Tag: Japan

• 5 Japanese Movies Filmed in the Spirit of Junichirō Tanizaki’s Beautiful Essay “In Praise of Shadows”

  

  In a 1951 letter to his editor, while explaining his Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien writes: “As far as all this has symbolical or allegorical significance, Light is such a primeval symbol in the nature of the Universe, that it can hardly be analysed. The Light of Valinor (derived from light before any fall) is the light…

  Vigour of Film Lines

  December 12, 2019

  Cinema of Japan, East Asian cinema, Film Lists

  Aesthetics, Asian, Beauty, Culture, Film Noir, Japan, Japanese, Literature, Oriental, Philosophy

• Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016) “The Dark Night of the Soul”

  

  Earlier this year, I wrote an article about this very film, “Last Breaths of Christendom in the Land of the Rising Son”, emphasizing the role of the Japanese state (Tokugawa Shogunate) and the Hobbesian reading which implies that the state proscribes the teachings and religions practiced by the populace; in this case the state religion…

  Vigour of Film Lines

  November 27, 2019

  American cinema, Cinema of the World, Great American Directors, Martin Scorsese

  Art, Christ, Christianity, Cinema, Crisis, Faith, Japan, Japanese, Literature, Love, Religion, Spirituality

• 5 Films Inspired By the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales (Red Riding Hood)

  

  For the second part of the list dealing with the films based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, with a focus on the fairy tale Red Riding Hood, I chose a Japanese animated film “Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade” and a surrealist Czechoslovakian film “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”, films which deal with this fairy…

  Vigour of Film Lines

  October 23, 2019

  Film Lists

  Anime, Childhood, Erotic, Fairy Tale, Innocence, Japan, Psychology, Religion, Sexuality, Surrealism, Teenager, Trauma, Violence

• In Yasujirô Ozu’s Words: The Change of Seasons

  

  I tried to show the collapse of the Japanese family system through showing children growing up. Yasujirô Ozu Ozu’s post-war work, during the time when he made his most memorable films, is characterized by the same theme which is presented over and over. In his own words, he presents the “collapse of the Japanese family…

  Vigour of Film Lines

  March 29, 2019

  In the Words of the Director

  Conservative, Culture, Family, History, Japan, Japanese, Marriage, Nature, Second World War, Society, War

• Mizoguchi’s “Sansho the Baillif”: Karl Marx in Heian Japan

  

  Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sanshô dayû is based on a folk tale taking place in the Heian period; Chinese and Buddhist influence, as well as the one of the Imperial power were at their summit. Mizoguchi is one of the greatest Japanese directors who created during the period of Japanese cinema which may very well be called its…

  Vigour of Film Lines

  November 27, 2018

  Cinema of Japan, Kenji Mizoguchi

  Buddhism, Capitalism, Christianity, Death Penalty, Equality, Japan, Japanese History, Religion, Revolution, Slavery, Socialism

• Bloody Code in the Classic of Japanese Cinema “Harakiri”

  

  Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri belongs to the jidaigeki genre (period piece). It follows the period shortly after the battle at Sekigahara and the establishemnt of the Tokugawa shogunate (1630). The film begins with a short exposition by the official of House Iyi, who talks about the everyday life of the samurai warlord. It is a perspective…

  Vigour of Film Lines

  September 15, 2018

  Cinema of Japan, Masaki Kobayashi

  Foucault, History, Honor, Illusion, Japan, Japanese History, Morality, Philosophy, Poetic, Punishment, Revenge, Samurai, Seppuku, Tradition