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Peerpee, you lied to me - among my initial guesses, I mentioned two Sadao Yamanakas and you said I'd only guessed Shindo's Naked Island right. And now, I see that is not true.

Anyway, nice to see that there is plenty to rejoice at the coming months.

Annie Mall wrote:Peerpee, you lied to me - among my initial guesses, I mentioned two Sadao Yamanakas and you said I'd only guessed Shindo's Naked Island right. And now, I see that is not true.

How do you know there's another Yamanaka film among the 12 Japanese Summer releases?

Pinback, didn't you read the quote you posted above?

This release schedule, featuring films made between 1937-1979, includes major works by Shohei Imamura, Keisuke Kinoshita, Akira Kurosawa, Kaneto Shindo, Masahiro Shinoda, Hiroshi Teshigahara and Sadao Yamanaka.

Annie Mall wrote:Pinback, didn't you read the quote you posted above?

Sorry to interrupt, but it says the Japanese Summer starts with the Teshigahara titles, so that would include the already mentioned Humanity and Paper Balloons, not implying that there are more Yamanka DVDs on the way.

Ah, ok. That makes sense now. Sorry for jumping the gun.

Annie Mall wrote:Peerpee, you lied to me - among my initial guesses, I mentioned two Sadao Yamanakas and you said I'd only guessed Shindo's Naked Island right. And now, I see that is not true.

Anyway, nice to see that there is plenty to rejoice at the coming months.

You've misunderstood, Annie. Our mention of Yamanaka refers only to HUMANITY AND PAPER BALLOONS. So I don't understand how you can accuse me of "lying".

(Both posted on the same minute but mine went public first. It's ok, now. I'm calm. I don't feel threatened - did I sound a tad too american just now? Oh, good grief...)

Well Annie, at least you've comprehensively eliminated the possibility of any more Yamanaka films...which narrows down the possibilities for speculation a little. Good work!

...and more neglected Japanese masterpieces:

Saraba Hakobune/Farewell to the Arc by Terayama Shuji

Den´en Ni Shisu/Pastoral: To Die in the Country by Terayama

Hatsukoi Jigoku-hen/The Inferno of First Love by Hani Susumu (in an uncut version)

Erosu purasu gyakusatsu/Eros Plus Massacre by Yoshida Yoshishige

Kaigenrei/ Coup D´Etat by Yodshida (both of which have been just released as part of two wonderful Yoshida boxsets in Japan, but...grrrrrrrr...without subs)

and every Oshima Nagisa of the second half of the 60´s

and...and

but I´m almost sure I will not see them on DVD during my lifetime

Coal Miner's Daughter please.

Thanks.

Tribe

Have you any plans for Nagisa Oshima films ?

flixyflox wrote:ANATAHAN/THE SAGA OF ANATAHAN - Josef von Sternberg 1954 92 minutes.

FIlmed in Japan by Sternberg entirely on a sound stage in which Sternberg reconstructed a Pacific Island, the refuge of a group of stranded Japanese men and one woman, who remain shipwrecked there, obstinately refusing to believe WW2 has ended.

Hey, thanks Flixy! I never realised that weird film I saw on TV when I was 10 was a von Sternberg!

Tribe wrote:Coal Miner's Daughter please.

Thanks.

Tribe

Hmmm.... how about Harlan County, U.S.A. or Blue Collar???


Axel.

Something I would really like in keeping with the current Japanese theme would be the director of Eureka, Shinji Aoyama's other films released. I would guess that unless a label like Masters of Cinema or Criterion picks them up there wouldn't be much chance of a release.

Another film that sounded fascinating in its Midnight Eye write up was the documentary A or A2, which I guess would also not be released otherwise. I'm not sure whether the remit will be to much older films though

colinr0380 wrote:Something I would really like in keeping with the current Japanese theme would be the director of Eureka, Shinji Aoyama's other films released. I would guess that unless a label like Masters of Cinema or Criterion picks them up there wouldn't be much chance of a release.

I saw Aoyama's 1997 film Wild Life as part of the Japanese Film after Mr Pink: Japanese Directors of the post-Tarantino Generation film festival that toured the UK. Wild Life is totally different from Eureka...it's basically an off-beat Yakuza action-comedy. It's really not the kind of film you'd expect to see from Criterion. It'd make a possible HVE release though, or Kino. I'm really not sure the extent to which Aoyama's other films resemble Eureka, which I agree is clearly Criterion/MoC-worthy.

It would just be good to just have any other films he has made released both to place the one film in context and also just for the pleasure of seeing more of his work (even Eureka again in a better version). I don't mind about them being in a completely different style or genre - after all I quite enjoy Takeshi Kitano's Getting Any? despite it being very different from his other work (I'm hoping that last statement hasn't damned me! 8-[)

colinr0380 wrote:It would just be good to just have any other films he has made released both to place the one film in context and also just for the pleasure of seeing more of his work (even Eureka again in a better version).

I totally agree, and I'd love to see any other Aoyama films on DVD...it's just that since the two films of his that I know are so totally different, I'm not sure which DVD companies to petition. If everything else he's done is more along the lines of Wild Life (which I get the impression it is... apparently Aoyama is know for "low budget genre jobs"), we won't be seeing anything from MoC or Criterion.

colinr0380 wrote:I don't mind about them being in a completely different style or genre - after all I quite enjoy Takeshi Kitano's Getting Any? despite it being very different from his other work (I'm hoping that last statement hasn't damned me!)

The fact that I think Zatoichi, Sonatine and Kikujiro are masterpieces doesn't mean I don't laugh my ass off every time I see Takeshi's Castle...

From what I've read, Aoyama's early films generally ranged from bad to mediocre.

Michael Kerpan wrote:From what I've read, Aoyama's early films generally ranged from bad to mediocre.

Yes it is great to be forewarned about the quality from reviews and such, but it would be great to see them for myself (the films of Aoyama being only one example) to make up my own mind - it doesn't particularly matter to me which label releases these or others - it is the availability which counts (although with films like Pitfall and The Face of Another only just getting their releases through MoC, I can't complain too loudly about other, relatively more modern films lanquishing)

According to Midnight Eye, Wild Life will be released on R1 DVD on May 31st...

In case anyone missed it in the Shinoda: 3 films + 4 films thread:

peerpee wrote:The MoC Series (UK) will release Shinoda's ASSASSINATION later this year.

Nick (peerpee) has also indicated that MOC #18 & 19 will be films from Japanese director Keisuke KINOSHITA (1912-98). I have never seen a Kinoshita film. Donald Richie, in his A Hundred Years of Japanese Films, calls him a fine satirist, and concentrates on his films from the fifties. Richie says the director's finest satires ("perhaps the finest made during this period") were Carmen Comes Home/Karumen kokyo ni kaeru (1951)--apparently Japan's first color film (Midnight Eye Review)--and its 1952 sequel, Carmen's Pure Love/Karumen junjo su, both starring the great Hideko TAKAMINE.

Kinoshita made 49 films between 1943 and 1988. Richie also briefly discusses the following films:

The Blossoming Port/Hana saku minato (1943)
Here's to the Girls/Ojosan kampai (1949)
The Broken Drum/Yabure daiko (1948)
Twenty-Four Eyes/Nijuyon no hitomi (1954) "most popular film" Midnight Eye Review
She Was Wild Like a Chrysanthemum/Nogiku no gotoki kimi nariki (1955) "one of the most succesful [of his family melodramas]"
Times of Joy and Sorrow/Yorokobi mo kanashimi mo ikutoshitsuki [aka The Lighthouse] (1957)
Ballad of Narayama/Narayama bushiko (1958)
Snow Flurry/Kazahana (1959) "a severely fragmented story ... full of flashbacks and elipses" that anticipated the Shochiku "new wave"
The River Fuefuki/Fuefiki-gawa (1960) "his last important picture"

The scant few IMDb voters who have seen some of Kinoshita's films give high marks to A Japanese Tragedy/Nihon no higeki (1953), She Was Wild Like a Chrysanthemum/Nogiku no gotoki kimi nariki (1955), and Twenty-Four Eyes/Nijuyon no hitomi (1954).

Forum member Acquarello has reviewed three of Kinoshita's films here.

Maybe Michael Kerpan has seen some of these & can comment ...

Kinoshita's Ballad of Narayama is available on VHS (last time I checked amazon.com had a copy or two). I've always half hoped Criterion would release this as a different version when/if they put out Imamura's. Both Japanese Tragedy and Twenty Four eyes are available on DVD prom Panorama (R2 or R3, I forget) for cheap. Haven't seen either.

I *really* want to see Carmen Come Home and Snow Flurry... they sound pretty interesting (if I remember Richie's book correctly). I think there was a large amount of restoration work done with this director's film a couple years back, which certainly bodes well for this news of release.

Of the Kinoshita films I've seen, I like "Army" and "Carmen Comes Home " best. I loathed "Ballad of Narayama" and found "24 Eyes" overly manipulative (albeit with some wonderful sections -- and very worth seeing).

Michael Kerpan wrote:I loathed "Ballad of Narayama" ...

All the better for it to be paired with the *brilliant* Imamura version, I say!

Have you posted anything about Carmen Comes Home anywhere? I'd love to read a review (my trust in Richie comes and goes, unforunately).