Tomu Uchida

Message

Michael Kerpan · #1 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:47 am

Awesome Welles · #2 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:02 am

Tomu Uchida will have a retrospective at the BFI Southbank in London throughout December, it doesn't seem as if there are any new restorations but hopefully some DVDs will come out of this. The films featured are:

Police Officer + short film Crab Temple Omen
Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
Twilight Saloon
A Hole of my Own Making
The Kuroda Affair
Swords in the Moonlight (Trilogy)
The Horse Boy
The Outsiders
Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka
The Master Spearman
Killing in Yoshiwara
The Mad Fox
Hishakaku and Kiratsune - A Tale of Two Yakuza
Straits of Hunger

I doubt I'll be able to catch much (no time or money!) anything I absolutely shouldn't miss?

Michael Kerpan · #3 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:19 am

FSimeoni wrote:Tomu Uchida will have a retrospective at the BFI Southbank in London throughout December, it doesn't seem as if there are any new restorations but hopefully some DVDs will come out of this.

My comments (and lots of pictures):

Kiga kaikyo / Straits of Hunger

Mori to mizuumi no matsuri / The Outsiders (literally Festival of Forests and Lakes)

Both of these films are interesting, but I prefer Straits of Hunger (due to the great black and white cinematography). However, I like "Bloody Spear at Mt. Fuji" even more (probably my favorite anti-samurai samurai film made after Humanity and Paper Balloons). Policeman is also supposed to be quite impressive -- but I haven't actually seen it -- or any of the others listed -- and I don't think these will ever make it to Boston. ;~{

Awesome Welles · #4 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:46 am

Thanks MK, I am going to try and catch his Swords in the Moonlight Trilogy which is being shown back to back. I have read a little about Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji and will try to catch this also.

Steven H · #5 Post by **Steven H** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:21 am

Police has a big reputation and its something I've been wanting to see for a while (and about half a dozen of the others sound fantastic). The few of those I've seen are great films but Bloody Spear on Mt Fuji is especially so.

I thought the Sword in the Moonlight trilogy was pretty mediocre, but maybe its one of those you have to see in a cinema.

Awesome Welles · #6 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:11 am

The BFI page with full details has now gone live. Let's hope that this gives rise to DVDs (hopefully MoC/Criterion).

soma · #7 Post by **soma** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 3:19 am

FSimeoni wrote:Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka
Killing in Yoshiwara
The Mad Fox

I saw these four at a Tomu Uchida restrospective at MIFF 2006. Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji and Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka are NOT TO BE MISSED. Absolute masterpieces. I can only hope the word spreads and these are picked up by Criterion at some point, because they belong right beside the likes of Kurosawa and Mizoguchi.

Michael Kerpan · #8 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:13 pm

soma wrote:
FSimeoni wrote:Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka
Killing in Yoshiwara
The Mad Fox
I saw these four at a Tomu Uchida restrospective at MIFF 2006. Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji and Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka are NOT TO BE MISSED. Absolute masterpieces. I can only hope the word spreads and these are picked up by Criterion at some point, because they belong right beside the likes of Kurosawa and Mizoguchi.

Glad to hear your report. Of these four, I've only seen "Bloody Spear" -- which is indeed a masterpiece of the highest order.

What did you think of the other two (non-absolute masterpiece?) films?

sidehacker · #9 Post by **sidehacker** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:33 pm

I posted a couple screenshots from Wildside's (R2) release of Straits of Hunger in the screenshots thread.

Michael Kerpan · #10 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:29 pm

sidehacker wrote:I posted a couple screenshots from Wildside's (R2) release of Straits of Hunger in the screenshots thread.

I made screen captures of the Japanese DVD. I don't find any side by side match-ups (so many wonderful shots in the film -- not just a few obvious candidates).

Here's the closest match I find: mine, sidehackers.

This really _needs_ an English-subbed release. It is a superb film.

Awesome Welles · #11 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:58 pm

I saw Crab Temple Omen and Police Officer last night.

I thought Crab Temple Omen was an interesting shadow animation, apparently influenced bu Lotte Reiniger short films, the film was played without the intertitles translated so following the narrative was difficult at times. Laden with Buddhist imagery it appears to be the story of a young boy /man who turns into a snake terrorising a woman, the snake is then torn to shreds by a sea of crabs, an object of the child's youth. Making any kind of critical judgment about the film is virtually impossible but was interesting to see.

Tomu Uchida's only surviving silent film is a wonderful genre piece, treading very common narrative ground. Aside from the Japanese setting the film is not one culturally Japanese at all. As a silent film and clocking in at two hours the film is bursting through its technical limitations. Uchida thrashes his camera around in wonderfully expressive canted frames, whizzing along dolly tracks, in one amusing scene the cameraman can be seen in some window panes as the camera tracks behind a building to meet the protagonist at an alley as he searches an area of tenements - a shot that is repeated throughout the film in some wonderfully tense searches along with car chases and other such genre fun. It seems obvious that this film would influence Kurosawa's Stray Dog this idea of a rookie cop and then tension between the cop and his old friend the criminal plays nicely with some very strange homoerotic moments. The film has unfortunately dated, though this is only due to laboured scenes involving the protagonist's investigation what might have been tense for a 1933 audience came off as over long for my taste. There is no doubt Uchida is a master director even from this film, which he had to make about a nation proud of it's heritage and values (as we are told at the end in extensive intertitles). I feel a great deal of respect for this film as it is undoubted this film would have been riveting in its day.

Michael Kerpan · #12 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:15 pm

FSimeoni wrote:I saw Crab Temple Omen and Police Officer last night. .

Thanks for your report.

foggy eyes · #13 Post by **foggy eyes** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:24 pm

Caught Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji and The Horse Boy whilst in London this week, and am now wishing that I'd been able to see more. Bloody Spear is terrific, initially playing out as a rather shambolic "road movie" before the narrative tightens and gives way to an astonishing display of physical violence (as clumsy as it is tragic). Along the way, there's some hilarious potty humour, exquisite cinematography (clouds encircling Mt. Fuji), and excellent performances (Tsukigata, Kato and Ueki in particular). In terms of style, Uchida stages interior/dialogue scenes in a manner as detached and precise as his older contemporaries, yet is equally as adept upping the cutting rate and moving the camera swiftly and forcefully for action scenes. Motoharu Ueki gives a barnstorming performance in The Horse Boy, a very moving and honest film about family and parenthood that probably would have ended up sentimental and cloying in other hands. Extremely impressive films, and I really hope some more turn up on English-friendly releases soon (although I won't be holding my breath)...

Michael Kerpan · #14 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:40 pm

Uehara wasn't in Bloody Spear (as far as I know) -- I bet you mean Chiezo Kataoka (one of his best performances ever, I suspect). jhis is an absolutely stunning film -- leading you on in one direction, and then suddenly (but not inappropriately) pulling the rug from under you.

Thanks for the report on Horse Boy (not yet seen by me -- alas).

foggy eyes · #15 Post by **foggy eyes** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:11 pm

My mistake - I was thinking of the child star Motohari Ueki (he's in both). You're right, Kataoka was also superb!

If anyone is interested, here is a short piece by Alexander Jacoby available "exclusively" to BFI members:

Is Uchida a classical artist? He worked within the Japanese studio system, mainly on genre films. His style, though exceedingly proficient, was less dramatically individual than those of such acknowledged masters as Ozu and Mizoguchi. He raised conventional subject matter to the level of art through the subtlety and intelligence of his handling: his films seem distinguished representatives of a tradition.

And yet, consider another meaning of the word "classical". The story of Twilight Saloon obeys the classical unities of place and time, unfolding over one evening in one Tokyo beer hall. That, paradoxically,makes it something of an avant-garde work as a film. Uchida self-consciously chooses to adopt the limitations of another artistic medium, that of theatre.

This fact is emphasised by the inclusion of a singer, a former ballet dancer (now a stripper) and an impressario among its cast of characters: Uchida has made a film which is both theatrical and about theatre. This element draws attention to the artificiality of his conception: the fact that the film's characters have deliberately been chosen to constitute a microcosm of postwar Japanese society. One is invited to view them as constructions, and this in turn encourages us to focus less on the story, more on its social and political implications.

Elsewhere, too, Uchida showed an ability to comment on his chosen medium and its relation with others. A number of his films are based on classic plays. Of these, Killing in Yoshiwara, perhaps Uchida's most famous film in the West, is a fairly straightforward transposition of a theatrical story to cinema. But Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka and The Mad Fox are much more self-conscious works. The latter is based on a famous puppet play, and although using actors rather than dolls, is no less artificial than its sources.

The backdrops visibly evoke Heian-period screen paintings, and climactic scenes unfold on a Noh-like stage set. In the former, playwright Chikamatsu himself appears as a character, not only commenting on, but also revising the drama. The effect of these devices is to prevent the viewer from taking the canonical texts for granted; instead, we are invited to consider alternative modes of expression, to question the story and its ideological implications.

Why should Uchida have displayed this self-consciousness? Perhaps, because the experience of World War II had made him aware of the dangers of being an unself-conscious artist. Another artist figure in Twilight Saloon is the retired painter played by Isamu Kosugi, who states that he gave up painting when he realised that his art had been used for propaganda purposes during the war. Uchida's decision to use techniques that foreground his own status as a conscious artist also enables him to investigate ideas of artistic responsibility.

The experience of war is the unspoken background to many of Uchida's postwar films. In one of his most remarkable works, the late (1965) Straits of Hunger, the narrative seems a metaphor for the country's postwar development: the former criminal who becomes a respectable businessman represents Japan's material success after the defeat of its wartime aggression. Again, the film is marked by a clear aesthetic self-consciousness. The story is loosely but clearly patterned on that of Hugo's Les Miserables, another story of a criminal who achieves respectability, and a work which Uchida himself had filmed, under the title Jean Valjean, in 1931. Yet stylistically, the texture of the grainy black-and-white images seems to echo such modernist directors as Shohei Imamura, who in the sixties were ruthlessly interrogating Japan's postwar experience.

It's appropriate that Uchida looks both backward to classic literature, and sideways to contemporary filmmaking, since his focus is on both the past and the present, and the effect of the past on the present. Is Uchida a classical, or an avant-garde director? Perhaps there is no contradiction between the two.

Michael Kerpan · #16 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:12 pm

Nice commentary on Uchida. The more I see of his work, the more I like him. I should get around to Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka in the next couple of weeks....

tavernier · #17 Post by **tavernier** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:52 pm

Coming to Brooklyn in April:

THE FILMS OF TOMU UCHIDA, APRIL 11â€“30
First, Kurosawa. Then our Ozu retrospective, followed by Mizoguchi, Teshighara, Naruse, and Imamura. Now BAMcinÃ©matek is proud to present the first New York retrospective of another great Japanese director, the unfairly overlooked Tomu Uchida. In a prophetic move early in his career, a young Uchida changed his name to one based on the Western â€œTom.â€ In Japanese characters, the name translates â€œto spit out dreams.â€ His career divides neatly into pre-war and post-war work. His work from the 1920s and 30s, such as POLICEMAN, has a strong leftist social commentary that was rare and controversial for the time. His postwar work shows Uchida as a strong genre stylist, hopping from film to film with no immediately discernible themes, much like many golden-age Hollywood directors. His work remains stylish, engaging, and all the more impressive as Uchida effortlessly directed chamber dramas, comedies, and samurai epics, often in color, and with a forward-looking dose of irony.
FILMS: CHIKAMATSUâ€™S LOVE IN OSAKA (NANIWA NO KOI NO MONOGATARI) (1959); THE MAD FOX (KOI YA KOI NASUNA KOI) (1962); A FUGITIVE FROM THE PAST (KIGA KAIKYO) (1964); A HOLE OF MY OWN MAKING (JIBUN NO ANA NO NAKA DE) (1955); A BLOODY SPEAR AT MT. FUJI (CHIYARI FUJI) (1955); TWILIGHT SALOON (TASOGARE SAKABA) (1955); THE OUTSIDERS (MORI TO MIZUUMI NO MATSURI) (1958); YOSHIWARA: THE PLEASURE QUARTER (YOTO MONOGATARI: HANA NO YOSHIWARA HYAKUNIN GIRI) (1960); POLICEMAN (KEISATSUKAN) (1933); HISTORY OF CRAB TEMPLE (KANIMANJI ENGI) (1924); AND THE MASTER SPEARMAN (SAKE TO ONNA TO YARI) (1960)
Directed by Tomu Uchida
POLICEMAN features live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin

Michael Kerpan · #18 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:08 pm

You New Yorkers have all the luck.

;~{

PimpPanda · #19 Post by **PimpPanda** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:31 pm

I was lucky enough to attend the showing of A Blood Spear at Mt. Fuji and A Fugitive from the Past at cinematheque ontario and loved both of them. However, I was not lucky enough to be able to attend the rest...

Awesome Welles · #20 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:02 pm

We can only hope DVDs follow soon enough so people not in key cities can get a look in.

sidehacker · #21 Post by **sidehacker** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:16 pm

Uchida update: Saw Killing in Yoshiwara. It's a neat little Suzuki-esque melodrama with some very good cinematography. Also, I found (english-subbed) VHS copies of all three "Swords in the Moonlight" films but unfortunately all were cropped. Didn't Toei release DVDs of these films? They're not my highest priority when it comes to Uchida, but I'll take anything I can get, english subbed or not.

Awesome Welles · #22 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:20 pm

Did you see this?

Coffret Uchida Tomu...

Le DÃ©troit de la Faim
Le Mont Fuji et la Lance EnsanglantÃ©e
Meurtre Ãƒ Yoshiwara

Michael Kerpan · #23 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:40 pm

FSimeoni wrote:Did you see this?

Coffret Uchida Tomu

This came out a while back. I've seen the French DVD of Bloody Spear (wonderful film, French subs only).. I have the Japanese DVD of Straits of Hunger (no subs -- but wonderful film). and have a copy of an old video of Murder in Yoshiwara (not yet watched).

sidehacker · #24 Post by **sidehacker** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:30 pm

Yeah, I watched all of those releases with English fansubs. Excellent discs, otherwise, though.

tavernier · #25 Post by **tavernier** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:25 pm

Here's the Brooklyn retro lineup....what would you guys recommend? (Aside from everything, of course!)

Tomu Uchida: Discovering a Japanese Master, April 11â€“30

BAMcinÃ©matek is proud to present the first New York retrospective of another significant Japanese director, the long overlooked Tomu Uchida, whose name translates to â€œspit out dreams.â€ Uchidaâ€™s films from the 20s and 30s possess a leftist social commentary, while his post-war work reveals a strong genre stylist with no immediately discernible themes, much like many golden-age Hollywood directors. Uchida effortlessly directed chamber dramas, comedies, and samurai epics, often in color, and with a forward-looking dose of irony. This could be your only chance to view these exceptionally rare films. All films directed by Tomu Uchida and in Japanese with English subtitles. All archival prints!

Chikamatsuâ€™s Love in Osaka (Naniwa No Koi No Monogatari) (1959) 106min
Fri, Apr 11 at 6:50, 9:15pm
With Kinnosuke Nakamura, Ineko Arima
Incorporating kabuki and bunraku puppets, this drama follows a young man who falls in love with a prostitute, vowing to rescue her from the brothel. Not content to adapt the play, Uchida makes playwright Chikamatsu a character in the drama who moves from observer to narrator to participant as the tragedy unfolds in postmodern fashion.

The Mad Fox (Koi Ya Koi Nasuna Koi) (1962) 109min
Sat, Apr 12 at 4:30, 6:50pm
With Hashizo Okawa, Michiko Saga
This full-on avant-garde classic mixes kabuki and animation with location and studio work. A man tormented by the death of his wife meets her twin sister and a fox spirit who takes the form of his beloved. The story is just an excuse for Uchida to challenge the form and function of cinema in a gorgeous tribute to Japanese folk tales.

A Fugitive From the Past (Kiga Kaikyo) (1964) 182min
Sun, Apr 13 at 4, 7:30pm
With Rentaro Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari
An epic masterpiece often compared to Kurosawaâ€™s High and Low, this grim examination of criminal life in post-war Japan is split into three sections: the criminal on the run, an interlude with a prostitute, and the final confrontation with police. The grainy widescreen cinematography results from Uchidaâ€™s unusual choice to shoot in 16mm and blow up to 35mm.

A Hole of My Own Making (Jibun No Ana No Naka De) (1955) 125min
Mon, Apr 14 at 7, 9:30pm
With Yumeji Tsukioka, Mie Kitahara
With American domination of Japan foremost in the minds of many Japanese citizens, Uchida uses a stinging family drama as a metaphor for the state of post-war Japan. Amidst endless construction and aircraft noise, a family whose father died in the war slowly disintegrates, as the daughter and stepmother juggle for position in a country whose future was uncertain.

Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (Chiyari Fuji) (1955) 94min
Tue, Apr 15 at 6:50, 9:15pm
With Chiezo Kataoka, Ryunosuke Tsukigata
Uchida returned to Japan after a long hiatus with this light-hearted adventure about a samurai and his servants on a trip to Edo. In a sly bit of subversion, the peasants are more intelligent than the drunken samurai. The final battle in a courtyard amidst punctured sake barrels is an Uchida career highlight.

Twilight Saloon (Tasogare Sakaba) (1955) 94min
Mon, Apr 21 at 6:50, 9:15pm
With Keiko Tsushima, Hitomi Nozoe
Dealing with post-war fears in a lighter tone than A Hole of My Own Making, Uchida views a cross-section of Japanese life over the course of one night in a tavern. Dancers take the stage, a singing contest is held, and old soldiers reminisce. At the corner of the bar is an artist drowning himself in drink, who acts as the filmâ€™s narrator (and Uchidaâ€™s alter ego) in this gently humorous film.

The Outsiders (Mori to Mizuumi no Matsuri) (1958) 113min
Tue, Apr 22 at 6:50, 9:15pm
One of Uchidaâ€™s most socially conscious films, The Outsiders looks at the Ainu, an indigenous people who live on the island of Hokkaido and were often portrayed as vicious savages (much like Native Americans in Westerns). As the hero of the film challenges an owner to prove his own Ainu heritage, the film raises questions about the necessity of preserving a culture.

Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarter (Yoto Monogatari: Hana No Yoshiwara Hyakunin Giri) (1960) 109min
Mon, Apr 28 at 6:50, 9:15pm
With Chiezo Kataoka, Yoshie Mizutani
A wealthy businessman with a disfigured face seems unable to find love until he meets a conniving prostitute out to win his fortune. This dark melodramaâ€™s sudden and violent end in a shower of cherry blossoms is one of the most impressive scenes in Uchidaâ€™s canon.

Policeman with History of Crab Temple, 132min total
Tue, Apr 29 at 7pm*
*Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin
Policeman (Keisatsukan) (1933) 108min
With Eiji Nakano, Isamu Kosugi
Uchidaâ€™s only surviving complete silent film is a masterpiece of Japanese silent cinema. With a muscular energy that predates Kurosawa, Uchida borrows from Hollywood gangster films and expressionist techniques in a gripping story of a young policeman tracking down an old friend who is now a criminal.
With History of Crab Temple (Kanimanji engi) (1924) 24min
A rare animated short.
Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin

The Master Spearman (Sake To Onna To Yari) (1960) 99min
Wed, Apr 30 at 6:50, 9:15pm
With Ryutaro Otomo, Chikage Awashima
When a shogun kills himself, rituals dictate that his samurai must also commit seppuku; however one young ronin refuses to follow this code and retreats to the country, only to be lured back into the service of the spear. Uchida gently tweaks audience expectations, as a character bemoans a crowdâ€™s bloodlust, only to reward them with a magnificently violent ending.

Prints for A Hole of My Own Making, A Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji, and Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarter are courtesy of Japan Foundation. All other prints are courtesy of the National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.