film
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Tenpō Rokkasen – Jigoku no Hanamichi (Passage to Hell / Runway to Hell) (1960)
Directed by Masahiro Makino In a departure from his upright samurai detective character the Bored Hatamoto, Utaemon Ichikawa is on the wrong side of the law this time around. I’m not sure which crimes he’s supposed to be guilty of.… Continue reading
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Real Men Wear Eyeliner
A casual viewer of Japanese period dramas might wonder what to make of some scenes. The men wear makeup, and they are sometimes depicted weeping openly. What’s going on? Let’s deal with the makeup first. This doesn’t faze me because… Continue reading
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Bored Hatamoto: Island of No Return (1960); Bored Hatamoto: The Cave of the Vampire Bats (1961)
Directed by Yasushi Sasaki Crime-fighting samurai Saotome Mondonosuke aka the Bored Hatamoto aka the Idle Vassal was Utaemon Ichikawa’s signature role. He portrayed Mondonosuke over the span of more than 40 years in 30 movies as well as a television… Continue reading
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Jigokumon (Gate of Hell) (1953)
Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa Some of the movies I write about here appear to be little known outside Japan. They have very few reviews in English. Two of the movies I’ve discussed have no reviews at all on IMDb or… Continue reading
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Ishin no kagaribi (Signal Fire of Restoration / Restoration Fire) (1961)
Directed by Sadatsugu Matsuda I grew up watching Errol Flynn movies on TV. He was my childhood crush and my personal template for action-adventure heroes. According to this template swordsmen should be equally adept at romance as they are at… Continue reading
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Jiraiya (1937) / Yoja no maden (Ninja’s Weapon) (1956)
Directed by Masahiro Makino (1937) and Sadatsugu Matsuda (1956) Are ninja/sorcerer movies samurai films? Or are they fantasy films that are samurai-adjacent? There’s lots of sword fighting, to be sure, but why use conventional means of combat when you can… Continue reading
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Yotsuya kaidan (The Ghost of Yotsuya) (1959)
Directed by Kenji Misumi Because the current is swift, even though the rapids blocked by a boulder are divided, like them, in the end, we will surely meet, I know. — Sutoku-in (1119 – 1164) Daiei’s gorgeous production of the… Continue reading
Ukiyo-e Owl 