Physical Address
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About Us
This website was created by David Baldwin (pen name), a playwright, screenwriter, Japanese Cinema scholar and activist based in New York. The purpose of the site is to stimulate interest not just in the work of Uchida Tomu, but in Japanese Cinema in general, which remains very much an unexplored frontier for most moviegoers, despite the unprecedented availability of films in today’s world. David Baldwin has seen, by his own count, over 400 Japanese films, but still feels he has only just scratched the surface.
Disclaimer
This is strictly a personal fan page. I have no relation whatever with the estate of Uchida Tomu or with anyone directly related to him. Although this site will include notifications of new products (including books and DVDs) relevant to the work of Uchida Tomu, as these become available, I receive no compensation from the sale of any such merchandise.
Recommended Sites
The following is a list of some recommended Japanese Cinema websites and blogs:
- Midnight Eye hasn’t been active since 2015, which is a shame, but the site is still there, and it offers some of the best reviews, interviews and knowledgeable insights into Japanese Cinema on the Internet.
- Akira Kurosawa Info is the go-to site for all things Kurosawa. This site offers a model of comprehensiveness about its subject that I could never even hope to emulate. (Disclosure: I have contributed both posts and comments to others’ posts on this site.)
- Ozu-san is that rare website that not only provides important information about a film artist, but successfully mimics that artist’s visual style. I very much like the pattern of the site, dividing information about Ozu Yasujirō into discrete little linkable squares for the visitor to explore, much like those box-like rooms in the houses of Ozu-san’s characters. On the minus side, there are too many sections of the site still under construction, and certain parts of it could definitely use an update. (For example, the profile of Hara Setsuko doesn’t note that the actress died in 2015 at age 95.) But the filmography in particular offers a wealth of facts on the making of the films (including the 17 “lost” films), as well as sometimes acerbic quotes by Ozu himself.
- A Mikio Naruse Companion is a wonderful introduction to one of the most interesting, though also one of the most consistently downbeat, of all Japanese film artists. IUTAS member Dan Sallitt’s capsule reviews of Naruse’s extant work – and he really has seen all of it – makes a powerful case for the filmmaker’s absolute originality, without ever sugarcoating the dark tone and relentless pessimism of that body of work.
- Windows on Worlds provides consistently intelligent reviews of Japanese movies both from decades past and the present day. Owned by IUTAS member Hayley Scanlon.
- Japanonfilm – This blogger has made a project of reviewing Japanese films from the “classic era” (mid-20th Century) chronologically (though there also have been a number of instances of films reviewed “out of order”). Right now (July 2021), he’s gotten up to the mid-1970s. He frequently examines the movies not only artistically, but for what they reveal about Japanese society at the time they were made. So reading his blogs in the order in which they’ve been posted gives a nice overview of what has changed in Japan over the years – as well as what has resisted change (e.g., the low status of women). (Disclosure: I have frequently contributed comments to the posts on this site.)
- Weird Wild Realm – This site has its eccentricities (the blogger, who calls herself Paghat the Ratgirl, prefers to use an ampersand to signify “and,” rather than the word), but it provides a wealth of information about Asian Cinema, particularly the Japanese variety, and she often provides detailed historical context for her reviews. Her multipart analysis of the Chuji Kunisada series of movies, in the context of the historical realities of the feudal era they depict, is particularly enlightening.
