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Shimizu links
Topic Started: Oct 14 2014, 01:22 PM (434 Views)
Karl
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troubadour
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Two excellent overviews:

"Hiroshi Shimizu – Silent Master of the Japanese Ethos":

http://www.midnighteye.com/features/hiroshi-shimizu-silent-master-of-the-japanese-ethos/

"Hiroshi Shimizu: A Hero of His Time":

http://sensesofcinema.com/2004/feature-articles/hiroshi_shimizu/

(This last one hits the nail on the head about FORGET LOVE FOR NOW, but don't read it unless you've seen the film. Unless, that is, you don't give a damn about dreaded "spoilers.")
Crusades are gone out of fashion for the moment and the only warfare at present worthy of the name is the bloodless crusade against fools. - Norman Douglas
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rischka
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nazi trumps fuck off!!
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thanks for the links karl!
"covfefe" -- dj cheeto

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Lencho of the Apes
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Let's go do some crimes
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There's also a good essay by Bordwell, though it focuses mainly on the four films in the Criterion box:

The four films in Criterion's Shimizu box.
"The four cardinal points of the compass? In reality, there are only three: North and South."
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Brotherdeacon
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It conjures willy-nilly
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Thanks Karl and Lencho for the links, great. As for exchanging a year of my life in Japan, I envy you your choice and the films you'll watch. If anyone is interested, the book Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige (東海道中膝栗毛?) by Jippensha Ikku (十返舎一九, 1765–1831) translated as The Shank's Mare is a wonderful novel of episodic travels concerning a few friends/pilgrims in the early 1800's. They're picaresque rascals travelling the Tokaido between Edo and Kyoto. Although I've never seen them, a few films were made of the two characters:

Yaji and Kita: Yasuda's Rescue, Yajikita son'nô no maki,1927 -- Tomiyasu Ikeda, 15 min fragment
Yaji and Kita: The Battle of Toba Fushimi, 1928 -- Tomiyasu Ikeda, 8 min fragment
Travel Chronicles of Yaji and Kita, Travel Chronicles of Yaji and Kita (弥次喜多道中記 Yaji-Kita Dōchū-ki?), 1956 -- Torajiro Saito, full
Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san, Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (真夜中の弥次さん喜多さん Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san? -- 2005 -- Kudo Kankuro, full
Three for the Road, Yaji Kita dōchū Teresuko -- Hideyuki Hirayama, 2007, full
Yaji Kita dōchū Teresuko (Three for the Road) (2007)

I'm not sure why I mention them, except that I always had hoped that Shimizu had filmed one of their stories/road films. Unfortunately, he didn't, but his knack for presenting interesting characters during road travel is superb no matter the era. Regardless, the book is great fun and recommended for those of us who are intrigued by Japan, their films and culture. :toast:
Edited by Brotherdeacon, Oct 15 2014, 12:15 AM.
“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. “
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Karl
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troubadour
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Alas, my ideal Japan is just going to have to remain in the pictures. I taught English there for a year in a thoroughly nondescript city of a million souls and did not relish the experience. Current Japan - like current Japanese film - holds no interest for me.

(Shimizu may not have filmed the story you mention, but he did stretch out a 3-page Kawabata story that mostly consisted of the words "thank you" oft-repeated into a feature film, and a marvelous one at that, and that's no minor feat! This story has also been translated, in the volume titled Palm-of-the-Hand Stories, which gets my very highest recommendation - old Japanese film fans here on the forum would dig it, I'm sure)
Edited by Karl, Oct 15 2014, 12:46 AM.
Crusades are gone out of fashion for the moment and the only warfare at present worthy of the name is the bloodless crusade against fools. - Norman Douglas
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Brotherdeacon
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It conjures willy-nilly
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The short-short stories in Palm-of-the-hand-stories (miniatures perhaps) are fine Kawabata. Sorrowfully, I have little interest in modern Japanese films (with a few exceptions), though I don't look very obsessively either. That being said, I'm enthralled by more vintage Japanese directors and their work. I Consider the films of their New Wave as brave film making of the highest order. But, as in many other countries--those ships have sailed, leaving behind our contemporary becalmed seas which rarely ripple a sail. Or perhaps I'm in my dotage and am only happy when watching Meet Me in St. Louis over and over. I'm thankful that there are premier directors like Shimizu still to discover though they live in the past. My present life in Cinephilia is multi-temporal and I find no reason to change it, of course unless the nurses order it so. :cheer:
Edited by Brotherdeacon, Oct 15 2014, 06:16 AM.
“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. “
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