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There was a time when Japanese filmmaker Kijū Yoshida was a cinephile’s mark of exquisite taste. While not entirely obscure, his work has been less-discussed than those of contemporaries Ōshima, Imamura, and Suzuki, even if he’s always been grouped among them as a key author of the Japanese New Wave.

In the early years of online cinephilia, mentioning Yoshida was a sort of a code, a way to signal that your knowledge about Japanese cinema from that era was a bit more nuanced. It is, in many ways, thanks to this interest that these films are more widely talked-about and now the subject of Film at Lincoln Center’s retrospective running from December 1-8.

My introduction to Yoshida’s cinema came courtesy Allan Fish, a self-taught critic who watched films (and TV) from all over the world and wrote vivaciously about the moving image on his blog Wonders in the Dark.

“Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple,” much like the first entry of “The Samurai Trilogy,” was a financial and critical success. A lot transpired storywise, and the ending teased for a great follow-up. It was time for Hiroshi Inagaki to wrap things up for Musashi Miyamoto. More stakes are to be raised, and loose ends are to be tied. Upon release, the third and final entry in Inagaki’s rendition of the famous swordsman would perform well like the previous two. Musashi would now face off against his greatest opponent, Sasaki Kojiro, in the enjoyable finale “Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island.”

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Following his newfound wisdom and immense regret for his failed awkward romantic advances on Otsu, Musashi Miyamoto retires his sword and pursues the life of a reserved commoner. He has taken in a younger apprentice and grown a liking for woodcutting. However, the...

Hiroshi Inagaki’s “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” was a critical and box office success. It was time to continue the narrative in the second entry of “The Samurai Trilogy.” Inagaki would raise more stakes, and much of Musashi’s history would be covered, albeit in a more theatrically romanticized way. Also, a major player in the narrative would be introduced, one that would participate in a significant event in the life of Musashi Miyamoto. So much content would be covered in the entertaining follow-up “Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple.”

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A majority of the cast from the previous returned, but some were recast here. Rentaro Mikuni was replaced in the part of Matahachi Honiden by Sachio Sakai. This change was likely due to Mikuni’s demanding schedule as he became more and more of a popular star in Japan. The renowned talent would work with...

The famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto has been depicted in entertainment countless times with various interpretations. Some depictions of him are grounded and closer to his known history, while other versions are more romanticized in nature with elements of truth. Eiji Yoshikawa would detail the samurai’s life in his grand novel “Musashi,” which loosely details the life of the skilled warrior but with a fictional spin. Yoshikawa’s version of events would be the template for countless cinematic adaptations. One of the most popular adaptations is “The Samurai Trilogy,” directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, a three-part epic chronicle of the life of Musashi. The trilogy would be off to a terrific start in the first entry, “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto.”

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As typical with the work of Hiroshi Inagaki, high production values would be on full display and this time in luscious Eastmancolor. With Toho being the production company,...

After the critical acclaim of his 1969 feature “Eros + Massacre”, Kiju Yoshida went even further in the second part of his political trilogy, “Heroic Purgatory”. The creative freedom the director enjoyed in his collaboration with Art Theater Guild would result in a work which, if you believe film scholars such as David Desser, is even bolder than its predecessor, continuing the filmmaker’s predilection on breaking the rules of cinema, from narration to elements of the mise-en-scène. In many ways, “Heroic Purgatory” seems to be a companion piece to the kind of cinema colleagues such as Nagisa Oshima were making at the time, establishing a rather bleak image at the end of a tumultuous decade, which was somewhat skeptical of the lasting social and political change the large amount of protests had tried to achieve in the past years.

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Although the feature is difficult to...

By Omar Rasya Joenoes

The first shot of the film is that of a delicate hand stretched against a grey backdrop. It is then joined by another, slightly larger hand, which feels and leaves it. The hand then lowers itself and lands on the shoulder of a man to reveal that we are watching a lovemaking session between a beautiful woman and a younger man. In contrast, the final shot of the film shows the same woman’s face at the end of a train car as the vehicle enters a tunnel, swallowing her image whole until there is nothing left to see but the dark. Between the hotel room and the train ride, we are made to witness adultery, blackmail, nude modeling, film shooting, and possibly even murder attempt.

The woman, whose story is the focal point of this photoplay, is called Mizuki Miyako (portrayed by the gorgeous Mariko Okada...

When we think of an Ozu film, there is a couple of themes and motifs that immediately spring to our mind. Family conflicts and tensions between parents and their children are inherently woven into most of the narratives from the Japanese director. They are usually accompanied by a trademark set of feelings, especially those of resentment, melancholy, neglect, but also of nervous hope. “Late Autumn” was yet another film fitting precisely within these aforementioned categories.

The film opens with a sequence in a temple – characters gathered there to commemorate the passing of their friend, Miwa. Fast forward a couple of hours, and Miwa’s daughter Ayako (Yôko Tsukasa) proclaims during a celebratory dinner that she is looking for a husband. Three men sitting opposite to her are friends of the deceased. Mamiya (Shin Taburi), Taguchi (Nobuo Nagamura) and Hirayama (Ryuji Kita) quickly volunteer to help her with finding the right match.

On 3 November 2019, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Rayons d’Or with Rosette, to Martine Thérouanne, Director of the Vesoul International Festival of Asian Cinemas. In Japan, November 3 is the Day of Culture. This prestigious decoration, the oldest in Japan, was awarded to Thérouanne in recognition of her cultural commitment to make Japanese cinema and filmmakers known to Western audiences.

Within the 25 years of its existence, Vesoul International Festival of Asian Cinemas (Vifac) that was co-founded by Thérouanne and her husband Jean-Marc Thérouanne, has presented 200 Japanese films; among them, cult films of recognized directors and young talents, as well as masters of Japanimation.

The festival awarded fifteen prizes to Japanese films and filmmakers, including the prestigious Honorary Golden Rickshaw to Kore-eda Hirokazu at Vifac 2012, later winner of the Golden Palm at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Vifac staged six retrospectives and homages. To name a few,...

It was a good day for both Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters” as well as Kazuya Shiraishi’s crime thriller “The Blood of Wolves” who both managed to clean up at the 42nd Japan Academy Awards.

For a second year running, a Koreeda film managed to win most awards on the night, with “Shoplifters” picking up a total of eight awards.

The other big winner of the night was “The Blood of Wolves”, which, despite fierce competition in most of the categories in won in from Shoplifters” and others, managed to pick up an impressive four awards, including two for its male leading duo. The other two films to get a look-in were Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai” and Shinichiru Ueda’s “One Cut of the Dead“.

Check out all the winners below:s

Best Film: Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)

Best Animated Film: Mirai (Mamoru Hosoda)

Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda...

Every film creates a world, and every filmmaker a universe. Some prove uninhabitable. Given the rarity of Kiju Yoshida’s films, the grandeur with which Arrow Films is presenting them, and the way they were talked about – three films “united by their radical politics and an even more radical shooting style”; “bleak but dreamlike” – I dove into this set quite curious and excited. I found Yoshida’s universe to be one of the most tumultuous I’ve yet encountered. Even oblique films tend to carry with them a bit of poetry and emotional momentum. I think especially of films like Last Year at Marienbad, The Mirror, Goodbye to Language, or Flowers of Shanghai, all of which are so exciting and riveting despite my not initially knowing what they were really about at all.

At least two of the films in this three-film set gave me no such pleasures; Coup d...

Oh man, I wish I was going to be in New York in April. From March 31st through April 18th, New York's Japan Society will be running a series called Mad, Bad... and Dangerous to Know - Three Untamed Beauties. The series will feature screenings of 4 films starring Ayako Wakao, 5 starring Meiko Kaji and 4 starring Mariko Okada. How awesome is that?...