Red Angel (1966) directed by Yasuzo Masumura is just another impressive film that makes me wonder why he isn't better known outside of Japan. This is yet another powerful, subversive film that embodies what the New Wave was all about-shaking up the status quo. It was written by Ryozo Kasahara and based on a novel by Yoriyoshi Arima, Red Angel has to be counted among the great Japanese war movies of all-time. This is no simple humanistic take on WWII, within the first twenty minutes there is a rape and a graphic amputation of a leg-complete with bone chilling sawing sounds on the score. This film is not for the squeamish. Ayaka Wakao, who seems to be Masumura's muse, plays Sakura Nishi, who is sent to the Manchurian front where she learns the brutal realities of the war first hand through the rape and many amputations and bullets removed from soldiers who seem to have a 50-50 chance of survival in such conditions. She is well-meaning and a bit sensitive and feels that her complaints about the soldier who raped her got him sent back to the front early, which in this film means certain death. Later she tries to comfort a double arm amputee, who feels that he won't have that sort of comfort again, so kills himself by jumping off a roof. At another station near the front there is an outbreak of cholera among the comfort women, imagine admitting that comfort women existed! But of course they seems to be Japanese "volunteers" (but it is still hard to image them appearing in a film made today). She eventually falls in love with a well-meaning doctor, Dr. Okabe (Shinsuke Ashida), who is numbing the reality with drink and morphine. The morphine has made him impotent, but Nishi helps wean him off it so that they can a last fling before they are overrun by the Chinese army. During this sequence a young nurse Nishi has brought along, in order to protect and look after, is killed before her eyes. Nishi emerges as the lone survivor finding her lover dead on the battlefield. It is a bleak and somewhat exploitative war film that is astonishing in the fact that the studio signed off on such a dark and truthful film about the war.
Reviews
11 Reviews
The Rickshaw Man
(1958)
Mifune Shines As Usual
6 February 2017
When I think of Toshiro Mifune I usually think of the films he made with Akira Kurosawa, but he had a streak of excellent performances in interesting films directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. The first films I saw were the "Samurai Trilogy" (1954-56), three films based on the life of Miyamoto Musashi. That being said I was also impressed by The Rickshaw Man (1958). Mifune delivers his trademark "physical" role of Matsu "the Outlaw"(a title appropriated by Imamura in one of his documentaries) a larger than life rickshaw man in Kokura, Kyushu. Evidently, this is a remake of an earlier film, but i have never seen the previous film. Matsu befriends a small boy and becomes the surrogate father after the boy's father dies. He also carries a torch for the boy's mother played by Naruse regular Hideko Takamine. In this film we get to see Mifune win a running race,beat up several school boys in a big fight, and expertly play the taiko drum. The storyline is somewhat melodramatic, but Mifune carries the film with his charismatic performance-it is entertaining and worthwhile.
Samurai Banners
(1969)
Epic Samurai Film
6 February 2017
Samurai Banners (1969) is Hiroshi Inagaki's, know for The Samurai: Musashi Miyamoto trilogy, crowning achievement-a nearly three hour historically based epic starring Toshiro Mifune as a ronin determined to achieve greatness in his new clan by uniting Japan under one ruler. The story is based on a novel adapted by Shinobu Hashimoto (Rashomon and Seven Samurai) and takes place in the Sengoku warring period 1500-1600. At the time it was the most expensive Japanese film produced with several massive fight scenes that must have been expensive to stage. It immediately calls to mind Akira Kurosawa's two late samurai epic masterpieces Kagemusha and Ran. I wonder why he wasn't involved in the project that was made with his former leading man and the script writer of his greatest triumphs. Nonetheless, Inagaki with cinematographer Kazuo Yamada has created a stylish, colorful, and dynamic film.
Garage Rockin' Craze
(2017)
Documenting the Garage Rock Scene in Tokyo
5 February 2017
Garage Rockin' Craze (2017) is a documentary by Mario Cuzic about the garage rock scene in Tokyo. It was a scene that I followed in grad school in Bellingham, Washington by attending Garage Shock-a yearly garage festival hosted by Estrus Records and The Mono Men. bands from all over the US and abroad would come and play. This included garage rock royalty from Tokyo: Guitar Wolf, Jacky & the Cedarics, the 5,6,7,8's, Teengenerate, and Supersnazz. All these bands are briefly mentioned in the documentary. But the scene focuses on a local promoter Daddy-O-Nov and his Back From the Grave events. I also went to the pre-view concert at Club U.F.O. in Higashi Nakano the Friday night before the opening and saw several of the bands in the film perform live. I enjoyed both the the concert and the film and wish I had stayed connected to the scene more, when I was on JET in Koshigaya in the late 1990s I usd go see some shows by the earlier mentioned bands.
Fascinating Portrayal of a Man on a Mission
5 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
It's no surprise that Shoehei Imamura helped with the planning of Kazuo Hara with his documentary film The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987). It is just the kind of documentary that would appeal to Imaura-Hara follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WWII veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war. We learn at the beginning of the film that Okuzaki was imprisoned in Kobe for 13 years and 9 months for plotting to assassinate a former Prime Minister, shooting pachinko balls at the emperor with a sling shot, and distributing pornographic pictures of the Emperor outside a Tokyo department store. He is one of 30 surviving members of a platoon that fought in Papua New Guinea and he is driven to find out why two low ranking soldiers were executed for desertion 23 days after the war ended. Eventually, it comes out that the unpopular low ranking soldiers were executed for cannibalism for the superior officers. Ohuzaki is a piece of work-his sanity is never questioned and he will result to violence to get his answers on camera. These themes of WWII atrocities and anger at those who were in charge are common themes in the documentaries of Imamura as well. Ohkuzaki is aided by his loyal wife and by the end of the film he has gone back to Papua New Guinea to pray for the souls of dead Japanese soldiers, but he film shot there was confiscated by the Indonesia authorities. He decides that he should kill the officer who called for the execution of the two low ranking soldiers, but is unable to kill him tries to kill his son instead. The son survives and Okuzaki goes back to prison for attempted murder, soon after his wife dies. It is a fascinating film that brings up some unpleasant topics that most modern Japanese try to whitewash history-just as these war survivors try to live on as if these things had not happened.
The Wolves
(1971)
An Impressive Yakuza Tale
5 February 2017
I was very impressed with Hideo Gosha's early Showa era yakuza film The Wolves (1971). I think this has more to do with the mise en scene than the story. Because in many ways it is a typical ninkyo eiga, or chivalry film, about restoring honor among criminals. However, what elevates the film is the locations, set designs, costumes, historical background that informs the story, as well as having Tatusya Nakadai in the lead role as Seiji Iwahashi. Iwahashi was released on a general pardon at the occasion of the Showa Emperor Hirohito's ascension to the throne in 1926. Gosha uses classical framing in many of the discussion scenes that drive the plot as well as having the main action take place during a festival in which Nebuta-like floats are being paraded on the grounds. Several of the interiors display traditional art on the walls and screens. There are several scenes shot near the sea that use the fierce forces of nature as a prop to the scenes.
Onimasa
(1982)
A Japanese Godfather?
5 February 2017
Hideo Gosha's Onimasa (1982) comes across as Japan's answer to The Godfather, while it doesn't quite live up to that billing-it was a very interesting film. Tatusya Nakadai always puts in a lively performance-this time as a chivalrous yakuza boss with several mistresses and the focus of this film is a girl he take sin as a daughter from a poor family. She has a very strong will and soon becomes his favorite because of her grit and strong will. She insists on being educated and becomes a teacher and eventually takes up with an intellectual and is the de facto narrator of the story of the rise and fall of Onimasa. The story is set in the Taisho era and the set designs ad to the overall impression of the film. I can't help but think the dog fighting scenes earlier in the film would have caused a certain amount of controversy in America. Overall it was a entertaining film.
Doraibu
(2002)
First Sabu Film
5 February 2017
friend suggested I watch Drive (2002) directed by Sabu and made references to Quentin Tarantino. I can see some similarities in violence and humor, as well as the episodic nature of this film calls to mind Pulp Fiction. This film about a salaryman office worker (Shinichi Tsutsumi gives a impressive performance) getting his car hijacked by bank robbers is a bit over the top withe the humor and has many fantastical elements that make it original but far from the more grounded in reality of Tarantino. I guess I found those fantastical elements necessary and distracting. However, there were enough positive elements in the film to interest me in seeing more films by Sabu.
Kyatapirâ
(2010)
Powerful Performance from Shinobu Terajima
5 February 2017
Koji Wakamatsu's anti-war film Catepillar (2010) is notable for it's strong anti-nationalism stance and Shinobu Terajima's powerful performance as a long suffering wife dealt a poor hand in life (one in which she won an acting award at the Berlin Film Festival). Her husband is returned from war, as a "God of War" with decorations, without limbs, the ability to speak or hear. Her role as a good wife of a soldier of the Emperor's is to take good care of him-a thankless task for a man who only eats, sleeps, and demands sex from his wife. Furthermore, we learn that he was an abusive husband and has committed atrocities in the war in China. Wakamatsu is a member of that older generation and has an ax to grind-one that the nationalists of today wouldn't be so happy about either. It's a difficult film to watch, but perhaps necessary since most of the new generations are unaware or unbelieving of the atrocities committed at war by the Japanese in the name of the emperor due to whitewashing to history textbooks in schools.
Kate Plays Christine
(2016)
Suicide on Air...Why?
5 February 2017
It seems strange that two films in 2016 were made about a long forgotten on-air suicide in Saratoga, Florida in 1974. It's a bizarre enough event that I was interested in seeing the films. There is a straight-up biopic starring Recca Hall called Christine, but the more interesting film was probably the documentary, Kate Plays Christine (2016). In this documentary by Robert Greene-the audience follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil research and work out how to play the elusive Christine Chubbuck of which there is little existing footage or facts remaining-let alone the infamous tape of the incident. We learn about guns laws of the 70s, the behind-the-scene life at a small local news station, and the private agony that Chubbuck was experiencing at the time of her suicide. Sometimes the pretentious musings of the actress were trying, but in general it was an interesting way to get into the head of this damaged woman who deiced to share her misery with the world.
Air Doll
(2009)
Better Than Anticipated
5 February 2017
Hirokazu Kore-eda is probably my favorite contemporary Japanese director, but I have resisted watching Air Doll (2009) because it seemed like a silly film-a sex doll comes alive. But I should have known with a director like Kore-eda it's wouldn't be exploitative-in fact it was a poignant meditation on the preciousness of life. It also has the idea of finding the beautiful in the mundane that reminds me of American Beauty, much like the subplot of the showing the quiet lives of desperation lived by many people in the city. Bae Doona (Linda Linda Linda), feels right for the role since she is an outsider in the fact that she is Korean. She inhibits the erotic role of the surrogate sex doll with an innocence that feels appropriate for the film-it never feels exploitative, but natural. The film has a different visual look than the usual Kore-eda film which is due to the fact that his cinematographer for this film was cinematographer Ping Bin Lee (In the Mood for Love). It's nice to be surprised in a good way on occasion.
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