In 1960 an independent Japanese production company sat on the verge of bankruptcy. Using a shoestring budget and shooting entirely on location, one of their regular directors shot what was expected to be the company’s final film. The Naked Island, … Continue reading Silence and Sorrow | The Naked Island (1960)
There are essentially four hugely influential and significant directors from Japanese cinema’s first half-century: Mikio Naruse, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi. Both Kurosawa and Ozu are easily the best known internationally; Naruse and Mizoguchi less so. Let’s focus … Continue reading “I, Yang Yuhuan, am not a Puppet” | The Empress Yang Kwei-Fei (1955)
Please note that some quotes included in this essay contain outdated and potentially offensive language. They have been included to reflect the language and culture of the time. There is no argument that, in 1937, the film producer Walt Disney … Continue reading “You can’t run away from trouble” | Song of the South (1946)
Amazon’s US$8.45 billion dollar purchase of film studio MGM was announced this week, giving the tech company the rights to literally thousands of hours of archive content as well as a number of ongoing feature film franchises. It has led … Continue reading Amazon’s MGM purchase: the franchises
It begins, oddly enough, with Gary Numan. His 1980 rendition of Erik Satie’s “Trois Gymnopédies” accompanies a stark shot of a snowfield from above. In stumbles a hysterical young woman, barely able to stand. When she falls, she convulses on … Continue reading “Mummy, there are bugs in here” | Climax (2018)
Readers should note that this essay substantially reveals the storyline of the film. When English-speaking audiences discovered Japanese cinema in the early 1950s, it was through a series of acclaimed period dramas including Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Kenji Mizoguchi’s The … Continue reading “Do you want me that much?” | Gate of Hell (1953)
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Universal Amphitheatre. Well, here it is, the late 1970s, going on 1985. You know, so much of the music we hear today is pre-programmed electronic disco, we never get a chance … Continue reading “We’re on a mission from God” | The Blues Brothers (1980)
I want to tell you about In the Dust of the Stars, known in its original German as Im Staub der Sterne. It is a relatively obscure science fiction film produced in 1976. The film is many things. It is odd. It … Continue reading “What kind of help do you need?” | In the Dust of the Stars (1976)
Robert Roy MacGregor was born in 1671 near Loch Katrine in Scotland’s Perthshire. As a young man, like many Scottish patriots, he was drawn to the 1689 Jacobite uprising – an armed rebellion to restore Stuart dynasty rule to the … Continue reading “Neither asked nor given” | Rob Roy (1995)
Within Japan a number of directors are widely noted as the masters of the screen arts: Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse, and so on. Internationally there has only ever really been one name: Kurosawa. In a career spanning 57 years Akira Kurosawa … Continue reading “We continue on without rest” | The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)
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