Category Poverty

17th Century, Bunraku, Children, Cinema, Drama, Feudalism, Japan, Japanese Cinema, Kabuki, Poverty, Prostitution, Road Movie, Samurai, Theater, Tragedy, Uncategorized

The Horse Boy (Abarenbō kaidō; 暴れん坊街道), 1957)

Picture of a surprised-looking Japanese man, shown against a dark (night) background, wearing clothing from Japan's feudal era

Alternate Titles: Horse Boy; Hooligans’ Highway (literal English title); La Route des malandrins (literal French title) Production Company Toei (Kyoto) Scenarist Yoda Yoshikata Original Draft (uncredited) Hirata Kenzo (see Notes on the Production below) Sources The Night Song of Yosaku…

RebelJack
September 15, 2024

1900s, 1920s, 1930s, Buddhism, Cinema, College, Domestic drama, Drama, Japan, Japanese Cinema, Meiji, Politics, Poverty, Silent Film, Silent Movie, Social justice, Students, Taisho, Tragedy, Violence, Yakuza

Theater of Life: Youth Version [Fragment] (Jinsei gekijō – Seishun hen, 人生劇場・青春篇),1936

A young Japanese man in traditional clothing from the early 20th Century, sitting in a semi-darkened room, his head bowed in grief

Production Company Nikkatsu (Tamagawa) Scenarists Yagi Yasutarō (adaptation); Kameya Gentoku (screenplay) Source Ozaki Shirō (novel) Cinematographer Yokota Tatsuyuki Performers (Note: actors credited in the cast list but who don’t appear in the extant version are noted with an asterisk.) Kosugi…

RebelJack
July 30, 2023

17th Century, 1950s, 1960s, Ainu, Allegory, Bar, Cinema, Communists, Domestic drama, Drama, Feudalism, Film History, Foxes, Japan, Japanese Cinema, Koreans, Maoism, Mining, Politics, Poverty, Prostitution, Race, Samurai, Satire, Social justice, Tragedy, War

Uchida the Sellout?

An old Japanese man wearing a cap, sitting outdoors on a chair and holding a cigarette in his hand

Photo above: Uchida Tomu directing a film, probably Swords of Death (Shinken shōbu, 1971) Note: As I’ve already done several times for this blog, I am interrupting my series of reviews of the films of Uchida Tomu to post my…

RebelJack
July 1, 2023
2 Comments

1940s, 1950s, Buddhism, Capitalism, Cinema, Colonization, Drama, Film History, Japan, Japanese Cinema, Maoism, masterpiece, Police, Poverty, Prostitution, Serial killer, Social justice, Tokyo, Tragedy, Violence

A Fugitive from the Past (Kiga Kaikyō;飢餓海峡), 1965

A middle-aged Japanese man with a mustache is looking towards the camera with a distressed expression

Other titles: The Hunger Straits, Straits of Hunger (literal English titles); Starvation Straits (alternative English title) Le détroit de la faim (literal French title); Szökevény a múltból [A Fugitive from the Past] (alternate Hungarian title) Production Company Toei (Tokyo) Scenarist…

RebelJack
April 30, 2023
1 Comment

1920s, Children, Cinema, Feudalism, Folklore, Japan, Poverty, Silent Film, Slapstick, Uncategorized

Moving Tales of Youth: The Pure Heart (Shonen bidan: Kiyoki kokoro; 少年美談清き心), 1925

Several Japanese men in feudal dress stuck in the rungs of a ladder

Tale of a Boy: Noble Heart (alternate English title) Production Company Shakai Kyōiku Kenkyū-jo Scenarist Unknown (possibly Uchida) Source Kobayashi Sadaji (original story) Staging Oshimoto Shichinosuke Cinematographer Nagai Seiji Performers Kojima Takehiko (Mr. Sakai, the teacher); Mizushima Michitarō [as Mizushima…

RebelJack
November 21, 2021
2 Comments

Cinema, Japan, Meiji, Music, Politics, Poverty, Silent Film, Uncategorized

Six Lost Uchida Films That I Wish Were Found

Six middle-age Japanese men in suits, three of them seated, the other three standing behind them.

From time to time, I will interrupt my series of reviews of the films of Uchida Tomu to post general observations on Uchida, his current reputation and his art. Photo above: A snapshot of six Japanese film directors, taken in…

RebelJack
September 9, 2021

Community, Farmers, Japan, Meiji, Nature, Poverty, Uncategorized

Earth (Tsuchi, 土), 1939

A man on a beach in the sun looks upward in pain

Other titles: Der Acker [The Field] (alternate German title); Ziemia (literal Polish title); Поле [“Pólye”: The Field] (alternate Russian title) Production Company Nikkatsu Tamagawa (Chōfu) Production Dates 1937 – 1939 (precise dates unknown) Scenarists Kitamura Tsutomu, Yagi Yasutarō Source Tsuchi…