I have seen only one of them. They all follow more or less the same story line, in which an everyman gets a few weeks off from his job, visits his family in their old neighborhood, doesn’t get along with them very well, and then decides to go on vacation to a famous Japanese tourist area. While there, he meets… Read more →
Tag: Yoji Yamada
Tora-san 50th Anniversary Events!
Many big events are happening next year in Japan. The Rugby World Cup. A new emperor will be enthroned. Preparations will also be in full gear for the 2020 Olympics. 2019, however, also marks the 50th anniversary of the first Tora-san movie! Shochiku’s Tora-san 50th anniversary website went live today. Here is a summary of what was announced today. 1)… Read more →
Shoplifters, Hakuchu Dodo, and the Florida Project
Shoplifters (万引き家族) was the first film by Hirokazu Kore-eda I’ve watched. When I first hear the story, though, I immediately thought Hakuchu Dodo (白昼堂々), a Shochiku film from 1968. which I saw at a Kiyoshi Atsumi retrospective a few years back at the Togeki. Directed by prolific director Yoshitaro Nomura, it starts Atsumi and Chieko Baisho as leaders of a… Read more →
Cocktail Party at the Minato-ku Azabu Civic Center
I have been a long time subscriber to the SSJ-Forum, which these days is almost entirely announcements for various academic panels, conferences, and seminars for professors and academics and such. Every once in a while I manage to attend one or two. Today, though, ICAS at Temple University sent out a message advertising an upcoming film screening of Cocktail Party,… Read more →
An Autumn Tora-san Tableau in Tokyo
Almost one year has passed since I watched all 48 Tora-san movies from the first to the last. I watched them not in theaters, but on DVD rather than on film in theaters. Luckily, I have already been able to watch a couple in theaters, having belatedly discovered this Tora-san Festival in Mitaka. And, as I have paid more attention… Read more →