The first half of the 1990s was still very much like the stagnant eighties, but the second half is harvest time. See my previous post for a general impression of the whole decade.
In the last years of the millennium the revival of Japanese cinema through indies and anime finally becomes pronounced. 1997 even has been called an "annus mirabilis" (Mark Schilling). It is also at the end of the decade that Japanese cinema starts regularly appearing at film festivals abroad. Prestigious prizes are won by for example Imamura Shohei (his second Golden Palm) and Kitano Takeshi, but also films by Kawase (Suzaku) and Koreeda (Maborishi) create quite a splash. Shall We Dance? becomes a great box office success in the United States. Miike Takashi's Audition shocks worldwide audiences. Excellent anime films which conquer world screens are Princess Mononoke, Perfect Blue and Ghost in the Shell. These years also see the start of the J-Horror craze with the worldwide success of The Ring. Japanese cinema has finally overcome the chaos created by the demise of the studios (as producers) and an alternate system is now firmly in place.
That doesn't mean that these films are in any way optimistic: many works express feelings of profound loss, alienation and hopelessness, caused by the disappearance of a beloved person, suicide or murder. There is a general feeling of lack of stability, something not only brought about by the economic malaise which continues, but also by the Kobe Earthquake and Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attacks which both happened in the first months of 1995 and were a huge shock to the whole population. Japanese society is not falling apart, but fissures have appeared in the form of such problems as youth crime, homelessness, school bullying, weird cults, and teenage girl prostitution. At the same time, many young people experience alienation and lack of identity. Examples of films addressing alienation and loss are Kitano's Hanabi, Koreeda's Maboroshi, Kawase's Suzaku, Imamura's The Eel, Shinozaki's Okaeri, Higashi's Village of Dreams and Ichikawa Jun's Tokyo Lullaby. The millennium ends on a sad note in Japanese cinema.
1995
This year, there are 1,776 screens; 289 films are produced (among a total shown of 610) and attendance stands at 127,040,000.
January – The Great Hanshin earthquake shakes southern Hyogo Prefecture, leaving more than 5,500 people dead and more than 250,000 displaced.
March - Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult conduct simultaneous attacks on multiple Tokyo Metro trains using sarin nerve gas, killing 12 and injuring more than 1000. The Aum Shinrikyo killings would haunt Japanese film for many years to come.
May - Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo at the foot of Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Asahara Shoko. Asahara and 12 other leaders of the evil cult have since been convicted and executed by hanging. It remains impossible to understand why young intellectuals would fall for such a mishmash of dangerous nonsense.
March – Assassination attempt at Kunimatsu, Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, outside his home in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo.
June - Japanese police rescue 365 hostages from a hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight at Hakodate airport. The hijacker demanded the release of Asahara.
July – Hachioji supermarket murders: During an armed robbery at a Hachioji, Tokyo supermarket, three female employees are killed.
(February)
Sharaku by Shinoda Masahiro is a vivid depiction of Edo culture, centering on the mysterious figure of ukiyo-e artist Sharaku. Sharaku (played by Sanada Hiroyuki) suddenly started publishing his portraits of Kabuki actors, which were close to caricature, in 1794. After making 140 prints, he again disappeared 10 months later. Even today, scholars have not succeeded in establishing his real identity. In the film he is presented as a Kabuki actor who does acrobatic stunts, and who, thrown out of work due to an injury, turns to ukiyo-e, under the guidance of a shrewd publisher (Frankie Sakai). The script of the film leaves something to be desired, but costumes and sets succeed in a masterful evocation of Edo. Sharaku was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. (Hyogen-sha / Sakai Sogo Kikaku / Seiyu Production)
(March)
Love Letter (aka When I Close My Eyes) by Iwai Shunji has been called "Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique without
the Catholicism." Two women (both played by pop singer Nakayama Miho) who have
never met each other, have been in love with the same man, who died in a mountaineering accident on Hokkaido. One of the women, Watanabe Hiroko, lives in Kobe, the other, Fujii Itsuki, in Otaru - she has exactly the same name as Hiroko's fiance and was on old class mate of him. The situation is of course silly: a boy and girl with the same first and last name (but no family of each other) who happen to be in the same class at middle school - but by patiently filling in the back story via flasbacks Iwai convinces the viewers. The longer I watched this elegant film that fuses melancholy with humor, the better I liked it. Through their correspondence the two woman in the present time learn to come to terms with
their loss. A trendy, romantic film, which became a hit with a hip, young
and female audience; it was also very popular in other Asian countries. The film was shot almost entirely on Hokkaido, with evocative winter cinematography by Shinoda Noboru. (Fuji TV)
My rating: A+
Iwai Shunji (1963) was born in
Sendai and started his career by making TV dramas and music videos. His
break-through came with the success of his first feature film, Love
Letter. Swallowtail Butterfly (1996) is a story of Yen Town, a city of immigrants a bit like Blade Runner; All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) is a high-school drama with pop songs written by the director; and Hana & Alice (2004) a comedy for which Iwai again composed the film score himself. In other words, in his later films Iwai opted for MTV-like musical interludes, which made the films popular, but also shallow. His restless style and quick cutting was also based on pop video techniques. Artistically, Iwai Shunji's best film remains Love Letter.
(April)
Kamikaze Taxi by Harada Masato begins with the statement: "In
Japan there are 150,000 foreign workers of Japanese origin, 90,000
gangsters, and some policians who distort history. Rare though it is,
their paths do cross." The film is about a young small-time yakuza pimp
(Takahashi Kazuya) seeking revenge when the girl he supplied to an
ultra-right, high-ranking politician with a taste for torture is
severely wounded, and his girlfriend and partner is shot dead when she
protests. He sets out on a "kamikaze" mission to kill his yakuza bosses
and the politician; along the way he gets unexpected help from a taxi
driver (Yakusho Koji) whose parents emigrated to Peru and who has come
back to work in Japan. The taxi driver, who is struggling to cope with
the prejudices of native-born Japanese, in fact becomes his closest
friend and guardian. Combination of road movie, gangster movie and
social criticism - especially of the racism experienced by the
Peruvian-Japanese taxi driver who speaks "funny Japanese" (as did the
children of Harada who had lived for many years in the U.S.). The
mysoginism of the politician who trained as a kamikaze (holy wind) pilot
is linked in the film to the wartime system of "comfort women"
(Japanese ones in this case), and there are many plays on the word and
images of "wind," "kaze." The film was shown at the 1995 London Film
Festival. Harada's masterwork. (Pony Canyon)
My rating: A
Harada Masato
(1949) works as both director, critic and actor (for example in the role
of Omura in Zwick's The Last Samurai). Born in Numazu, he spent many
years as a film critic in Hollywood where he was inspired by veteran director Howard
Hawkes. Several of his films are set or made in the U.S. and Harada brings a foreign perspective to his criticism of Japanese society. Harada was inspired by Hawk's handling of genre, but he has
also taken over some other Hollywood habits, such as hyperactive camera
work, frenetic cutting and glossiness. His most intelligent
film with a clear message is Kamikaze Taxi; in his later work meaning
would be obscured by entertainment.
(June)
Gogo no yuigonjo ("A Last Note") by veteran director Shindo Kaneto is a melancholy comedy about another Japanese problem, that of the aging population. An octogenarian actress (Sugimura Haruko, well-known from Ozu's films such as Tokyo Story; she died in 1997 at age 88), who is still active in the theater, spends a short vacation at her summer villa in the mountains (Yatsugatake). There are several surprises lying in wait for her: her long-time gardener has recently committed suicide at age 83 in a coffin of his own making; her housekeeper confesses that her daughter was fathered by the (now deceased) husband of the actress; and an elderly couple, friends of the actress, comes to visit in what later proves to be a farewell gesture - the wife is suffering from dementia and, having no longer money to support themselves, they plan to commit suicide together. A quiet and sensitive film by the 83-year old director (except for one or two weak scenes, such as that of the over-acting, knife-wielding thief), which also contains the last role of his wife, Otowa Nobuko, as the housekeeper of the actress (she died in December, 1994, at age 70, and is known for many roles, such as that of the mother in Kuroneko). The touching film explores ways to come to terms with mortality, and shows that circumstances may not always allow us to face death with dignity, but Shindo's message is a positive one: "To live life to the fullest as long as one is alive." Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year and Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year. (Kindai Eiga Kyokai)
My rating: A-
(September)
The bursting of the Bubble and consequent economic malaise, led to anger and violence, but in his grotesque Gonin ("The Five") Ishii Takashi is way overdoing it. The film is about a gang of five losers (who have nothing to loose anymore - we later learn that one has even killed his family), victims of the economic downturn, who take on the yakuza by stealing a gang's money. In this very dark and pessimistic film, Kitano "Beat" Takeshi plays a killer who is hired by the yakuza to off the five men and of course he also has some screws loose. Gonin also thematizes homosexuality and dependence on men, embedded
in a grotesque, nihilistic and yet occasionally melancholy and touching
story. The following year Ishii would follow this up with Gonin 2 about a similar gang of five women. (Bunkasha / Image Factory IM Co. Ltd.)
My rating: B+
Director and manga artist Ishii Takashi (1946) started in "pinku eiga" at Nikkatsu and later also made neo-noir films as Gonin, his internationally best-known work. Ishii's films are mostly set at night, and are usually dominated by a nihilistic and fatalistic tone. Other films are The Black Angel and Freeze Me.
(October)
Another way to distill rage is boxing, which also helps you to discover some true feelings when you're beaten to pulp. In the strangely hilarious, wildly over-the-top
Tokyo Fist director Tsukamoto Shinya himself plays the main
role of the archetypal, stressed salaryman Tsuda. When Kojima, a former schoolmate who is now a hard-muscled boxer
(played by the director's brother, Tsukamoto Koji), "steals" his wife Hizuru (Fujii Kaori) and beats him into hospital, out of jealousy the flabby salaryman starts an inanely intense training as a boxer and transforms himself into a mean fighting machine. Tsukamoto's frenetic cutting cleverly juxtaposes the cold static
violence of Tokyo's contemporary high-rise architecture with the fleshy
and bloody violence of Tsuda's pulpy face. Hizuru, by the way, doesn't allow herself to be stolen, but
sees it as a chance to realize her own liberation. She discovers her own painful world of tattooing and body piercing while the two men
slug it out. In the end, all three
reach sublimation through pain in what is definitely one of the most bizarre, masochistic love triangles ever brought to the screen: Kojima relishes ripping the SM rings from Hizuru's flesh; Hizuru tenderly beats Tsuda into a bloody mess; and Tsuda bashes his own head to pulp against the wall. You have never seen such bruised and
bloodied faces as in this mad sadomasochistic film. (Kaijyu Theater)
My rating: A
(November)
Kokaku Kidotai ("Ghost in the Shell") is an SF anime feature film by Oshii Mamoru (based on a manga by Shiro Masamune), about a cyborg-cop heroine who chases after a "brain hacker" called the Puppet Master, before joining forces with him ("he" is in fact a sort of computer virus). The story is rather labyrinthine, but the film is eventually less concerned with plot than with philosophical questions about the blurring of the boundaries between humankind and its digital servants. The heroine is called a "ghost in a shell" because as a human robot she has been manufactured by the government and therefore does not own her body, which is just a shell for her consciousness, the only part that belongs to herself. Set in a fantasy, futuristic Hong Kong (but with still the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon!). A sequel called Ghost in the Shell: Innocence came out in 2004; a Hollywood remake as feature film which ditched the philosophical contents of the anime film came out in 2017, with Scarlett Johansson and Kitano Takeshi. (Bandai Visual Company / Kodansha / Production I.G.)
My rating: A+
(December)
Memories is a portmanteau anime film based on three manga stories by Otomo Katsuhiro, the maker of cult hit Akira (1988) which for good changed the anime world. With its fantastic and detailed dreamscapes, Memories is again a technically superior film, but above all it contains intelligent and important stories. In "Magnetic Rose," by director Morimoto Koji and scripted by Kon Satoshi, four space travelers (a quartet of futuristic losers on a garbage ship collecting junked satellites) are drawn into a massive rose-shaped structure that is in fact the tomb of an opera singer and contains all her memories - and which won't let them leave again. The boundary between reality and illusion, and death and life, dissolves to memorable and chilling effect. This is the longest and best of the three segments. In "Stink Bomb," by director Okamura Tensai, a lab assistant accidentally swallows a chemical capsule that seems to change him into a human stink bomb but in fact transforms him into a biological weapon set on a direct course for the government halls of Tokyo. As he cluelessly proceeeds on his scooter, the Self-Defense Force attacks him with all its might - in a wave of official paranoia and bungling (something which reminds one of the panic caused by the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995). "Cannon Fodder," by Otomo Katsuhiro himself, depicts a bleak Orwellian future in a city which continuously fires hundreds of cannons at an unseen enemy. This segment is surely symbolic of the mindless and banal horrors of modern warfare. It also shows the children as fanatic little warriors who will carry on the work of their fathers. In all, Memories is a stunning animation film. (Bandai Visual Company, Kodansha Co., Shochiku)
My Rating: A
1996
Nikkatsu starts production again.
The number of admissions this year is the lowest ever since the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan started counting in 1955: only 119,575,000.
This year sees the deaths of composer Takemitsu Toru (age 65), who wrote numerous famous film scores (Harakiri, The Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan, etc.), as well as the actor Atsumi Kiyoshi (age 68), the star of the highly popular Tora-san series of films.
(January)
Shall We dance? by Suo Masayuki served to prove that Japanese directors can make perfect Hollywood-style feel-good, slick romantic comedies. Although you may question whether that is the right way to go for Japanese cinema, Shall We Dance? is so well-made in all respects that it silences such a discussion. It is also an interesting look at traditional "salaryman" life: at 20 married, at 30 a child, and at 40 a house of one's own - meaning one is glued to the company and one's job for the rest of one's life. In the film, Sugiyama, such a "salaryman" (Yakusho Koji) tries to
find a purpose outside his housing loan and office drudgery through
social dancing - not very common in Japan and often regarded as something for "lecherous men," until this film changed that view. It helps that he falls in love with his dancing teacher
Mai (Kusakari Tamiyo) after he has spotted her at the window of the school from his commuter's train (in Japan train lines and buildings are spaced very close together!). Takenaka Naoto plays his dance-crazed office staff member who is obsessed with Latin dancing and hides under a large wig. Yakusho's wife Masako wonders why he regularly comes home late and sets a private detective on this trail to find out if he perhaps has another woman (in Japan, many people find it difficult to ask confrontational questions and therefore opt for such solutions). In the end, of course, the hard-working salaryman returns to the bosom of his family, and his wife allows him to continue dancing having seen how much it has given him a purpose in life besides his job - they even do a few tentative steps together in the garden. Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year and Japan Academy
Prize for Picture of the Year. This film
became the largest grossing Japanese film in the
U.S. until that time, and was also remade. (Altamira Pictures Inc. / Daiei Studios / Nippon Television Network)
My rating: A+
(February)
Okaeri ("Welcome home") by Shinozaki Makoto is about a young
couple brought to sanity through the wife's mental illness (marvelously
played by Ueshima Miho). A high school teacher only gradually notices
the changes in his wife's personality. Also a critique of Japanese
society where the man is busy outside, coming home late, and the wife is
expected to be all day at home (in the film she has typically given up
her own career to marry, and only does some part time translation work
at home). "Okaeri" is the traditional greeting to welcome someone home,
in the situation sketched above said by the wife to the husband. An
earnest and touching film, shot in static takes. (Comteg)
My rating: A
(March)
Maboroshi no hikari ("Maborosi," lit. "Phantom Lights") by
Koreeda Hirokazu is the story of a young woman (Esumi Makiko) who looses
her husband through an unexplained suicide. Even after she remarries
with a widower (like her, with one small child) five years later and
moves to the Noto Peninsula and its majestic seascapes, she keeps being
plagued by grief and even guilt. She is also afraid the same thing may
happen again, as if her presence brings on death. When she shouts out
her non-understanding, her present husband answers that it might be the
phantom lights one sometimes sees hovering above the sea that have lured
her previous husband away. In other words, it is something beyond human
understanding and it makes no sense to keep thinking about it. Filmed
in the typical nineties New Wave style with very long and static shots,
with a distant camera. Based on a novel by Miyamoto Teru. A perfect
first feature film. Wins the Golden Osella for Best Director at the
Venice Film festival. (TV Man Union)
My rating: A+
(July)
Kids Return by Kitano Takeshi is a nostalgic look at
Kitano's own youth and an ironic account about the different paths in
life taken by two juvenile delinquents, school bullies who waste their
youth: one becomes an up-and-coming boxer, the other a low-level
gangster. They both fail in their endeavors because of self-destructive
character flaws. Another student, a quiet boy who always sits in a
coffee restaurant to attract the attention of the waitress, equally
fails in the salaryman job he gets, and after that also flukes his work
as taxi driver. At the same time, two fellow students become stand-up manzai
comedians - like Kitano himself - and they gradually do well. A film
with conscious repetitions and circular motions, as if to emphasize that
there is no escape from the past or one's own character. The camera
always remains detached. (Bandai Visual Company / Office Kitano / Ohta
Publishing)
My rating: A+
(July)
Helpless, the first feature film by director Aoyama Shinji,
portrays a bleak and loveless post-Bubble society, in which young people
can only communicate their frustration through violence. It is also a
film about missing father figures, typical of that generation. Yasuo, a
young gangster released from prison (played by Mitsuishi Ken) is looking
for his former yakuza boss and becomes violent each time he is told the
boss is dead. At the same time, the father of his acquaintance Kenji
(played by Asano Tadanobu) lies bedridden in hospital and will
eventually commit suicide (setting off a rage in Kenji). The austere and
minimalistic style (the camera looks away at violent moments) is
typical for the New Wave of the 1990s. There is an optimistic note at
the end when Kenji takes the mentally retarded sister of Yasuo (Tsuji
Kaori) along with him. The film is set in Kitakyushu where the director
was born (together with the later films Eureka and Sad Vacation it forms his "Kitakyushu Saga").
My rating: B+
Aoyama
Shinji (1964) was born in Kitakyushu and graduated from Rikkyo
University in Tokyo. His interest in film was inspired by Godard and he
worked briefly as an assistant to Kurosawa Kiyoshi. After a number of
genre inspired films, as the above one, in 2000 he filmed his magnum
opus Eureka which won prizes at Cannes and elsewhere abroad. Aoyama is
also active as musician, film critic, novelist and as a film professor
at Tama Art University.
(October)
"Fudoh: The New Generation"(Gokudo Sengokushi Fudo) is one of the most outrageous productions of provocateur Miike, and also his first film to be shown in a theater as his producers felt it was too good to be released released straight-to-video as had been customary until then. The story is about a
generational conflict in a Kyushu yakuza gang. The father has killed the
transgressing eldest son and sent his neatly boxed head to the bosses
of a rival gang to appease them. Some years later, the younger son who
is out for revenge has already set up a shadow gang within his high
school, using 11-year olds with pistols hidden inside teddy bears. This is one fest of macabre humor, and a demented, mayhem
parody of the yakuza genre. Fudoh was also one of the first films by Miike to play to foreign audiences: it was shown in early 1997 at the Brussels Fantastic Film Festival in Belgium, followed by a release at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal and the Toronto International Film Festival. (Excellent Film / GAGA)
My rating: A
Miike Takashi (1960) made his first direct to video films from the early 1990s on, and since his start has been exceptionally prolific - although his fast speed of making films also means his work shows many rough edges and could have been much better had he paid more attention. Miike makes offbeat, inventive genre movies (or rather, movies that play with genre conceptions) which are often controversial because of their extreme violence and sexual content, which is presented in a stylized form as in manga (which often form Miike's inspiration). In the course of his career Miike has switched to more commercial films and remakes, but his style remains inimitable. Miike truly is the bad boy of contemporary Japanese cinema.
1997
Kobe child murders: a 14-year-old boy attacks four younger girls with a hammer and knife, killing one of them. He then strangles and decapitates an 11-year-old boy, leaving his head in front of his school with a note stuffed in his mouth, and sends taunting letters to a newspaper. The nation is properly shocked and eventually the age of criminal responsibility is lowered from 16 to 14 in 2000.
The second-in-command and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi, is shot and killed in a Kobe hotel by members of a breakaway group; an innocent bystander is killed by a stray bullet.
Princess Mononoke breaks the box office record with theatrical earnings of 19.30 billion yen.
Shall We Dance becomes a hit in the U.S.
This year film director Itami Juzo dies by his own hand (age 64).
(April)
"Onibi: The Fire Within" by Mochizuki Rokuro is
the tale of an aging yakuza trying to go straight, an effort undermined
by the revenge the woman he loves wants to take on the man who has
exploited her. Mochizuki had learned the trade in pornography and
straight-to-video before in the nineties making a number of tragic but
realistic yakuza movies with intelligently depicted and believable
characters. Won Best Director from Kinema Junpo in 1998. (GAGA)
My rating: B
(May)
"Raigyo" (Kuroi shitagi no onna: Raigyo)
by Zeze Takahisa. Zeze came from pink film production and this film
somehow still straddles the fence with that genre. Based on a real
crime: the murder of a man by a woman he met through a telephone dating
service. Shocking because of the explosion of violence, when the woman
in the "love hotel" room suddenly starts hacking her customer to pieces.
Concentrates on the psychology of the woman who always dresses in
black. Set in a very bleak landscape, where violence seems the only way
out. Zeze Takahisa was the most prominent among four directors who came
up in the early nineties in post-Roman Porno pink cinema, and who tried
to transcend the exploitation format through experimentation and social
criticism. (Kokuei / Shintoho)
My rating: C
(June)
"Tokyo Lullaby" (Tokyo Yakyoku) by Ichikawa Jun is an
account of the emotional dislocation caused by a failed love affair.
Also shows the detrimental effect of these passions on family life. With
Momoi Kaori, who won Best Actress from Kinema Junpo. Like the other
Tokyo films by Ichikawa Jun (The Tokyo Siblings, 1994, and Tokyo Marigold, 2001), an elegant homage to both Ozu and the city in which Ichikawa grew up. (Kindai Eiga Kyokai / Shochiku)
My rating: B-
(June)
"Rainy Dog" (Gokudo kuroshakai) by Miike Takashi
chronicles the last days of a Japanese gangster (Aikawa Sho) stranded in
Taiwan. He must take work as a hired killer from a local crime boss as
his money has run out; on top of that, suddenly a woman he knew in the
past presents a son to him. When he goes on his rounds of killings, the
boy just follows in his footsteps. One of Miike's most subtle films,
with rounded characters. Filmed during endless cloud bursts in the
Taiwan rainy season. Part 2 of the director's "Black Society Trilogy,"
three (unrelated) films focusing on Sino-Japanese relations. Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) was about the pursuit of a Chinese gangster by a mixed-race cop, and Ley Lines (1999) about a group of young Chinese sucked into crime after they move to Tokyo. (Daiei / Excellent Film)
My rating: A-
(July)
"Cure" by Kurosawa Kiyoshi is a haunting police
thriller about murder and mind control, and an odd hybrid of philosophy
and horror. A streak of serial murders (where a
large X is carved in the body of the victims) is not what it seems, the investigating detective (Yakusho Koji) discovers that the murderers
are unrelated, and that the perpetrators have no memory of their deed. However, they all have met a mysterious young drifter (Hagiwara Masato) who
asks people "who they are" (not being satisfied with the traditional Japanese identification of self with company, position and name) and by hypnosis brings out their hidden
murderous desires. In this very bleak account, nobody is spared from the
virus, and even the detective (stressed by the mental illness of his
wife, as in Shinoda's Okaeri) falls victim to it. This film could only have been made after the mind control mass
murders of Aum Shinrikyo. Mesmerizing and psychologically intriguing, it concerns real horror, of murders spreading like a virus, in contrast to the supernatural shenanigans of the somewhat later J-Horror films. First screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival. (Daiei)
My rating: A
Kurosawa Kiyoshi (1955) was born in Kobe and studied at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. He started (mostly low-budget) film making in the 1980s, and in the early 1990s took a break via a scholarship at the Sundance Institute. Kurosawa first achieved international acclaim with his 1997 crime thriller Cure, and followed that up with well-regarded films as Charisma, Pulse, and Bright Future. With his 2008 film, Tokyo Sonata, he stepped out of the horror genre. Kurosawa's films occupy a position between mass genre and esoteric or intellectual abstraction, and they also engage with issues of environmental critique.
(July)
Perfect Blue by Kon Satoshi is a psycho-horror film in anime format. The film follows Kirigoe Mima, a member of a Japanese idol trio, who retires from music to pursue an acting career. Unfortunately, this does not sit well with her fans - an upset and obsessive person who seems to know all about her life - even her innermost thoughts - soon stalks her. When she starts acting in her first drama, a psycho thriller, her perception of reality begins to blur and she cannot distinguish anymore between her real life and her onscreen role. Disturbing websites based on her life appear, where she says she regrets having stopped being a singer, and people around her are attacked and even murdered. Mima starts wondering if these things are really happening or if they are just events ocurring in the TV drama she plays in. Finally, her double begins to speak and announces that she is the real Mima - forcing her to navigate a thin line between delusion and reality to survive. The use of animation rather than live-action enhances the film's surrealistic elements. Like much of Kon's later work, such as Paprika, the film deals with the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality in contemporary Japan. A complex film with labyrinthine
flashbacks and some strong adult content (including a rape scene), revealing the dark side of idol singing and the pernicious influence cyber-reality can have. A great debut by Kon Satoshi,
who used to be a manga artist, and a new direction in anime. Premiere at
the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. (Madhouse / Rex
Entertainment)
My Rating: A+
Kon Satoshi (1963-2010) was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist. Kon was born on Hokkaido and graduated from the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is known for his acclaimed anime films Perfect Blue (1997), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Millennium Actress (2001), and Paprika (2006). Kon Satoshi used anime to explore social stigmas and the human psyche, casting a light on human complexities in ways that might have failed in live action. Much of it was gritty, intense, and at times, even nightmarish. Kon didn't shy away from mature subject matter.
(August)
"The Eel" (Unagi) by Imamura Shohei. About a man (Yakusho Koji) who murders his faithless wife, and when he comes out of prison takes up with a young woman (Shimizu Misa) who has dark secrets of her own. Their connection will prove to be a healing experience for them both. The title is based on the fact that the man has a pet eel to which he imparts his thoughts. A surrealistic comedy. Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year. Palme d'Or Cannes, Venice Golden Lion. (Eisei Gekijo / Groove Corporation / Imamura Productions)
My rating: A+
(September)
HANA-BI (lit. "Fireworks") by Kitano
Takeshi is a mature tale of jarring violence, deadpan wit, but also deep sadness. A cop feels dreadful for having let down a buddy (played by Osugi Ren), who after
being shot is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and also for neglecting his wife who is slowly dying
of leukemia (played by Nishimoto Kayoko). Spiraling into depression, he leaves the police force and
makes an ominous choice: he robs a bank and with the money starts
touring around Japan with his sick wife. Before, he had also borrowed money from the yakuza for his wife's treatment, and a car full of henchmen is on his trail. He knows how to deal with a handful of yakuza, but deadly illness is too much for any human being. Finally there is no way out: the road movie part of the film becomes a sort of michiyuki leading to the couple's suicide. The colleague who ends up in a
wheelchair is condemned to life, but finds some relief in painting (the
colorful paintings used here were made by Kitano himself after suffering
a scooter accident in 1994). Arguably Kitano's best film, his most
consciously artistic work (the first 30 minutes consist of a brilliantly arranged collection of flash-forwards and flashbacks), and a sort of summing up of the films he made before this. Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year and Golden Lion
at the Venice Film festival. This film established Takeshi Kitano, better known in Japan as a
television comedian, as one of that country's most highly regarded
directors. HANA-BI is generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of 1990s world cinema. The beautiful music is by Kitano stalwart Hisaishi Joe. (Office Kitano / Bandai Visual / TV Tokyo)
My rating: A+
(October)
Bounce Ko Gals (a corruption of a Japanese phrase meaning ''bouncing high school girls'') by Harada Masato is a film about enjo kosai
or "compensated dating" (a euphemism for teenage prostitution), a
social problem in the mid-1990s, with the whole country worried over the
morals of its youth. Enjo kosai was not motivated by poverty,
but by the desire for luxury goods or just "belonging" by doing the same
thing as one's friends - and it was made possible by perverted elderly
men who paid big cash. The group of high school girls in Shibuya in this
half-documentary film live for their designer brand goods and cell
phones, and as these cost money which school girls don't have, they go
on paid dates with older men, act in softcore videos, and sell their
used underwear. But Harada's plot is not convincing and he paints this
sordid little world as too attractive (including the smart-looking
actresses themselves). It is difficult to believe the story that Liza
(Okamoto Yukiko), a "neat" girl from the provinces who stands outside
this enjo kosai culture, would on her way to the airport bound
for the U.S. and a new future, try to make an extra buck by acting in a
dirty video, if alone because she has money already. That money is then
stolen and two Shibuya girls she has met help her to earn it back by
faked enjo kosai. Yakusho Koji, who plays a gangster who sees his
turf endangered by the actions of the girls, is unconvincing in this
role, as he looks and acts more like a good-natured, fatherly salaryman
than a yakuza. The film looks hip, but is in fact didactic without
saying anything new. Harada criticizes the sexual attitudes and economic
realities of a male-oriented society which fostered this trend,
refusing to pass moral judgement on his female subjects. Instead, his
film ends with the strong female bonding of the three main girls, Lisa,
Jonko (Sato Hitomi) and Raku (Sato Yasue), which attracted many viewers.
(Horipro / Panasonic Digital Contents / Shochiku)
My rating: A
(November)
"Suzaku" (Moe no suzaku) by Kawase Naomi follows over 30
years the disintegration of a rural family living in the mountains of
southern Nara Prefecture in documentary-like fashion. Mostly amateur
cast. Local communities increasingly consist of only the elderly and are
cut off from the world by the disappearance of public transport and
other amenities, so people have no choice but to leave. The family
consists of a grandmother, her son, his much younger second wife, his
son by his previous wife, and a daughter by his present wife. The father
is morose and on a certain day, just disappears into the mountains. His
wife and her stepson are attracted to each other, but also the daughter
has tender feelings for her half-brother. In the end, the mother and
daughter return to her family, while the son and his grandmother plan to
work at an inn, where they can get board and lodging. Shows the
simplicity of life in such a cut off community, which Japan's wealth and
modernization seem to have passed by. A beautiful, quiet film, with
long shots like Ozu (but also improvisation which Ozu never allowed),
that keeps the emotions seething under the surface solidly under cover.
Wins the Golden Camera at Cannes for New Director. (Bandai Visual /
WOWOW)
My rating: A+
(December)
After starting with Helpless, Aoyama Shinji has an extremely high output for several years. One of two films he makes this year is "An Obsession" (Tsumetai chi, lit. "Cold Blood"), a police thriller that is often wrongly compared to Kurosawa Akira's Stray Dog
because in both films the officer looses his pistol. But this bleak
film about the search for human contact in order to fill the inner void,
couldn't be farther away from Kurosawa's epic film. Detective Saga
(Ishibashi Ryo) has not only his gun stolen, but he is also shot by an
assassin who had just killed an Aum-like cult leader (the killing in
fact resembles the stabbing to death of the head of Aum's "Ministry of
Science," Murai Hideo on April 23, 1995). He next loses his gun to
Shimano (Suzuki Kazuma), a nihilistic young man who is terminally ill
and begins killing people as part of some disturbing design. Both men
are doubles in the sense that both have lost their partners. Saga's wife
Rie (Nagashima Eiko) has left him because he was more married to his
job than to her; and the murderer has a deadly disease (congenital
leukemia, brought on because his mother was exposed to the bomb in
Hiroshima), for which reason his girlfriend Kimiko (Toyama Kyoko) has
left him - although she still loves him. In the end, Shimano and his
girlfriend both want to die, stuck as they are in a negative spiral
(they believe love can only be proven in death); Saga wants his wife to
come back and start anew with her - he has given up his police job. In
the end Saga and Rie decide to share their lives together as friends,
ending the film on a glimmer of hope. Note that the men in hazard suites
roaming the city and executing people at the beginning and end of the
film, are not just a surrealist element, but are linked to the theme of
the atomic bomb.
My rating: B+
(December)
"Princess Mononoke" (Mononoke-hime) by Miyazaki Hayao is an ecological fantasy set in medieval Japan. A
young warrior is stricken with a deadly curse when protecting his
village from a rampaging boar-god. He travels to find a cure and gets
embroiled in the war between Tatara, a mining colony led by the
ambitious Lady Eboshi, and the forest gods, who want to save their
forest from human depredation. On the side of the forest gods also
fights a young woman called Princess Mononoke, who was raised by a
wolf-god. Lady Eboshi uses guns against her enemies (firearms were
introduced to Japan in the 13th century, but generally found little
use). Miyazaki draws no simplistic line between good and evil, showing
the complexity of making choices in real life: Lady Eboshi destroys the
forest, but she also gives many people a better future; she has bought
up contracts of prostitutes to set them free, and she employs lepers (a
class of people discriminated against until late in the 20th c.) as the
builders of her guns. Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year.
(Studio Ghibli / Dentsu / Nibariki / NTV)
My rating: A+
1998
February: The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano.
April: The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world at that time.
July: Wakayama curry poisoning: Four people are killed and 63 injured after
eating curry on purpose laced with arsenic at a community festival in Wakayama.
September: A typhoon makes 19 fatalities and damages cultural heritage sites.
The annual suicide rate which had been at about 20,000 persons a year, climbs above 30,000 and will remain there for the next 14 years.
The Ring sets off the J-Horror boom.
This year sees the death of the great director Kurosawa Akira (age 88), who continued to work until a few years before his death.
The box office hit of the year is Bayside Shakedown: The Movie, a police procedural drama based on a popular TV series, made by TV Fuji and Toho. Shows the tendency of mainstream Japanese cinema to safely repeat proven successes. However, inflated television does not make great cinema.
(January)
Ringu ("The Ring") by Nakata Hideo is the start of the
J-Horror boom. A video tape with mysterious images on it kills those who
watch it within seven days. When a TV journalist (Matsushima Nanako)
investigates this (in a race against time because she has also watched
the video!) together with her ex-husband (Sanada Hiroyuki), she
discovers that the legend of Sadako, a child psychic who was killed by
throwing her down a well, lies behind the video. The top grossing horror
film ever at the domestic box office. Who can forget those final images
when Sadako, her long black hair hanging before her white face like a
curtain, glides out of the TV set? Set off the J-Horror boom, a torrent
of terrors that included the Tomie films, The Grudge, and of course Ring sequels (and even a Hollywood remake, not to mention Korean spin-off). (Omega Project / Imagica / Asmik Ace Entertainment)
My Rating: B+
(June)
Chugoku no Chojin ("Bird People in China") by Miike
Takashi. A salaryman and a yakuza are both sent to a remote Chinese
village to evaluate precious jade found there. When in the remote,
paradisial area, they are sidetracked from their job by a mysterious
rumor about people who are able to fly like birds, something which they
start investigating... An interesting idea, but the execution remains
rather thin. (Excellent Film / Sedic)
My Rating: B
(September)
Wandafuru raifu ("After Life") by Koreeda Hirokazu shines a new light on matters of life and death. A film about the Other Side, but free from New Age ideas. The newly dead arrive in a sort of Limbo, where guides help them to pick a cherished memory they want to take with them into eternity (in Japanese, the film is titled "Wonderful Life"). They have three days to do this; at the end, a video of the selected memory is made. Koreeda uses documentary methods, working partly with amateurs whom he actually interviewed about their most cherished memory. He did the same with the professional actors playing in the film. An impressive, life-affirming film. Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. (Engine Film / Sputnik Productions / TV Man Union)
My Rating: A
(September)
Bullet Ballet by Tsukamoto Shinya is about an advertising
executive (played by the director) who one day comes home to find that
his longtime girlfriend has committed suicide with a gun. His life
shattered by this death, the executive then develops in interest in
guns. He finally joins a group of thugs who aimlessly wander around
Tokyo beating up salarymen. Shot with a handheld camera in black and
white. Continues the theme from Tokyo Fist. Premiere at Venice Film Festival. (Kaijyu Theater)
My Rating: B+
(October)
Kanzo sensei ("Doctor Akagi") by Imamura Shohei is set in WWII and tells the story of a country doctor (Emoto Akira) whose blanket diagnosis is always hepatitis, an illness he wages a one-man crusade against, earning him the nickname "Dr. Liver." His fervid campaign brings him the disfavor of the army, in the days that the war has turned against Japan. A former prostitute (Aso Kumiko) hooks up with him, but he is too busy to pay much attention to her. They happen to be out in a boat in the Inland Sea when the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Dr Liver observes that the mushroom cloud looks exactly like "a hypertrophied liver." Based on a novel by Sakaguchi Ango. An interesting film of this great director that unfortunately has fallen a bit between the cracks. (Catherine Dussart Productions (CDP) / Comme des Cinémas / Imamura Productions)
My Rating: A
(December)
A, haru ("Wait and See") by Somai Shinji. A quiet and
understated film about a successful salaryman, who has a beautiful wife
and young son on whom he dotes. Everything in his life seems fine until
one evening he is accosted by a disheveled man who claims to be his dead
father. The dirty old man also invites himself to stay with the young
family, a la Boudu Saved from Drowning by Jean Renoir. Then the
financial company the protagonist works for is suddenly on the brink of
bankruptcy. Both events severely lower the status the protagonist
thought he possessed, and lead to a reexamination of his life. Kinema
Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at
the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival.
My Rating: A-
1999
March: The Bank of Japan announces its zero interest rate policy.
April: 1999 Tokyo gubernatorial election - populist Shintaro Ishihara is elected governor of Tokyo.
June: Heavy rain and landslides claim 32 lives in Fukuoka and Hiroshima.
July: ANA Flight 61 survives a hijacking attempt and lands safely.
September: Passers-by are randomly attacked near Ikebukuro Station with a hammer and kitchen knife.
September: A typhoon causes 31 fatalities in Kumamoto.
September: Shimonoseki Station Massacre: A car crashes into Shimonoseki Station and the driver stabs five people to death.
September: Tokaimura nuclear accident in Ibaraki Prefecture kills two workers.
(March)
Even at the end of the millennium, Japan remains under monster attack. Gamera 3; Jashin (Irisu) Kakusei ("Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris")
by Kaneko Shusuke is a dynamic piece of monster mayhem (if you believe
in stomping turtles), better than previous Gamera films which were all
too childish, and also superior to most Toho fare - not for nothing Toho
asked Kaneko to direct one of its next monster movies in 2001. (Daiei
Studios / Hakuhodo / Nippon Shuppan Hanbai (Nippan) K.K.)
My Rating: C
(May)
Karisuma ("Charisma") by Kurosawa Kiyoshi is an allegorical tale about a tree of that name. Yakusho Koji plays a detective who has bungled a hostage situation. While traveling to recuperate in an unnamed area, he comes upon a singular tree, about which the locals are engaged in a struggle with each other: some regard the tree as sacred and unique, others see it as a blight to the other trees in the forest which they claim it is poisoning, and a third group of greedy people wants to steal the tree. The detective finally has to make the clear choice he couldn't make in the hostage situation, when his wish to save both criminal and hostage led to disaster. Screened in the "Directors Fortnight" section of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival. (King Records / Nikkatsu / Tokyo Theatres K.K.)
My Rating: A
(June)
Kikujiro no natsu ("Kikujiro") by Kitano Takeshi is a road
movie about a loudmouthed drifter, a low level gangster, who escorts a
boy to visit the mother he has never yet met. As she has remarried and
obviously doesn't need him, the boy returns to his grandmother without
speaking to her. Has been criticized for its mix of sentimentality and
slapstick, and also for the flimsiness of its story - but the fact that
Kitano is comfortable with long periods of inactivity, here and in other
films, is exactly a distinctive element of his style. The relaxed
rhythm is similar to that in A Scene at the Sea. And this is no
kid's movie, as some of the jokes are "Kitano-esquely" cruel indeed.
(Office Kitano / Bandai Visual / Nippon herald Films)
My Rating: A-
(June)
Poppoya ("Poppoya: Railroad Man") by Furuhata Yasuo is a
typical vehicle for Takakura Ken, who plays his usual scarred and
brooding elderly male. In this glossy melodrama he is a railroad man in
Hokkaido, fully dedicated to his job (the poor workaholic has nothing
else, his wife and daughter are dead), but nearing retirement ("poppoya"
is a nickname for those railroad men who still have known steam
engines). Then a young woman appears (idol Hirosue Ryoko, who can pull
cute faces but hasn't learned how to act) who seems to be the ghost of
his deceased daughter... A tearjerker strictly for Takakura fans (of
which there are a great many in Japan). Won the Japan Academy Award for
Best Film. (Toei)
My Rating: C
(July)
EM Embalming by Aoyama Shinji is another movie
partly based on the terror caused by the Aum Shinrikyo cult. A student
has fallen to his death for mysterious reasons and the investigating
police officer Hiraoka (Matsushige Yutaka) doesn't believe in suicide.
The dead boy's father, a powerful politician, demands that the body be
embalmed. The job is taken on by young female embalmer Miyako (Takashima
Reiko), who has been fascinated by embalming human bodies since her
dead mother was brought back from abroad perfectly prepared (in Japan,
bodies are almost never embalmed as cremation is common). With her
assistant Kurume (veteran director Suzuki Seijun in a small but nice
role which alone makes this film worth seeing) she painstakingly
prepares the body - but the next morning the head is gone. Is there a
connection to the cult leader Bonze Jion from Daitokuin Temple, who
warned Miyako against embalming? And who is amoral embalmer Dr Fuji, who
works in a refrigerated truck? The disappearance of the head - while
the boy is still neatly clothed in his school uniform - sets in motion a
chain of gruesome autopsies and religious rituals teetering on the
verge of parody as Aoyama didn't want to go all-out for horror and make
one of the at that time popular J-Horror films. There are enough
stomach-churning scenes, but the main point of the movie is social
criticism: the power of cults like Aum (but there were others around
that time) on politics and society, as well as the many suicide - often
by young people - then prevalent in Japan.
My rating: B+
(September)
Soseiji ("Gemini") is a rarity in Tsukamoto Shinya's work as it is an opulent historical film set in the Meiji period and (freely) based on a story by Edogawa Ranpo. It is the tale of a bourgeois doctor who during an epidemic refuses to treat slum people but who is then confronted by a vengeful twin brother who contests his comfortable life. The brother even imprisons the doctor in the dried up well in the garden. With lush colors and exaggerated make-up and costume design, this fantasy stands in stark contrast to the J-Horror films made in the same period. (Kaijyu Theater / Sedic / Marubeni)
My rating: A
(September)
Ame agaru ("After the Rain") is a period
film based on the last script written by Kurosawa Akira and is directed
by his former assistant director of 28 years, Koizumi Takashi.
Travelers are trapped in a country inn due to bad weather, and as
tensions rise among them, a ronin wants to cheer up everyone by
arranging a great feast. The only problem is that he has no money, but
there his prowess with the sword may help... A gentle film based on a
story by Yamamoto Shugoro. Protagonist Terao Akira won the Japan Academy
Award for Best Actor in 1999 and the film the Japan Academy Award for
Best Film in 2000. Brought out at the Venice Film Festival. (7 Films
Cinéma / Asmik Ace Entertainment / Kurosawa Production Co.)
My rating: A
(October)
Odishon ("Audition") by Miike Takashi, based on a novel by Murakami Ryu, is a visceral shocker that created a big stir at the Rotterdam International Film festival in 2000. Starts as a romantic drama in which a middle-aged widower (Ishibashi Ryo), helped by a producer friend, holds a mock audition to find a new, young wife. He finds his ideal partner in Asami (a perfectly cast Shiina Eihi), a former ballet dancer who seems the ultimate, traditional-type of wife. But there is a whole world of fear and horror hidden behind her calm exterior, as the middle-aged lover will discover too late. The descent into a grotesque nightmare is so stomach-turning, that many in the audience in Rotterdam headed for the exit. And your view of Japanese women will never be the same again... Premiere at the Vancouver International Film festival. (Basara Pictures / Creators Company Connection / Omega Project)
My rating: A
(October)
Gekko no sasayaki ("Moonlight Whispers") by Shiota Akihiko
is one of the many teenage romances that keep flooding Japanese cinema
since the nineties, but with a twist: during kendo the boy discovers he
likes to be hit by his girlfriend. When she notices his fetishistic and
sadomasochistic urges, her first impulse is to send him packing, but
then she realizes this also gives her power over her boyfriend... she
even finds a perfect way of cruelly dominating him. (Viz Films)
My rating: B+
(November)
Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha ("Dead or Alive") by Miike Takashi starts with such a fantastic ten minute intro rocking through criminal Shinjuku, that the rest of the film can only disappoint, for it soon descends into ordinary melodrama. If Miike would have made less films but paid more attention to what he was doing like in these 10 minutes, he would have been a great director. It is the story of a gangster of Chinese descent (Takeuchi Riki), who wants to take over the Shinjuku underworld from Chinese and Japanese gangsters, and a cop (Aikawa Sho), who stands between him and complete domination. A very violent film, with rather graphic scenes. Unfortunately, the ending is just silly. Two unrelated sequels would follow in 2000 and 2002, making "Dead or Alive" a Miike trilogy like "Black Society." (Daiei / Toei / Excellent Film)
My rating: B+
(December)
Gohatto ("Taboo") by Oshima Nagisa shows - like did his Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence - how
obsession with love upsets strongly regimented organisations. The macho
Shinsengumi army, at the end of the Edo period defending the shogun's
lost cause and trying to keep order in Kyoto, is joined by a beautiful seventeen-year old recruit (Matsuda
Ryuhei) whose androgynous beauty generates so much passion among the men that
military order is upset - it even leads to murder. Love of boys was historically speaking quite common among samurai (it was called (waka-)shudo or nanshoku),
although these men would also have wives and families. The title refers
to the many rules members of the Shinsengumi had to obey, but ironically (at least, seen
from a modern perspective) there was no taboo on nanshoku. This
was Oshima's final film - a strangely beautiful film, with a rich blue-black color palette, and great charm
and humor (even a trip to the oiran, the top prostitute of Kyoto at that time, doesn't convince Matsuda Ryuhei's character that women are more interesting). Matsuda's role has been criticized in the West as being too passive, but that passivity exactly fits the story. This is not a chanbara film, but more a quiet rumination on a fascinating problem, made by a master in his old age. Costumes are by Wada Emi and music by Sakamoto Ryuichi; the original story is by Shiba Ryotaro. Kitano Takeshi plays the recruit's captain. (Oshima Productions /
Shochiku / Kadokawa Shoten)
My rating: A
[Reference works used: Currents In Japanese Cinema by Tadao Sato (Tokyo, 1987); The Japanese Film: Art and Industry by Joseph L. Anderson and Donald Richie (reprint Tokyo, 1983); A Hundred Years of Japanese Film by Donald Richie (Tokyo, 2001); Japanese Film Directors by Audrie Bock (Tokyo, 1985); A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors by Alexander Jacoby (Berkeley, 2008); A New History of Japanese Cinema by Isolde Standish (New York, 2005); The Japanese Period Film by S.A. Thornton (Jefferson & London, 2008); Eros plus Massacre, An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema by David Desser (Bloomington and Indianopolis, 1988); Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema by David Bordwell (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1988); Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto (Duke University Press: Durham, 2000); The Waves at Genji's Door by Joan Mellen (Pantheon Books: New York, 1976); Japanese Classical Theatre in Film by Keiko I. Macdonald (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994); From Book to Screen by Keiko I. Macdonald (M.E. Sharpe: New York and London, 2000); Reading a Japanese Film by Keiko I. Macdonald (University of Hawai'i Press: Honolulu, 2006); Behind the Pink Curtain, A Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, by Jasper Sharp (Fab Press: Godalming, 2008); Contemporary Japanese Film by Mark Schilling (Weatherhill: New York and Tokyo, 1999); The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp (Stone Bridge Press: Berkeley, 2005); Kitano Takeshi by Aaron Gerow (British Film Institute: London, 2007); Iron Man: the Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto by Tom Mes (Fab Press: Godalming, 2005); Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike by Jasper Sharp (Fab Press: Godalming, 2003); Nihon Eigashi by Sato Tadao (Iwanami Shoten: Tokyo, 2008, 4 vols.); Nihon Eigashi 110-nen by Yomota Inuhiko (Shueisha; Tokyo, 2014). All images are linked from Wikipedia.]
History of Japanese Film by Year