Blind Beast.You could start cradled like the kidnapped woman in the undulating foam curves that resemble a gigantic female torso in Blind Beast (1969). You could make your approach via the swing of a Super-8 camera towards the steps of a courthouse at the beginning of A Wife Confesses (1961). You could drift into A Cheerful Girl (1957) through the kitchen window, onto a table laden with groceries and bottles of fluorescent orange soda-pop. You could inject yourself like morphine into Red Angel (1966), seep like body ink into the skin of Spider Tattoo (1966), or slide into the fevered bloodstream of All Mixed Up (1964) like powdered poison swallowed from a kite-paper pouch. Whether you arrive on the tip of a blade or the cusp of a kiss, there is no wrong place to start with Yasuzo Masumura, the postwar Japanese director whose astonishing accomplishment should by rights have him mentioned in the same...
- 8/15/2023
- MUBI
At a festival the size and stature of the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary, new discoveries are a daily occurrence. But it is rare that at festival’s end, one of the most excitingly buzzy emergent names should be that of a filmmaker who died 37 years ago and who has languished in relative obscurity – certainly in the Anglophone world – ever since. And yet here we are, at the tail end of an 11-film Yasuzo Masumura retrospective – the biggest of its kind ever mounted at an international film festival – that has proved, in a word, revelatory.
It’s not just in terms of blowing the dust from this extraordinary, unjustly overlooked filmmaker’s catalog, but also in the broader sense of being an exemplary model for how to connect a vibrant, youthful regional audience to global film history. There is a classic film fan born every minute, but in Karlovy Vary this year,...
It’s not just in terms of blowing the dust from this extraordinary, unjustly overlooked filmmaker’s catalog, but also in the broader sense of being an exemplary model for how to connect a vibrant, youthful regional audience to global film history. There is a classic film fan born every minute, but in Karlovy Vary this year,...
- 7/8/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Arrow Video floors us with yet another well-curated Japanese masterpiece. For practical purposes, this disc might represent the Western premiere of Tomu Uchida’s three-hour ‘crime and punishment’ saga. Unfolding like a novel and filmed with an unusually gritty visual scheme called ‘the Toei W106 method,’ the story’s timeline is split between 1947 and 1957. It has a strong postwar social statement to make, but the overriding theme is one of spiritual Karma, and the function of guilt in imperfect humans. Several of the actors are just unforgettable, especially Rentarô Mikuni, Junzaburô Ban, and Ken Takakura.
A Fugitive from the Past
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.
Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa
Special Effects: Sadao Uemura
Art Director: Mikio Mori...
A Fugitive from the Past
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.
Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa
Special Effects: Sadao Uemura
Art Director: Mikio Mori...
- 9/6/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Yasuzo Masumura amazes us with yet another sensual stunner. This period way-of-all-flesh tale is almost a horror film, but the supernatural shivers are far outpaced by the daily Evil that Men Do. Japanese superstar Ayako Wakao blazes across the screen as a self-decreed avenger of the female sex, who allows men to destroy themselves and uses them to destroy each other. The bloody killings orbit around the desire to possess the irresistible Spider Woman, an in an ‘annihilating noir.’ The screenplay is by the equally famous Kaneto Shindo, from a Japanese ‘amor fou’ novel by Junichiro Tanizaki.
Irezumi
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date June 22, 2021 / Spider Tattoo / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Ayako Wakao, Akio Hasegawa, Gaku Yamamoto, Kei Sato, Fujio Suga, Reiko Fujiwara, Asao Uchida, Kikue Mori.
Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa
Production Designers: Hiroaki Fujii, Shiro Kaga
Art Director: Yoshinobu Nishioka
Film Editor: Kanji Suganuma
Original Music: Hikaru...
Irezumi
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date June 22, 2021 / Spider Tattoo / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Ayako Wakao, Akio Hasegawa, Gaku Yamamoto, Kei Sato, Fujio Suga, Reiko Fujiwara, Asao Uchida, Kikue Mori.
Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa
Production Designers: Hiroaki Fujii, Shiro Kaga
Art Director: Yoshinobu Nishioka
Film Editor: Kanji Suganuma
Original Music: Hikaru...
- 4/30/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Japanese wartime drama Red Angel (1966) will be available on Blu-ray January 18th from Arrow Video
Directed by Yasuzo Masumura, Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nurse.
When Sakura Nishi is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan’s war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr Okabe conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction.
Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura’s harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with...
Directed by Yasuzo Masumura, Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nurse.
When Sakura Nishi is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan’s war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr Okabe conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction.
Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura’s harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with...
- 12/22/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Yasuzo Masumura may be practically unknown to the west, but he is quite famous and respected in Japan, with filmmakers like Shinji Aoyama and Nagisa Oshima considering him as one of the precursors of the Japanese New Wave of the sixties, and one of the most important creators in postwar Japan. Thankfully, Arrow Films has done a significant effort to change the fact, by releasing a number of his lesser known titles. “Irezumi” is of the first films that established his exploitation style, which was later implemented in his most well known ones, like “Hanzo the Razor: The Snare” and “Blind Beast.”
Based on a novel by Junichiro Tanizaki and scripted by the great Kaneto Shindo, the story revolves around a true femme fatale named Otsuya, a daughter of a rich merchant. In the beginning of the film, she persuades her lover, Shinsuke to betray her father,...
Based on a novel by Junichiro Tanizaki and scripted by the great Kaneto Shindo, the story revolves around a true femme fatale named Otsuya, a daughter of a rich merchant. In the beginning of the film, she persuades her lover, Shinsuke to betray her father,...
- 6/16/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Yasuzo Masumura’s Irezumi (1966) will be available on Blu-ray June 22nd From Arrow Video
Drawn from the pen of one of Japan’s foremost writers of the 20th century, Junichiro Tanizaki, Irezumi is a stylish tale of lust, betrayal and revenge directed by Yasuzo Masumura.
Masumura’s muse Ayako Wakao stars as Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, who is tempted by her lover, Shinsuke, a lowly employee of her father’s, to elope. During their flight, Otsuya’s beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya’s back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality transforms under its influence.
Available for the first time outside of Japan in a new 4K restoration,...
Drawn from the pen of one of Japan’s foremost writers of the 20th century, Junichiro Tanizaki, Irezumi is a stylish tale of lust, betrayal and revenge directed by Yasuzo Masumura.
Masumura’s muse Ayako Wakao stars as Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, who is tempted by her lover, Shinsuke, a lowly employee of her father’s, to elope. During their flight, Otsuya’s beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya’s back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality transforms under its influence.
Available for the first time outside of Japan in a new 4K restoration,...
- 5/20/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Fetch Publicity releases the first 4K Blu-ray release outside of “Irezumi,” (1966) Yasuzo Masumura’s early masterwork, outside of Japan. The Blu-ray will be available on 21 June 2021.
From us: Yasuzo Masumura may be practically unknown to the west, but he is quite famous and respected in Japan, with filmmakers like Shinji Aoyama and Nagisa Oshima considering him as one of the precursors of the Japanese New Wave of the sixties, and one of the most important creators in postwar Japan. Irezumi is of the first films that established his exploitation style, which was later implemented in his most well known ones, like “Hanzo the Razor: The Snare” and “Blind Beast.”…“Irezumi” is an exploitation film of rare quality that will definitely satisfy fans of the genre, as it paved the way for the surge of the category that occurred in the 70’s.” (Panos Kotzathanasis)
From Fetch: Drawn from...
From us: Yasuzo Masumura may be practically unknown to the west, but he is quite famous and respected in Japan, with filmmakers like Shinji Aoyama and Nagisa Oshima considering him as one of the precursors of the Japanese New Wave of the sixties, and one of the most important creators in postwar Japan. Irezumi is of the first films that established his exploitation style, which was later implemented in his most well known ones, like “Hanzo the Razor: The Snare” and “Blind Beast.”…“Irezumi” is an exploitation film of rare quality that will definitely satisfy fans of the genre, as it paved the way for the surge of the category that occurred in the 70’s.” (Panos Kotzathanasis)
From Fetch: Drawn from...
- 4/3/2021
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Take off those big glasses and open your eyes to cinema's most significant spruce-ups
When a makeover is the star of the show, the movie isn't usually up to much. Although the "makeover movie" has given us some classic guilty pleasures in Mean Girls, Clueless, and Pretty Woman, some excellent films like Now, Voyager, and certainly kept Audrey Hepburn busy (Sabrina, Funny Face, My Fair Lady), it's also got a lot to answer for. A lot to answer for.
Generally, makeover movies inspire about as much indifference as Marmite. Though some people love their sense of fun, others find them dull, predictable and sexist. It doesn't help that the makeover is often so laughably superficial, or that the subject is consistently a nice-but-lonely woman obsessed with getting her man.
Though marketed squarely at women, too often the message of the makeover movie is riddled with implicit criticisms of its audience,...
When a makeover is the star of the show, the movie isn't usually up to much. Although the "makeover movie" has given us some classic guilty pleasures in Mean Girls, Clueless, and Pretty Woman, some excellent films like Now, Voyager, and certainly kept Audrey Hepburn busy (Sabrina, Funny Face, My Fair Lady), it's also got a lot to answer for. A lot to answer for.
Generally, makeover movies inspire about as much indifference as Marmite. Though some people love their sense of fun, others find them dull, predictable and sexist. It doesn't help that the makeover is often so laughably superficial, or that the subject is consistently a nice-but-lonely woman obsessed with getting her man.
Though marketed squarely at women, too often the message of the makeover movie is riddled with implicit criticisms of its audience,...
- 3/2/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Acquarello
Notes on Rendez-vous with French Cinema 2010
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Trousering the Ghost
The Forgotten: Vessel of Wrath
The Forgotten: Is My Face Red
The Forgotten: Lock-Up
Zach Campbell
Some Kind of Realism: Rossellini's War Trilogy
Andrew Chan
Sinophilic Cinephilia: Asia Society's "China’s Past Present, Future on Film"
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Cold Weather"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Glory to the Filmmaker" or: Kitano in Posters
Movie Poster of the Week: "Feeder" and the SXSW Poster Award Winners
Movie Poster of the Week: "Everyone Else"
David Hudson
Berlinale. Cons and Ex-Cons
Daniel Kasman
Image of the Day: Unrequited Love #1
The Potential of the Mobile Film Festival: Rotterdam@Bam
Images of the Day: Joan Alone: Joan Bennett in Fritz Lang's "Secret Beyond the Door..."
At the Cinematheque: "The Prowler" (Joseph Losey, 1951)
Jean-Luc Godard's Homage to Eric Rohmer
Now in Theaters: "Shutter Island" (Martin Scorsese,...
Notes on Rendez-vous with French Cinema 2010
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Trousering the Ghost
The Forgotten: Vessel of Wrath
The Forgotten: Is My Face Red
The Forgotten: Lock-Up
Zach Campbell
Some Kind of Realism: Rossellini's War Trilogy
Andrew Chan
Sinophilic Cinephilia: Asia Society's "China’s Past Present, Future on Film"
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Cold Weather"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Glory to the Filmmaker" or: Kitano in Posters
Movie Poster of the Week: "Feeder" and the SXSW Poster Award Winners
Movie Poster of the Week: "Everyone Else"
David Hudson
Berlinale. Cons and Ex-Cons
Daniel Kasman
Image of the Day: Unrequited Love #1
The Potential of the Mobile Film Festival: Rotterdam@Bam
Images of the Day: Joan Alone: Joan Bennett in Fritz Lang's "Secret Beyond the Door..."
At the Cinematheque: "The Prowler" (Joseph Losey, 1951)
Jean-Luc Godard's Homage to Eric Rohmer
Now in Theaters: "Shutter Island" (Martin Scorsese,...
- 4/1/2010
- MUBI
Music can be one of cinema's great pleasures. When used with inspiration—not dictating our viewing experience with a death grip or slathered like bad wallpaper over the rest of a sound mix—it can transform either solitary shots or spliced sequences of moving images into entirely new expressions, galvanizing details within the raw photographic cinematographic material or contrapuntally complicating the initial impressions of the image.
Given our love for movie music in all its forms, whether a soundtrack features original orchestral compositions, near-abstract soundscapes, or acts as a curatorial force for collecting, exposing and (re-) contextualizing existent music, Lost Sounds and Soundtracks will serve to highlight some of our favorites, obscure and not so obscure, commercially available and ripped directly from audio-tracks where necessary. Unless analyzed within their original context, all will be divorced from their image-tracks in hopes that we might briefly give them their singular due.
***
What...
Given our love for movie music in all its forms, whether a soundtrack features original orchestral compositions, near-abstract soundscapes, or acts as a curatorial force for collecting, exposing and (re-) contextualizing existent music, Lost Sounds and Soundtracks will serve to highlight some of our favorites, obscure and not so obscure, commercially available and ripped directly from audio-tracks where necessary. Unless analyzed within their original context, all will be divorced from their image-tracks in hopes that we might briefly give them their singular due.
***
What...
- 3/31/2010
- MUBI
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