Tokyo Explorer

The golden age of Japanese cinema was the fifties, when directors such as Ozu and Kurosawa made films which influenced film makers the world over. For an introduction to Japanese film, look no further than Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru’ (To Live), where an ageing bureaucratic discovers he has cancer and sets out to redeem a  largely meaningless life spent in a Government office, and Ozu’s ‘Tokyo Story,’ in which an ageing couple visit their children in a rapidly modernizing Tokyo. The two films explore themes such as the individual versus society and the gap between generations that still resonate in the Japan of today.

Each decade since has spawned directors now synonymous with their time. The 60s and early 70s saw the rise of Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura, so-called new wave directors sponsored by the influential ATG, the Art Theater Guild. The two were not afraid of controversy and the former’s ‘Ai No Corrida’ 1976 (In the Realm of the Senses) was banned in Japan due to its graphic portrayal of Sada Abe, found wandering the streets of pre-war Japan with a rather personal part of her dead husband’s anatomy in her possession.

In the 80s, although generally considered a time of stagnation after the demise of the ATG and the unwillingness of the big production companies to take risks, Juzo Itami became the critically acclaimed director of his day, with films such as the world’s first noodle western, ‘Tampopo’ (1986). Itami liked to question the conventional wisdoms of the time: his classic ‘The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion’ (1992) inverted the normal portrayal of the yakuza as something akin to the latter day descendents of samurai. Instead, he portrayed them as bumbling oafs, which ruffled feathers so much that the director was attacked and scarred for life.

Although the early 90s continued the less–than-inspiring-trend of sticking to the tried and tested, the mid- 90s to the present has seen a number of new directors emerge in a range of genres: from horror, to anime, to art house. This has inspired people to talk of a re-birth in Japanese film making. Certainly, the heavy Japanese presence at international film festivals such as Cannes and Venice seem to be an indicator of robust health and the, recently established, English language website, midnighteye.com, devoted to Japanese film, is testament to international interest. The site, as well as providing reviews and interviews, gives details of subtitled releases both in Japan and abroad.

A big difference, however, between now and the fifties is that the critically acclaimed directors of the day were also big draws at the box office. Nowadays, a fair percentage of those films receiving acclaim and attention at international film festivals are not exactly box office magnets, with some notable exceptions.

Here is a brief rundown of some of the Japanese directors making, if not the most popular films of today, at least the most original and innovating. Anime has been left out, as it would take at least a separate article to do justice to that great global export.

‘Nobody Knows’ (2004)

The mid to late 90s saw a number of new directors involved in lower budget, independent productions. Koreeda was one of them. ‘Afterlife’ (1998) and ‘Nobody Knows’ (2004) show how imagination can circumvent the need for big productions. ‘Afterlife’ recreates a limbo world in a disused factory where the recently deceased are encouraged to choose one moment of their lives to keep forever. Koreeda’s films are shot like documentaries, ‘Afterlife’ was part unscripted and based on interviews, seemingly bridging fact and fiction. In ‘Nobody Knows’ a family is left to fend for themselves after they’re deserted by their mother in a Tokyo that seems indifferent to their plight.

While Koreeda might fit with relative ease into the art house category, Takashi Miike defies description. His films range from the horror of ‘Audition’ (1999), and I mean horror, to the ‘musical,’ ‘The Happiness of the Katakuris’ (2001). Imagine the Rocky Horror picture show set in a Japanese ryokan; throw a zombie film in there and you might be getting close!

The ubiquitous Takeshi Kitano is one of those exceptions mentioned before. A director who makes critically acclaimed box office films which also do well at the box-office. His gangster films such as ‘Sonatine’ (1993) contain an almost surrealistic amount of violence. Takeshi’s portrait of the loner going out in a blaze of glory is one of those Japanese traditions in the arts, like love suicides, which have always gone down well with local audiences. In recent years, Kitano has widened his range with films like his acclaimed version of the samurai classic ‘Zatoichi’ (2003).  (Photo:Used in conjunction with Wikimedia CC-SA)

Like Takeshi Kitano, it would be incorrect to label Shinya Tsukamoto as a part of any new wave of film makers as it was 1989 when ‘Tetsuo: Iron Man’ first made audiences sit up and stare. The film, shot in black and white, mixes animation and real scenes as a human body and a machine become intertwined. Tsukamoto is always on the cutting edge of film making as his more recent, Robert Mapplethorpe inspired, erotic ‘A Snake of June,’ proved.

Another quality director who, like Kitano, has received attention in the mainstream media is Masayuki Suo. His most recent film, ‘I Just didn’t do it’ (2006), about an innocent man accused of touching a woman on a subway train, stirred debate about the integrity of the Japanese legal system with the film’s supposition that in Japan, one is guilty until proved innocent, rather than the opposite. Worth tracking down is an earlier film by Suo called ‘Shall We Dance (1996),’ the familiarity of the title due to the Hollywood remake, which had Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez butchering the lead roles. The original is far better and has the British seaside town of Blackpool cast as a ballroom dance Mecca for a group of salarymen who escape from the boring lives in their weekly dance class.

‘Shall We Dance’ (1996) 

This is only a sample of some of the films available with English subtitles that may give you some insight into Japan before you visit and perhaps inspire a more long term interest in Japanese film. For more information on Japanese films both past and present, check out the midnight eye.com website. Most of the films mentioned can be ordered form amazon.com with English subtitles.