Film★ 6.71991Rainbow KidsA wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three. She is insulted by the amount of money they propose to demand as ransom, and a strange interchange of roles takes place.Open details →
Film1943Umi YukabaDepicting the International Disarmament Conference and the Japanese Navy’s Struggle.Open details →
The Sky Is BlueFilm1943The Sky Is BlueA state-sponsored film featuring singers who embodied the joys of rural life.Open details →
Film★ 8.01942New SnowMinowada, a young teacher at a National People's School, has his own theory of education and the daughter of his linguistics teacher becomes drawn to him. Kayo, a strong-willed doctor, is also attracted to him. A mediator tries to arrange a marriage but just at that point Minowada receives military call-up papers.Open details →
Film★ 7.01939Mud and SoldiersA group of Japanese soldiers land in Chinese territory. They advance on a village ; one soldier, Norimoto, is killed in the attack, but the village is captured. Norimoto’s body is recovered and buried. Over the next two days, the soldiers advance inland. Two more soldiers, Naito and Takahashi, are injured. They remain behind to recover, but vow to catch up. Their comrades march on...Open details →
Film★ 6.51939Explosion!"Around the time he made such remarkably ambivalent war films as Mud and Soldiers and Five Scouts, Tasaka directed this 'home front' comedy-drama which is too bizarre to be serious propaganda. [The plot revolves around a public contribution campaign to buy airplanes.] The mayor's aviator son promises to fly over the village in salute, and much of the narrative concerns the preparations for this great event. Tasaka throws in a few songs, some village humor and satire, and tremendous camera mobility, finally wringing every possible effect from his climax." John Gillett, British Film InstituteOpen details →
Film★ 6.01938Five ScoutsDuring the Second Sino-Japanese War, a five-man reconnaissance unit is dispatched to scout enemy positions in a volatile territory. After a sudden and intense firefight, the group is separated, leaving the survivors to wait in agonizing suspense at their outpost.Open details →
Film★ 10.01937Unending AdvanceOne of Uchida’s early sound films, Unending Advance is based on a curious story by Yasujiro Ozu, in which an examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into an idyllic dream of an implausible future. The surviving print, although incomplete, offers an essential glimpse into Uchida’s prewar period, when he was associated more with realist dramas than with the period films that dominated his work after the war.Open details →
The Naked TownFilm1937The Naked TownA 1937 Japanese language film directed by Tomu Uchida, starring Ryo Akaboshi, Mitsuru Date and Hisao Furutani.Open details →
Film1936The Crown of LifeTwo brothers run a factory canning crabs. The elder brother Kotaro is righteous and insists on honesty. The younger brother is fixated on money. They are polar opposites. When a boat sails out looking for crab and does not return one day the brothers begin to argue over how to run their facility. They had just received a large order from a foreign country and had obtained a loan from a lender that needed to be repaid.Open details →
Film★ 10.01936Theater of Life: Youth VersionDuring the 20s in Japan, a romantic student at Tokyo's Waseda University is filled with noble sentiments absorbed from literature but his naive illusions will be shattered by the ruthless realities of money and power.Open details →