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Japanese New Wave
The is a term for a group of loosely-connected Japanese films and filmmakers between the late 1950s and part of the 1970s. The most prominent representatives include directors Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda and Shōhei Imamura. History The term ''New Wave'' was coined after the French '' Nouvelle vague'', a movement which had challenged the traditions of their national cinema in style and content, countering established narratives and genres with "the ambiguous complexities of human relationships" and polished techniques with deliberately rough ones, and introducing the theory that directors should be the auteurs of their films. Unlike the French counterpart, the Japanese New Wave originated within the film studio establishment, especially Shochiku, whose head Shirō Kido hoped that "cheaply made, innovative pictures could emulate the success of the Nouvelle Vague in Europe". This policy saw the emergence of filmmakers like Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yo ...
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Shōhei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from Japan to win two Palme d'Or awards. Biography Early life Imamura was born to an upper-middle-class doctor's family in Tokyo in 1926. For a short time following the end of the war, Imamura participated in the black market selling cigarettes and liquor. He studied Western history at Waseda University, but spent more time participating in theatrical and political activities. He cited a viewing of Akira Kurosawa's ''Rashomon'' in 1950 as an early inspiration, and said he saw it as an indication of the new freedom of expression possible in Japan in the post-war era. Upon graduation from Waseda in 1951, Imamura began his film career working as an assistant to Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku Studios on films like '' Early Summer'' and ''Tokyo Story'' ...
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French New Wave
The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm. New Wave filmmakers explored new approaches to film editing, editing, visual style, and narrative, as well as engagement with the social and political upheavals of the era, often making use of irony or exploring existential themes. The New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in the history of cinematography, cinema. However, contemporary critics have also argued that historians have not sufficiently credited its female co-founder, Agnès Varda, and have criticized the movement's prevailing themes of sexism towards women. The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine in the late 1950s and 1960s. These critics rejected the ("T ...
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Pigs And Battleships
is a 1961 Japanese satirical comedy film by director Shōhei Imamura. The film depicts black market trades between the U.S. military and the local underworld at Yokosuka. Plot The film focuses on Kinta, a member of the Himori Yakuza, who has been put in charge of the gang's pork distribution and his girlfriend Haruko, who works at a bar. Kinta is shown working with other gangsters, beating up a local shopkeep who caters to Americans and paying the people who work on the hog farm. When Kinta goes to visit Haruko in the afternoon she leaves without speaking to him and Kinta finds out through her sister that Haruko is being paid 30000 yen to go on a date with a sailor (and that her mother has already spent the money). Haruko returns to Kinta later that night, although Kinta is unhappy because of the earlier events. Haruko reveals that she is pregnant and expresses her concerns about Kinta’s work. Another gangster calls on Kinta early in the morning and they go out on a smal ...
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Blood Is Dry
, also titled ''Blood Thirsty'', is a 1960 Japanese drama film written and directed by Yoshishige Yoshida and starring Keiji Sada. It is Yoshida's second film and an early exponent of the Japanese New Wave. Plot During a meeting, the executives of a small company in Tokyo announce the dismissal of the staff due to the strong competition. Salaryman Takashi pulls a gun and holds it against his temple, declaring that he doesn't care what happens to him as long as the company keeps his other colleagues. A shot is fired and Takashi wounded, but he recovers at the hospital after a few days. Yuki, an employee at the advertising department of a big life insurance company, has the idea to use Takashi for a new marketing campaign. Takashi, first reluctant, but under pressure for not being able to pay his rent, accepts and is marketed as a new "hero". The campaign is a huge success, and Takashi slowly takes a liking in his role of a man who conveys hope and optimism. Harada, an acquaintan ...
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Night And Fog In Japan
is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It deals with the contemporary Zengakuren opposition but also evokes the 1950 protests against the Anpo treaty; this political content is related to the particular approach of memory and interpersonal dynamics of social movements in the film. Plot In 1960, in the aftermath of the Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, uninvited guests interrupt the wedding ceremony between Nozawa, a journalist and former student radical of the 1950s, and Reiko, a current activist. They accuse the couple and assembled guests of forgetting their political commitments, invoking a tortured exploration of unresolved conflicts of a decade ago, when they were swept up in the student demonstrations. In flashbacks, personal and political wounds are reopened, focused on Nozawa's subjective experiences in both 1950 and 1960. Two characters, one dead by suicide, the other now a Stalinist politician, are the subject of greatest scr ...
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Cruel Story Of Youth
is a 1960 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Ōshima, starring Yusuke Kawazu and Miyuki Kuwano as teenage delinquents and lovers. It is Ōshima's second feature film and is known for its elements of Japanese '' nuberu bagu''. The film won the 1960 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Newcomer for Ōshima. Plot After Makoto Shinjo hitchhikes a ride, the driver tries to molest her, but is stopped by Kiyoshi Fuji. He takes her on a date, first to watch the Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, and then later to ride a motorboat on a river, where he rapes her. One day, after trying to wait for him at a bar he frequents, she is targeted by gangsters who prostitute women, but Kiyoshi fights them and they leave them alone in exchange for a payment. Afterward, he rapes her again, and Makoto confronts him, telling him she loves him and doesn't want their relationship to continue this way. At length, the two fall in love and Makoto spends more time with him, causing her to be rebuke ...
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Shochiku
is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and established the Kamata Film Studio. Currently, it is considered one of Japan's Big Four film studios and is the oldest among the Big Four. Shochiku is a member of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ). It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all, anime films produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks). Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada. It has also produced films by highly regarded independent and "loner" directors such as Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Taiwanese New Wave d ...
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Auteur
An (; , ) is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded and personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, thus manifesting the director's unique style or thematic focus. As an unnamed value, auteurism originated in French film criticism of the late 1940s, and derives from the critical approach of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc, whereas American critic Andrew Sarris in 1962 called it auteur theory. Yet the concept first appeared in French in 1955 when director François Truffaut termed it ''policy of the authors'', and interpreted the films of some directors, like Alfred Hitchcock, as a body revealing recurring themes and preoccupations. American actor Jerry Lewis directed his own 1960 film '' The Bellboy'' via sweeping control, and was praised for "personal genius". By 1970, the New Hollywood era had emerged with studios granting directors broad leeway. Pauline Kael argued, however, that "a ...
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British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Activities Purpose The BFI was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history, heritage and culture of the United Kingdom. Archive The BFI maintain ...
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Cinema Of Japan
The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the Film industry#Statistics, fourth largest by number of feature films produced, producing 634 films, and third largest in terms of box office revenue, standing at $1.5 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897. During the 1950s, a period dubbed the "Golden Age of Japanese cinema", the ''jidaigeki'' films of Akira Kurosawa as well as the science fiction films of Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya gained Japanese cinema international praise and made these directors universally renown and highly influential. Some of the Japanese films of this period are now rated some of the List of films considered the best, greatest of all time: ''Tokyo Story'' (1953) ranked number three in ''Sight & Sound'' critics' list of the 100 greatest films of all time and also topped the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' directors' poll ...
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Japanese New Left
The in Japan refers to a diverse array of 1960s Japanese leftist movements that, like their counterparts in the Western New Left, adopted a more radical political stance compared to the established "Old Left," which in the case of Japan was emblematized by the Japanese Communist Party and Japan Socialist Party. After emerging in the lead-up to the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the movement grew and diversified before climaxing with the Zenkyōtō movement which barricaded dozens of Japanese universities in 1968–1969. Much like its counterparts in the West, in the 1970s, the Japanese New Left became known for violent internal splits and terrorism, which caused the movement's influence to wane. Origins From 1948, Japan had a powerful, centralized, nationwide student movement thanks to the establishment of Zengakuren (the "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations") that same year. However at least initially, Zengakuren remai ...
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Seitō (magazine)
, also known by its translated title ''Bluestocking'', was a literary magazine created in 1911 by a group of five women: Haru Raichō Hiratsuka, Yasumochi Yoshiko, Mozume Kazuko, Kiuchi Teiko, and Nakano Hatsuko. The group called themselves the Japanese Bluestocking Society (青鞜社 ''Seitō-sha'') and used the magazine to promote the equal rights of women through literature and education. The magazine they developed was designed to articulate women's self-awareness and the gender-based societal limitations they faced, but its promotion of early feminist beliefs through controversial publications caused it to be banned by the Japanese Home Ministry for being "disruptive to society". Members of The Bluestockings were berated by the press, and their private lives were a source of outrage for the public. ''Bluestocking'' produced 52 issues with over 110 contributors. It is credited as an influence for modern Japanese feminism. Etymology The name of the publication is a referenc ...
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