Kaneto Shindō

This documentary by Hubert Niogret looks at the revival of Japanese cinema during the 1990s.

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Writer/Director Kaneto Shindô recounts his time spent in the Japanese Navy in WWII. He tells about the harsh training, grueling conditions, and tragic losses which are reenacted in black & white sequences.

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Works commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Japan mapping Supervision Association

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The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.

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An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

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In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi.

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The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings.

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This rare silent black & white and color Super-8 footage was shot with the camera of actor Kei Sato (Hachi in the film) during the production of Onibaba

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Toward the end of World War II, middle-aged soldier Keita is entrusted with a postcard from a comrade who is sure he will die in battle. After the war ends, Keita visits his comrade's wife Yuko and bears witness to the tragic life she has led.

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The 95-year-old director shot the film in his hometown of Ishiuchi, Hiroshima. The story is based on a teacher he had when he was a child.

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Writer/Director Kaneto Shindô recounts his time spent in the Japanese Navy in WWII. He tells about the harsh training, grueling conditions, and tragic losses which are reenacted in black & white sequences.

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A mother and daughter are stranded in small, isolated cabin, and are starving to death. In order to survive, they plan to entice men that happen to stray to their cabin with sex, and kill them. All goes well until a local cop shows up and, then, an old relation.

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The story opens with Yukiko and her business partner in Moscow searching for Russian items for their store in Tokyo. There they meet a Russian translator, Nicholai, played by Sergei Nakariakov - a trumpeter from Russia. Some months later after they have returned, Nicholai and Yukiko meet again while he is auditioning for the Tokyo orchestra where seeds of romance begin. Yukiko's father, however, is diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer. Yukiko returns home to be with him in his final months as he decides not to go through therapy and let the disease run its course. Coming into contact with a childhood friend while at home Yukiko is left to choose between her old friend and Nicholai, all while having to face the emotional struggle of dealing with her father's impending death.

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The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.

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Schoolgirl Kuniko is kidnapped by a middle-aged man Iwazono when she is jogging. He tells her that he had a failed marriage which leaves him a deep and everlasting scar in his mind. He kidnaps her in search of a perfect marriage and intends to lock her in the room and 'educate' her to perform perfect sex where body and soul are united.

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It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.

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Set in a Kyoto geisha house during the post-WWII era, the young Omocha begins her rigorous apprenticeship within the traditional community of geiko and maiko. She must navigate complex internal rivalries and a strict social hierarchy while the house struggles to maintain its customs. As modern society shifts around them, the residents face the increasing pressure of Japan's changing cultural identity.

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Yukie is a romance story about an American veteran (Bo Swenson) of the Korean War veteran and his undying love for a beautiful Japanese nurse named Yukie (Mitsuko Baisho) who marries him despite her parents' objections.

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A biographical drama depicting the life full of love and suffering of the writer and poet Kenji Miyazawa, who celebrated his 100th birthday in 1996.

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A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past

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Faraway Sunset tells the story of the famed bacteriologist who is known to have discovered the agent that cause syphilis, and for his relentless search for a cure to yellow fever. As a toddler, his mother's neglect had caused an accident to his left hand, fusing together all the fingers in a bizarre twist of fate. Naturally extremely remorseful for being the cause of her son's handicap, she does everything she could to ensure that he gets to lead a normal life, despite having to fend off bullies and unfair prejudices.

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A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise.

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A three parts movie following people forgotten by a society that modernizes at the price of expelling part of its individuals.

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Set in downtown Tokyo, it depicts the activities of a weak youth baseball team, the Chidori Boys, and the ordinary people who live there.

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A documentary about the lives of actors in the Sakura-tai theatrical troupe, which had arrived in the island of Hiroshima to begin preparations for the staging of a play just before the atomic bombing.

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The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.

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Story of famed Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, with an emphasis on her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi.

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Haru, an aging scriptwriter, has isolated himself somewhere in the woods of Nagano to work on his first novel. As the last surviving member of his kin, he intends to chronicle the family he grew up in.

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Takeshi Yasui, a junior high school student is found dead in a river. The police investigate it as a murder related to bullying. The dead boy turns out to have been murdered by two of his schoolmates, who he had been bullying.

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Hideo is sold in marriage to a Japanese farmer in San Francisco to settle her family's debt. Over the next 20 years, the couple works hard and raises 4 children. After Pearl Harbor is attacked, they are interned with other Japanese immigrants in a camp, losing both their land and their assets.

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A conflict between parents and their delinquent daughter.

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A television drama aired on November 3, 1983 as a special project to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Yomiuri Television and the 30th anniversary of the founding of Nippon Television.

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A gripping and entertaining historical drama that follows the actions of the thief Nezumi Kozo Jirokichi during the Edo period.

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The tumultuous life of the fallen Isoroku Yamamoto is depicted, along with his family, friends, and subordinates, his bonds with the women who loved and watched over him, and the sorrows of the nameless people who have disappeared in the torrent of history.

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One night, Genjiro Tsurumi, a former ronin comes across a man being attacked by a group of assassins. The dying man is an official secret agent carrying a secret letter addressed to General Matsudaira. Genjiro meets with Matsudaira, who informs him of the existence of a mysterious group, the Hachitake... who aims to overthrow the Shogunate.

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A murder occurs at a party hosted by Dr. Aida's former students (mostly women), most of whom live in Kanagawa Prefecture. Dr. Aida is invited to the party and, at the request of his former students, decides to become involved in the case. Soon after, detectives from the local police department arrive (always accompanied by the chief of police), and a little later, Lieutenant Suda from the Fujisawa North Police Station (now the Yokohama Port Police Station) arrives to begin questioning the people involved (Dr. Aida secretly overhears this). The murders continue and the case becomes more and more confusing. Dr. Aida gets hints from the tools of the ancients that he has unearthed, and unravels the trick that was used to commit the crimes. The birth secrets of the people involved are the key to the case, and Dr. Aida (or Suda) always visits the obstetrics and gynecology clinic in the interview scene in the middle of the story.

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Rennyo was the key figure responsible for the restoration of Shin Buddhism in Japan, in particular the Honganji lineage that had a slump in its fortunes during the Middle Ages. According to the legend, his motivation was a pivotal childhood incident at the age of six when his mother summoned him and told him about his destiny to revive the fortunes of the Honganji school to which he was the next in line. She then mysteriously disappeared from the temple. Taking her words to heart, from a background of great poverty and hardship, at the age of 16 he set out to spread the word across the land.

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The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.

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Magistrate Toyama no Kin-san is ordered to catch the phantom thief Nezumi Kozo, who is robbing daimyo and wealthy townspeople. Under the name of Nezumi Kozo, there is a small wholesaler Jiro. And once Toyama and Jiro, when they were young, were comrades who spent all their time gambling and having fun with women in the Yushima Tenjin area...

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A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored.

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A young Japanese-American man arrives at his grandmother's old hometown in Yamaguchi, begins to stay at her family's elite but dysfunctional household, and gets entangled in a sinister plot of murder.

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The men who surround and torment the young protagonist (demanding teacher, owner of the company that rapes his own daughter, despotic and uncompromising father) are opposed to women (victims of men) as embodiment of salvation.

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