June 13 - 27
THE YOUTH OF THE BEAST: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF NIKKATSU
Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon KatsudōShashin, literally “Japan Cinematograph Company”. It is Japan’s oldest major film studio, having produced 3300 films since it was founded in 1912 from the amalgamation of several production companies & theatre chains. Since then it has enjoyed a rich history of filmmaking, producing 2 important early sound films & playing home to such notable directors as Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa, Ko Nakahira, Shohei Imamura & Seijun Suzuki.
During World War II, Nikkatsu was forced to give up production but thrived as an exhibitor, resuming independent production in 1954 and achieving immediate success with Ichikawa’s films. Searching for its own niche in the booming postwar Japanese film industry, Nikkatsu’s success with Shintaro Ishihara’s Season of the Sun (1956) prompted it to produce a series of popular youth films through the late ’50s & early ’60s. It then moved towards making hard-boiled crime films in the mid-’60s that remains the company’s best-known period internationally. Led by such action stars as Joe Shishido, Yujiro Ishihara & Hideaki Nitani, & director Seijun Suzuki, Nikkatsu introduced a new kind of protagonist, often cynical & at odds with a society revealed to be totally corrupt. In the ’70s the studio shifted again, this times towards “Roman Porno” – romantic soft-core erotic cinema, often with a bizarre twist. This cycle ended in 1993 when Nikkatsu declared bankruptcy. However, in 2010 a revived Nikkatsu studio announced the production of the “Sushi Typhoon” movie series in partnership with a US distributor.
The Melbourne Cinémathèque is proud to present this very small selection of imported treasures from Nikkatsu.
Presented in conjunction with:
June 13
7:00 – THE BURMESE HARP
Kon Ichikawa (1956) 116min
This lyrical depiction of the devastating effects of World War II was one of the first from the point of view of the Japanese army. Private Mizushima’s (Shoji Yasui) failure to convince a mountaintop platoon the war is over leads to inevitable carnage & the beginning of his spiritual rebirth after he dons a monk’s robes & administers to the dead. Minimal dialogue (by Ichikawa’s former wife, Natto Wada) carries the emotion, while the grandeur of the Burmese landscape sustains the mood. Ichikawa’s film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the newly created Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.
9:05 – THE HEART
Kon Ichikawa (1955) 120 mins
The 1st of Ichikawa’s psychological studies, based on the celebrated 1914 novel by Soseki Natsume, deals with a middle-aged scholar riddled with a guilt that isolates him from society & causes him to treat his young wife with indifference. Unfolding through a series of flashbacks, this tragic account of corrupted relationships, spiralling psychological isolation & social estrangement takes place concurrently with the turbulent end of the Meiji Period of modernisation in Japan.
35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.
June 20
7:00 - HOME VILLAGE
Kenji Mizoguchi (1930) 86 mins
Nikkatsu’s 1st (partially) sound film concerns the tragic conflict that arises between Yoshio, a talented singer, & his devoted companion, Ayako, a maidservant. Upon returning home from Europe Yoshio is courted by a society woman who uses the prospect of fame & fortune to lure him from his relationship with Ayako. A semi-biographical & mythologising showcase for the voice of real-life tenor Yoshie Fujiwara (playing ‘himself’), this mostly silent film is also notable for Mizoguchi’s uncharacteristically generous use of montage, close-ups and camera movement.
35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.
8:35 – PROFOUND DESIRES OF THE GODS
Shohei Imamura (1968) 173 mins
Set on a fictional island, this is an unusual story of a socially isolated & inbred family who are desperate to improve their social status while coming to terms with their idyllic island lifestyle being threatened by encroaching developers. This thematically & visually rich exploration of taboo, ritual & modernity is the extraordinary culmination of Imamura’s examination of the fringes of Japanese society. Not well received on its original release, it is now regarded as one of the director’s greatest films.
35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.
June 27
7:00 – KANTO WANDERER
Seijun Suzuki (1963) 92 mins
Adapted from a novel by Taiko Hirabayashi, Japan’s key female writer during the country’s proletarian movement in the 1920s, this tale of an intensely passionate, but ultimately chaste, relationship between two young lovers is moulded by Suzuki into an examination of young men’s adoration for the Yakuza, pushing the genre to its most expressive limits. An action-packed Romeo & Juliet, this visually stunning, superbly crafted film giddily invokes both Sam Fuller & Jean Cocteau. Starring Akira Kobayashi.
35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.
8:45 - THE FLOWERS & THE ANGRY WAVES
Seijun Suzuki (1964) 92 mins
Bloody & elegant chaos mark this swashbuckling period piece; one of Suzuki’s most underrated films. What feels like a thousand dramas in the form of sword fights, gun fights, geisha femme-fatales, trade unionism, bribery & adultery are packed into a relatively short running time through the brilliance of Suzuki’s trademark editing & frenetic storytelling, culminating in a truly thrilling examination of corruption & modernity as early-20th-century Tokyo is brought to dazzling life. B-movie fare at it’s most magnificent.
35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCwhyi-Ai6c
Backdrops:
Nikkatsu Posters
THE BURMESE HARP
KANTO WANDERER
HOME VILLAGE
PROFOUND DESIRES OF THE GODS