(Japanese films)

JAPANESE FILM SERIES:
Nikkatsu Action & '60s Japan

Friday, April 18 - Thursday, April 24, 2008

WHERE:
Brattle Film (617-876-6837)
40 Brattle St. (close to Harvard Square)
Cambridge, Mass. 02138

FILM SCHEDULE (12 fims total): brattlefilm.org

About Nikkatsu:
Nikkatsu was a studio that had been around since the silent days of film.

During its peak, Nikkatsu Action films evoked a cinematic world neither foreign nor Japanese. It was a mix of the two, where Japanese tough guys had the swagger, moves, and even the long legs of Hollywood movie heroes.

It was a place where the Tokyo streets, Yokohama docks, and Hokkaido hills took on an exciting exotic aura – where one guy with guts, smarts, and a pair of quick fists could beat a whole gang of baddies.

Nikatsu director Seijun Suzuki has risen to Western cult fame, though foreign critics still dismiss most of the films of his studio colleagues as hack work.

About the film series:
The aim of this retrospective series is to provide opportunities for the discovery of new classics of Japanese genre cinema that may stand alongside those already enshrined in the critical canon.

As a complement to the Nikkatsu movies, the Brattle presents other films that were made in 1960s Japan.

These other films include psychological dramas from arthouse titans like Nagisa Oshima's DEATH BY HANGING and Hiroshi Teshigahara's WOMAN IN THE DUNES and one neo-noir from the immortal Akira Kurosawa.

In line with Nikkatsu's B-movie epics, Brattle Film also will show some genre classics including the surreal, giant monster movie MOTHRA; B-movie master Kinji "Battle Royale" Fukasaku's bizarre BLACK ROSE MANSION; and, of course, the series wouldn't be complete without at least one samurai: THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI.

PARTIAL FILM SCHEDULE (see BrattleFilm.org for the complete line-up of 12 films):

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, AT 7:30
A Colt Is My Passport
(1967) dir Takashi Nomura w/Jo Shishido, Jerry Fujio [84 min]
In Nomura's chilly noirish thriller, Shishido plays a hitman hired by a gang to whack a rival boss. He does the deed and, with his sidekick, plans his escape. But they are snatched by thugs from the rival gang. They make a narrow escape and arrange passage out of the country, but deadly complications ensue. (NOT ON VIDEO!)

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, AT 9:30 and
SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT 9:30
Black Rose Mansion
(1969) dir Kinji Fukasaku w/Akihiro Maruyama, Eitaro Ozawa, Masakazu Tamuro [91 min]
Famous drag-star+singer Maruyama stars in this perverse campy freak-out. A wealthy playboy installs "Black Rose" (Maruyama) in his elegant men's club to bolster business - but he gets more than he bargains for when she attracts homicidal past lovers, and both he and his son fall for the femme fatale.
View YouTube clip, "Miwa Akihiro sings in Black Rose Mansion," on Brattle Film site.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, AT 7:30
Plains Wanderer
(1960) dir Buichi Saito w/Akira Kobayashi, Ruriko Asaoka, Jo Shishido, Nobuo Kaneko [83 min]
Kobayashi plays a traveler on Japan's back roads with the accoutrements of a Western hero: a horse, fringes, a guitar and even a trusty bullwhip. He mixes with the good local folk against gangsters or evildoers, while winning the heart of a local maiden. (NOT ON VIDEO!)
View original theatrical trailer (w/subtitles) on Brattle Film site.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, AT 9:30
The Warped Ones
(1960) dir Koreyoshi Kurahara w/Tamio Kawachi, Eiji Go, Noriko Matsumoto [75 min]
Kurahara's frantic black-and-white portrait of youth culture-gone-wild features Kawachi as Akira, a punk who hangs out at a jazz coffee house. Sent to jail for pickpocketing, he meets like-minded Masaru (Go). After their release from jail, they and a hooker friend go on a crime spree. (NOT ON VIDEO!)

SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT 5:30
Red Handkerchief
(1964) dir Toshio Masuda w/Yugiro Ishihara, Ruriko Asaoka, Hideaki Nitani [98 min]
A career landmark for both superstar Ishihara and director Masuda, "Red Handkerchief" also became the definer of Nikkatsu's muudo akushon ("mood action") aesthetic. A Yokohama detective nabs a key crime witness who refuses to spill - and becomes infatuated with the witness' daughter. (NOT ON VIDEO!)
View original theatrical trailer (in Japanese) on Brattle Film site

SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT 7:30
Velvet Hustler
(1967) dir Toshio Masuda w/Tetsuya Watari, Ruriko Asaoka [97 min]
After rubbing out a rival gang boss, a Tokyo hitman leaps into a conveniently-parked red convertible and heads to the other side of Japan. He winds up in the Kobe underground while avoiding both a suspicious cop and the mysterious hitman sent to kill him. (NOT ON VIDEO!)