Japanese cinema flourished early on and silent films were being made right through the 1930s. Most were accompanied by a 'benshi' or live narrator telling the story as well as live music. Very little survives from this era however; the 1923 earthquake, the bombings of WW2 and the country's high humidity destroyed many of these historical works. Of those that survive, the early works of Kenji Mizoguchi are highly regarded and he went on to make the classic 'The Life of Oharu' in 1952. Of course no discussion on Japanese cinema is possible without mention of their best known son, Akira Kurosawa. With a career spanning 60 years Kurosawa's ground-breaking films (e.g. 'Seven Samurai', 'Kagemusha', 'Ran') influenced film makers around the world. Most recently Japanese cinema hero 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano revitalised the Yakuza genre; and young mavericks like Takashi Miike ('Audition', 'Ichi the Killer) and Hideo Nakata ('Ring', 'Dark Water') have breathed new life into the horror flick, their films often (and promptly!) remade by US production houses. For Japanime, use the animation link to the left. Pictured: Kurosawa teamed once more with the incomparable Toshiro Mifune for 'Seven Samurai'
THE OZU COLLECTION THE STUDENT COMEDIES (2 DVD) Films by Yasujiro Ozu Master Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story) has been revered all ov... Read more
A brutal, amoral samurai, Ryunosuke (played brilliantly by Tatsuya Nakadai) is scheduled to fight an exhibition match. His opponent's wife offers her... Read more
Eight years in the making and hot on the heels of Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata's adaptation of a centuries old Japanes... Read more
Eight years in the making and hot on the heels of Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata's adaptation of a centuries old Japanes... Read more
Set in the late nineteenth century as the feudal Shogun period was giving way to the Meiji Restoration, Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a low-ranki... Read more
The great Japanese animator Miyazaki Hayao has announced his retirement at the age of 72. If he sticks to his word he will have gone out on a sublime... Read more
The great Japanese animator Miyazaki Hayao has announced his retirement at the age of 72. If he sticks to his word he will have gone out on a sublime... Read more
Three complete strangers embark on a road-trip to Hokkaido. Read more
Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects. Read more
When poor peasants kidnap a magistrate's daughter to coerce him into reducing taxes, a wandering ronin and two renegades from the magistrate's guard t... Read more