|
Tatsuya Nakadai
is a Japanese film actor. He was featured in 11 films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, including '' The Human Condition'' trilogy, wherein he starred as the lead character Kaji, plus '' Harakiri'', '' Samurai Rebellion'' and '' Kwaidan''. Nakadai worked with some of Japan's best-known filmmakers—starring or co-starring in five films directed by Akira Kurosawa, as well as being cast in significant films directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara ('' The Face of Another''), Mikio Naruse ('' When a Woman Ascends the Stairs''), Kihachi Okamoto ('' Kill!'' and '' The Sword of Doom''), Hideo Gosha ('' Goyokin''), Shirō Toyoda ('' Portrait of Hell'') and Kon Ichikawa ('' Enjō'' and '' Odd Obsession''). Biography Nakadai grew up in a very poor family and was unable to afford a university education, prompting him to take up acting. He picked up a liking of Broadway musicals, and travelled once a year to New York City to watch them. Nakadai was working as a shop clerk in Tokyo before a ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most populous urban areas in the world. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighboring Prefectures of Japan, prefectures, is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with 41 million residents . Lying at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region, on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. It is Japan's economic center and the seat of the Government of Japan, Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government administers Tokyo's central Special wards of Tokyo, 23 special wards, which formerly made up Tokyo City; various commuter towns and suburbs in Western Tokyo, its western area; and two outlying island chains, the Tokyo Islands. Although most of the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirō Toyoda
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed over 60 films during his career which spanned 50 years. He was denoted for his high-quality adaptations of works of many important twentieth-century Japanese writers. Career Born in Kyoto, Toyoda moved to Tokyo after finishing high school. Intent on becoming a theatre playwright at first, he studied scriptwriting under the pioneering film director Eizō Tanaka. He joined the Kamata section of the Shōchiku film studios in 1925 and worked as an assistant director under Yasujirō Shimazu, before giving his directorial debut in 1929. Forced to continue to work as an assistant director, and dissatisfied with the material he was given at Shochiku, he moved to the independent Tokyo Hassei Eiga Shisaku studio (later Toho). There he directed the successful '' Young People'' (1937) and gained a reputation for directing literary adaptations with a humanistic touch, in particular ''Uguisu'' (1938) and '' Spring on Leper's Island ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takeda Shingen
was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a poor area with little arable land and no access to the sea, but he became one of Japan's leading daimyo. His skills are highly esteemed and on par with Mōri Motonari. Name Shingen was called "Tarō" (a commonly used pet name for the eldest son of a Japanese family) or Katsuchiyo (勝千代) during his childhood. After his ''genpuku'' (coming of age ceremony), he was given the formal name Harunobu (晴信), which included a character from the name of Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the 12th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate. It was a common practice in feudal Japan for a higher-ranking samurai to bestow a character from his own name to his inferiors as a symbol of recognition. From the local lord's perspective, it was an honour to receive a character f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the Emperor of Japan, emperor and the ''kuge'' (an aristocratic class). In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''shugo'' of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku period to the daimyo of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of daimyo also varied considerably; while some daimyo clans, notably the Mōri clan, Mōri, Shimazu clan, Shimazu and Hosokawa clan, Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other daimyo were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. Daimyo often hired samurai to guard their land, and paid them in land or food, as relatively few could afford to pay them i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kagemusha
is a 1980 epic jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class petty thief who is taught to impersonate the dying ''daimyō'' Takeda Shingen to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. ''Kagemusha'' is the Japanese term for a political decoy, literally meaning "shadow warrior". The film ends with the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino. ''Kagemusha'' was released to critical acclaim. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival (tied with '' All That Jazz''). It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and received other honours. In 2009 the film was voted at No. 59 on the list of ''The Greatest Japanese Films of All Time'' by Japanese film magazine '' Kinema Junpo''. Plot During the Sengoku period, in 1571, Takeda Shingen, ''daimyō'' of Kai province from the Takeda clan, meets a thief his brother Nobukado has spa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rōnin
In feudal Japan to early modern Japan (1185–1868), a ''rōnin'' ( ; , , 'drifter' or 'wandering man', ) was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a ''rōnin'' upon the death of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or legal privilege.Stephane Lun (2021). ''A Guide on Shinsengumi: the background and management.'' In modern Japanese, the term is usually used to describe a salaryman who is unemployed or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university. Etymology The word ''rōnin'' is usually translated to 'drifter' or 'wanderer'; however, per kanji, means "wave" as on the water, as well as "unrestrained, dissolute", while means "person". It is an idiomatic expression for 'vagrant' or 'wanderer', someone who does not belong to one place. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Ribbon Awards
The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan, established in 1950 by , established under the name of the "Association of Tokyo Film Journalists Award", which was formed mainly by film reporters from the Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun. Currently The Association is made up of film reporters from seven sports newspapers in Tokyo: Sports Hochi (previously Hochi Shimbun), Sankei Sports, Sponichi, Daily Sports, Tokyo Sports, Tokyo Chunichi Sports, and Nikkan Sports. History Film reporters from the Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun took the lead in calling other reporters to "look back on the film industry over the past year, discuss the results, and summarize them". The first award ceremony was held on March 22, 1951 at the Tokyo Theater in Chuo, Tokyo. Finances were scarce, and the only thing given to the winners was a handwritten certificate tied with a matching blue ribbon, hence the name "Blue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Samurai
is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai action film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. Taking place in 1586 in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, it follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who seek to hire samurai to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. At the time, the film was the most expensive film made in Japan. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. It was the second-highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 1954. Many reviews compared the film to the Western film genre. ''Seven Samurai'' is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films in cinema history. Since its release, it has consistently ranked highly in critics' lists of greatest films, such as the BFI's '' Sight & Sound'' and Rotten Tomatoes polls. It was also voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in the BBC's 2018 international critics' poll. It is regarded a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Thick Walled Room
is a 1953 Japanese war drama film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The film was completed in 1953, but not released before 1956. Plot A group of former Japanese World War II soldiers, interned in Sugamo Prison as Class B and C war criminals, memorise their past. Yamashita had shot an Indonesian civilian by command of his superior Hamada and, after violent interrogations by U.S. military personnel following his arrest, was blamed by Hamada for acting without instructions at his trial. Yokota served as an interpreter in a prisoner-of-war camp and was ordered to participate in the flagellation of a prisoner, who later died of the maltreatment. He clings to memories of a young woman named Yoshiko, who now earns her money as a prostitute in Shinjuku. Kawanashi is haunted by images of killing a prisoner with a bayonet and eventually hangs himself in his cell. When Yamashita learns that his mother and sister have fallen victim to Hamada's profiteering schemes, he attempts to break out to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county. The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics, and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in 2024 of 8,478,072 distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names. Many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also use the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous with the district, it is closely identified with Times Square. Only three theaters are located on Broadway itself: the Broadway Theatre, Palace Theatre, and Winter Garden Theatre. The rest are loc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odd Obsession
is a 1959 Japanese satirical comedy drama film directed by Kon Ichikawa. It is based on the 1956 novel '' The Key'' by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Plot Art historian Kenji Kenmochi is married to the much younger Ikuko. Due to his waning virility, he has his doctor give him hormone injections. In addition, he tries to awaken the interest of his daughter Toshiko's fiancé, assistant doctor Kimura, in Ikuko, convinced that his jealousy will bring his manliness back. Ikuko agrees to the plan, as she has developed a genuine interest in Kimura. However, Kimura's main ambition for becoming part of the Kenmochi family is financing his continued studies with Kenji's money. Kenji eventually dies of a heart failure, an effect of his hormone injections. After the funeral, Ikuko, Toshiko and Kimura plan to live together, although it isn't clear with which woman – or both – Kimura will be sleeping. As they begin their new life with a post-funeral meal, Toshiko tries to poison her mother's tea, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
