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Akio Jissôji – Mujô AKA This Transient Life (1970)
Quote: One of the recurrent themes of the Art Theatre Guild (ATG)’s films of the 60s and early 70s was incest. In Funeral Procession of Roses (Bara No Soretsu, 1968) Toshio Matsumoto told a modern...
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Tatsumi Kumashiro – Akasen tamanoi: Nukeraremasu AKA Street of Joy (1974)
It’s the evening before the day all brothels must be shut-down, according to the new law, in 1958. At the Kofukuya’s (literally, the house that sells happiness), five prostitutes decide to celebrate...
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Toshiharu Ikeda – Kagi AKA The Key (1997)
Ikuko is a mature, reserved Kyoto woman married for many years to a respectable, now-middle-aged man. The only problem in their relationship has been that her husband is dissatisfied with her lack of...
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Ryuichi Hiroki – Futei no kisetsu AKA I Am an S+M Writer (2000)
Synopsis: A writer draws inspiration for his erotic stories from vivid bondage scenes performed right in front of his writing desk. Still, he prefers to novelize his fascination rather than...
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Yoshishige Yoshida – Kaigenrei AKA Coup D’Etat (1973)
Quote: Ikka Kita is a revolutionary, who suffers when he is brought his younger brother’s clothes, still smeared with his blood. Ikka’s brother followed the revoltionary’s precept and acted,...
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Jun Ichikawa – Tony Takitani (2004)
Alone and self-sufficient since childhood, Tony shuns emotions as illogical and immature. After finding his true vocation as a technical illustrator, he becomes fascinated with Eiko, whom he marries....
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Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi – Shin Gojira AKA Godzilla Resurgance (2016)
Synopsis: It’s a peaceful day in Japan when a strange fountain of water erupts in the bay, causing panic to spread among government officials. At first, they suspect only volcanic activity, but one...
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Tai Katô – Mabuta no haha AKA The Mother He Never Knew (1962)
Synopsis: The protagonist Chujiro, who possesses many attractive qualities, is a victim of unkind circumstances: his mother abandoned him as a child, so he had no choice but to live outside society....
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Toshio Masuda – Sabita naifu AKA Rusty Knife (1958)
Synopsis: Udaka is a new, post-war city where corruption has already taken hold. A persistent district attorney wants to arrest and convict Katsumata, a laughing, self-confident thug. The D.A. gets an...
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Shirô Toyoda – Jigokuhen AKA Portrait of Hell (1969)
Synopsis: A rebellious Korean artist tests the limits of his sadistic patron, an omnipotent feudal Japanese lord. Yoshihide demands a commission to paint screens of the Hell which he sees the...
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Kôzaburô Yoshimura – Itsuwareru seiso AKA Clothes of Deception (1951)
Quote: In 1951 Yoshimura had approached Daiei in order to realise – again from Shindo’s script – his outstanding study of women in Kyoto’s Gion district, Clothes of Deception (Itsuwareru seiso). Once...
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Masao Adachi – Ryakusho: renzoku shasatsuma AKA Serial Killer (1969)
Midnight Eye wrote: A horrifying series of murders, committed by a teenaged killer in 1968, prompted a group of filmmakers to chart his path, capturing the things he might have seen before committing...
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Sogo Ishii – Dead End Run (2003)
Synopsis: Dead End Run is an hour length collection of three short films by Japanese visual genius Ishii Sogo. Starring three of Japan’s hippest and most talented actors: Yusuke Iseya (Casshern,)...
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Senkichi Taniguchi – Akatsuki no dasso AKA Desertion at Dawn (1950)
Synopsis: Mikami, a Japanese soldier serving in China, is captured by the Chinese. Although he is able to escape, his troubles are far from over. He returns to his unit but is treated with contempt...
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Hiroshi Shimizu – Kodomo no shiki aka Four Seasons of Children (1939)
Quote: A follow-up to Children in the Wind, Four Seasons of Children is also based on a Tsubota Joji novel. The film is divided into two chapters, following the young protagonists’ minor adventures...
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Shinji Sômai – Shonben Rider AKA P.P. Rider (1983)
Quote: P. P. Rider is a Japanese film dealing with three teenagers who set out to recover a kidnapped schoolmate. This capsule description, while accurate enough, makes the film sound rather like...
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Miwa Nishikawa – Nagai iiwake AKA The Long Excuse (2016)
Quote: Based on a book by writer – director Miwa Nishikawa, a recently widowed writer ( Masahiro Motoki,Departures)whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief,or lack of it, in caring...
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Noboru Tanaka – Tenshi no harawata: Nami aka Angel Guts: Nami (1979)
The series really hits its stride by the third film, Nami, which is both the artistic pinnacle of the Angel Guts cycle and a roaring good time for devotees of outrageous cinema. A spate of sexual...
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Kihachi Okamoto – Eburi manshi no yûga-na seikatsu AKA The Elegant Life Of...
Quote: Eburi is a 36 year-old man. Nothing enthuses him any more. While being drunk, he promises to contribute a story to a magazine. When he sobers down, he decides to write about the life of a...
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Kihachi Okamoto – Nikudan aka The Human Bullet (1968)
Quote: The summer of 1945. As a “human bullet” of the Kamikaze Unit, 21-year-old “he” is inside a drum with a torpedo. While he waits, he looks back on a short adolescence, reminiscing on the harsh...
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