Summary: In late nineteenth-century Tokyo, young kabuki actor Kikunosuke meets Otoku, his baby brother’s wet nurse. Otoku candidly tells him how bad his acting is; her honesty impresses him, and love and trust develops between the two. Kikunosuke’s adoptive father and mentor, the great Kikugoro V, however, does not approve of their relationship, let alone…
Tag: Japanese Movies
Ugetsu Monogatari (Movie) – Summary, Analysis
Summary: In the sixteenth century, Japan is in a chaotic time of social upheaval and constant military conflict between warlords. Farmers Genjuro and Tobei realise that the pottery they make can sell well at the market in town. Seduced by prospects of wealth and social mobility, they embark on a dangerous trip through war zones,…
Tokyo Story: Summary & Analysis
Summary: The elderly Shukichi and Tomi Hiroyama leave their youngest daughter Kyoko in Onomichi to visit their other grown-up children in Tokyo. Mild disappointment dogs the whole enterprise as their presence is clearly considered burdensome. Only their widowed daughter-in-law Noriko shows genuine warmth and welcome. Returning home, Tomi falls ill and dies. The family expresses…
Twilight Samurai: Summary & Analysis
Summary: In the nineteenth century at the end of Japan’s feudal age, widowed, low-ranking samurai Seibei Iguchi is an accountant at his regional lord’s storehouse, where he has been nicknamed ‘Twilight’ (Tasogare) because he refuses to socialise after working hours. Instead, he rushes home to care for his two daughters, Kayano (age ten) and Ito…
Seven Samurai: Summary & Analysis
Summary: Japan 1587, during a period of chaotic civil war, a group of marauding bandits makes plans to rob an isolated village as soon as the harvest is in. One villager, hiding on a woodpile, overhears them and the farmers go to their elders for advice. As they have nothing to offer but food, he…
Akira (1988 Anime) – Story Summary & Analysis
Neo-Tokyo is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E. The entire genre of Japanese Anime is a cult unto itself. I hesitate in limiting the inclusion of Anime entries to a thousand films, let alone one. Anime’s following is so passionate that no selection is going to be good enough for its devotees. So before they come home from…
When A Woman Ascends The Stairs – Summary, Analysis
Summary: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is a careful character study of Keiko, a widowed bar hostess in Tokyo’s fashionable Ginza neighbourhood. At age 30, Keiko faces three life choices: to remarry before her society regards her as too old to do so, to become a kept woman of a wealthy business owner, or…
The Insect Woman – Summary, Analysis
Summary: Born in 1918, Tome is the daughter of an economically poor, dysfunctional family in early twentieth-century rural Japan. While working as a servant to the owners of the land her family tends, Tome is raped by the landlord’s son and falls pregnant. After the war has ended, leaving the child behind in the care…
A Page Of Madness – Synopsis & Analysis
Synopsis: A woman is committed to a mental institution after her baby drowns while her sailor husband is away. He is now a janitor at the asylum. Their adult daughter is about to marry but is worried about her fiancé’s reaction to her mother’s madness. She visits the asylum and is surprised to find her…
In The Realm Of The Senses: Summary and Analysis
Summary: Based on a well-known high-profile criminal case from 1936, In the Realm of the Senses is a biopic on Sada Abe, a geisha-cum-courtesan, and her lecherous relationship with Kichizo- Ishida, the owner of an inn she worked for as a maid. The two engaged in a prurient and obsessive bond where they isolated themselves…