the three movies is not surprisingly the gangster lifestyle. The first film for me is the superior of the three. The Voice Without a Shadow stars Hideaki Nitani and follows the story of Asako a former telephone operator. After she hears the voice of a murder suspect, it continues to haunt her. When she hears the voice once more years later she decides to investigate the man, but when he is killed and her husband is the chief suspect all seems doomed.
The second film sees Yujiro Ishihara star in Red Pier as Jiro the Lefty. A killer who witnesses the death of a man in a...
The second film sees Yujiro Ishihara star in Red Pier as Jiro the Lefty. A killer who witnesses the death of a man in a...
- 1/29/2016
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
The 28th ceremony took place at the New Otani Hotel, in Tokyo and the list of winners is:
Best Film: Solomon’s Perjury (Izuru Narashima)
Best Director: Masato Harada (The Emperor in August, Kakekomi)
Best Actor: Kengo Kora (TheMourner, Being Good)
Best Actress: Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister)
Best Supporting Actor: Masahiro Motoki (The Emperor in August, The Big Bee)
Best Supporting Actress: Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister)
Best International Film: Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
New Face Award: Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister)
Fan Award: Joker Game (Yu Irie)
Yujiro Ishihara Award: The Emperor in August
Achievement Award: Yukichi Shinada (film critic)
Kengo Kora
Masami Nagasawa
the winners...
Best Film: Solomon’s Perjury (Izuru Narashima)
Best Director: Masato Harada (The Emperor in August, Kakekomi)
Best Actor: Kengo Kora (TheMourner, Being Good)
Best Actress: Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister)
Best Supporting Actor: Masahiro Motoki (The Emperor in August, The Big Bee)
Best Supporting Actress: Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister)
Best International Film: Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
New Face Award: Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister)
Fan Award: Joker Game (Yu Irie)
Yujiro Ishihara Award: The Emperor in August
Achievement Award: Yukichi Shinada (film critic)
Kengo Kora
Masami Nagasawa
the winners...
- 12/29/2015
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Branded to Kill is among the Nikkatsu films to be screened.
The BFI will showcase a month long London film festival tribute to Japan's legendary Nikkatsu Studios during the month of June. Below is press release information:
The oldest of Japan’s film studios, Nikkatsu was established in 1912 as the Japan Cinematograph Company (Nippon katsudo shashin kaisha). Home to ‘father of Japanese cinema’ Shozo Makino, it fostered early directors like Kenji Mizoguchi, Daisuke Ito and Tomu Uchida, until restructuring of the industry by the wartime government in 1942 saw its production facilities hived off to form the new Daiei Corporation, with Nikkatsu surviving only in an exhibition capacity.
In 1954, Nikkatsu resumed production, rising phoenix-like under the guidance of studio head Kyusaku Hori to carve out a unique identity in the highly competitive market of the postwar Golden Age. Its breakthrough came with the 1956 double whammy of Takumi Furukawa’s Season of...
The BFI will showcase a month long London film festival tribute to Japan's legendary Nikkatsu Studios during the month of June. Below is press release information:
The oldest of Japan’s film studios, Nikkatsu was established in 1912 as the Japan Cinematograph Company (Nippon katsudo shashin kaisha). Home to ‘father of Japanese cinema’ Shozo Makino, it fostered early directors like Kenji Mizoguchi, Daisuke Ito and Tomu Uchida, until restructuring of the industry by the wartime government in 1942 saw its production facilities hived off to form the new Daiei Corporation, with Nikkatsu surviving only in an exhibition capacity.
In 1954, Nikkatsu resumed production, rising phoenix-like under the guidance of studio head Kyusaku Hori to carve out a unique identity in the highly competitive market of the postwar Golden Age. Its breakthrough came with the 1956 double whammy of Takumi Furukawa’s Season of...
- 5/21/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The Twitch curated Tokyo Drifters: 100 Years Of Nikkatsu screening series continues at the Tiff Bell Lightbox this Saturday with a rare screening of Masuda Toshioi's Rusty Knife. The first top ten hit from the future Nikkatsu hitmaker will screen from 35mm and you can win tickets now!The first of numerous top-ten box-office hits by Nikkatsu workhorse Toshio Masuda -- who went on to direct a whopping fifty-two features for the studio in just ten years -- Rusty Knife features top Nikkatsu star Yujiro Ishihara as Yukihiko, a former low-level yakuza freshly released from prison after serving a five-year term for killing the man he believed responsible for the rape and suicide of his girlfriend. Although he now intends to go straight, Yukihiko puts his...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/6/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Hideaki Nitani and Yujiro Ishihara
in Toshio Masuda's Red Handkerchief (1964)
Via Cinema Strikes Back
"Sad news the weekend for fans of Nikkatsu action films of the 1960s," writes Chris MaGee at J-Film Pow-Wow. "Actor Hideaki Nitani, best known for his supporting roles in such films as Underworld Beauty and Tokyo Drifter, died of pneumonia on Saturday, January 7th at a Tokyo hospital. He was 81…. In 1954 Nikkatsu had finally begun to produce films again after having temporarily shuttering itself during the post-war Us Occupation. Joining Nitani during this hiring blitz were stars like Akira Kobayashi, Yujiro Ishihara and Jo Shishido. Nitani made his screen debut in 1956 in Takumi Furukawa's The People of Okinawa. This would begin a string of roles, mostly as tough guys and gangsters, in the films of Seijun Suzuki, Yuzo Kawashima, Ko Nakahira, and Koreyoshi Kurahara, amongst others."
From the Mainichi Daily News: "Nitani shifted his...
in Toshio Masuda's Red Handkerchief (1964)
Via Cinema Strikes Back
"Sad news the weekend for fans of Nikkatsu action films of the 1960s," writes Chris MaGee at J-Film Pow-Wow. "Actor Hideaki Nitani, best known for his supporting roles in such films as Underworld Beauty and Tokyo Drifter, died of pneumonia on Saturday, January 7th at a Tokyo hospital. He was 81…. In 1954 Nikkatsu had finally begun to produce films again after having temporarily shuttering itself during the post-war Us Occupation. Joining Nitani during this hiring blitz were stars like Akira Kobayashi, Yujiro Ishihara and Jo Shishido. Nitani made his screen debut in 1956 in Takumi Furukawa's The People of Okinawa. This would begin a string of roles, mostly as tough guys and gangsters, in the films of Seijun Suzuki, Yuzo Kawashima, Ko Nakahira, and Koreyoshi Kurahara, amongst others."
From the Mainichi Daily News: "Nitani shifted his...
- 1/9/2012
- MUBI
Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial was a sidebar at this year's New York Film Festival that Dan Sallitt, writing a couple of weeks ago, found "so exciting that it threatens to overshadow the main slate: a retrospective of the Japanese studio Nikkatsu, whose opportunistic shifts of focus always seemed to open doors for some of Japan's most creative filmmakers. Compare film magazine Kinema Junpo's 1999 and 2009 lists of all-time greatest Japanese films to the Lincoln Center series schedule, and count the overlaps." Last year in the Notebook, Dan reviewed one of the 37 films in the series, Tomu Uchida's Earth (1939).
"The sidebar is peppered with nearly impossible to see rediscoveries," notes Steve Dollar at GreenCine Daily: "early silent films like 1927's A Diary of Chuji's Travels and harshly realistic World War II dramas like Mud and Soldiers. Shot on location in China in 1939, the latter film blends...
"The sidebar is peppered with nearly impossible to see rediscoveries," notes Steve Dollar at GreenCine Daily: "early silent films like 1927's A Diary of Chuji's Travels and harshly realistic World War II dramas like Mud and Soldiers. Shot on location in China in 1939, the latter film blends...
- 10/16/2011
- MUBI
When, in 1934, Jean Vigo died of tuberculosis, he was only 29, "a neglected figure at the margins of the industry who had seen one of his films (Zéro de Conduite) banned by the French authorities and another (L'Atalante) recut and retitled by its producer." Dennis Lim in the Los Angeles Times: "Vigo lends himself to romanticization, and not just because of his tragic early death and the aura of unfulfilled promise. He led a brief but colorful life as a fellow traveler of the French surrealists and the son of a well-known anarchist who was apparently murdered in prison. Vigo's first film, the silent, 23-minute À Propos de Nice (On the Subject of Nice), part of the 'city symphony' genre that flourished in the 1920s, confirmed that the young Jean was very much his father's son…. All of Vigo's films were shot by Boris Kaufman, brother of the Soviet film pioneer...
- 8/31/2011
- MUBI
"Romanian films set in the era after the fall of Communism suggest the nation suffers a hell of a hangover from the ideology," writes Steve Erickson in Gay City News. "For instance, Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective attacks draconian drug laws left over from the old regime. Tuesday, After Christmas presents a very different vision of Romania. Its characters can afford to buy expensive Christmas gifts; one of them picks up a 3,300 Euro telescope. It may not be entirely accurate to call the film apolitical, but the most political thing about it is its avoidance of Eastern European miserabilism and its depiction of people who could be living much the same lifestyles in Western Europe."
Damon Smith introduces an interview with director Radu Muntean for Filmmaker: "Tuesday, After Christmas, which premiered at Cannes last year, opens on a dreamy scene: sunlight bathes a naked couple, middle-aged Paul (Mimi Branescu) and pretty,...
Damon Smith introduces an interview with director Radu Muntean for Filmmaker: "Tuesday, After Christmas, which premiered at Cannes last year, opens on a dreamy scene: sunlight bathes a naked couple, middle-aged Paul (Mimi Branescu) and pretty,...
- 5/26/2011
- MUBI
They’re still ironing out the wrinkles, but the English language site for the Nikkatsu Corporation’s newly created genre arm, Sushi Typhoon, is now up and running. ‘Ninja Vs Aliens’ and ‘Mutant Girls Squad’ are just two of the much anticipated horror/gore/splatter creations heading our way from some of the top names (Nishimura, Miike!!!, Sono!!!) in Japanese genre movie making. Want to know more? The press release reveals all…..“Born in 2010, The Sushi Typhoon is the upstart, wild offspring of a respectable parent—Nikkatsu Corporation, the oldest film studio in Japan and once home to legendary 1960’s action stars like Joe Shishido, Akira Kobayashi, Tetsuya Watari, Meiko Kaji and Yujiro Ishihara. With a long history of genre films and violent gangster epics, the company was also the leader of Japan’s erotic renaissance of the 1970’s with their Roman Porno line…and now, Nikkatsu’s latest offering,...
- 7/5/2010
- 24framespersecond.net
They’re still ironing out the wrinkles, but the English language site for the Nikkatsu Corporation’s newly created genre arm, Sushi Typhoon, is now up and running. ‘Ninja Vs Aliens’ and ‘Mutant Girls Squad’ are just two of the much anticipated horror/gore/splatter creations heading our way from some of the top names (Nishimura, Miike!!!, Sono!!!) in Japanese genre movie making. Want to know more? The press release reveals all…..“Born in 2010, The Sushi Typhoon is the upstart, wild offspring of a respectable parent—Nikkatsu Corporation, the oldest film studio in Japan and once home to legendary 1960’s action stars like Joe Shishido, Akira Kobayashi, Tetsuya Watari, Meiko Kaji and Yujiro Ishihara. With a long history of genre films and violent gangster epics, the company was also the leader of Japan’s erotic renaissance of the 1970’s with their Roman Porno line…and now, Nikkatsu’s latest offering,...
- 7/5/2010
- 24framespersecond.net
They’re still ironing out the wrinkles, but the English language site for the Nikkatsu Corporation’s newly created genre arm, Sushi Typhoon, is now up and running. ‘Ninja Vs Aliens’ and ‘Mutant Girls Squad’ are just two of the much anticipated horror/gore/splatter creations heading our way from some of the top names (Nishimura, Miike!!!, Sono!!!) in Japanese genre movie making. Want to know more? The press release reveals all…..“Born in 2010, The Sushi Typhoon is the upstart, wild offspring of a respectable parent—Nikkatsu Corporation, the oldest film studio in Japan and once home to legendary 1960’s action stars like Joe Shishido, Akira Kobayashi, Tetsuya Watari, Meiko Kaji and Yujiro Ishihara. With a long history of genre films and violent gangster epics, the company was also the leader of Japan’s erotic renaissance of the 1970’s with their Roman Porno line…and now, Nikkatsu’s latest offering,...
- 7/5/2010
- 24framespersecond.net
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.