News

“Kagemusha” is one of the best films Akira Kurosawa ever shot and is considered one of the definite masterpieces of world cinema. However, its production was one of the most difficult accomplishments in the master's filmography. Initially, the film was not considered financially viable, and it took the influence of both George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to get additional funds for it to be completed, since Toho, the initial production company, had given up on the film. However, the problems continued during the shooting, with probably the most significant being that Kurosawa had to replace Shintaro Katsu, who was originally cast as Takeda Shingen, with Tatsuya Nakadai, after the two of them had a falling out. The production faced many additional problems, but Kurosawa eventually managed to complete the movie, with its premiere taking place in Tokyo. His struggles, however, paid off, since “Kagemusha” was a huge hit both critically and financially.

In what is definitely one of the greatest transitions in movie history, former actor Juzo Itami wrote and directed his first film in 1984, “The Funeral” which ended up netting five Japanese Academy Awards in 1985, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Tsutomu Yamazaki, while it also came first in the annual Kinema Junpo critics' poll. The production was financed by Itami and his wife Nobuko Miyamoto, along with a friend of theirs, the cake mogul Yasushi Tamaoki, and was distributed by Atg. The script was inspired by Itami's own experience of his father-in-law's funeral, while it was shot in the house of the family, and the son of the couple also played a part.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

The movie begins with the narrator introducing us to an elderly couple, Shinkichi Amamiya and his wife, Kikue, just before the former has...

With so many great Japanese directors who made a name for themselves, it is always interesting to see some collaborate. One of the most interesting collaborative efforts was the company “Yonki-no-Kai,” which translates to the “Club of the Four Knights,” established in 1969 by filmmakers Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Masaki Kobayashi, and Kon Ichikawa. The group of friends put together this effort to support one another, as the film industry in Japan at the time was in a state of financial hardships. Yet, things did not go according to plan with Kurosawa’s film “Dodes’ka-den,” being a box-office failure, leading to many projects being shelved. The four wrote a jidaigeki feature that would go unmade for a long-time when they couldn’t raise funds to make it. Years later, following the passing of his companions, Ichikawa would eventually be able to direct this initially canceled feature while...