Wait?! What? We're not original?

*NOTE* NO MOVIE NIGHT LAST NIGHT


from a New York Times article (Dave Kehr, 7.25.08)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/movies/25wmovies.html

JAPANESE SCREEN CLASSICS (Wednesday and Thursday)
This collection of 24 Japanese films was presented at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as a tribute to Kashiko Kawakita, who until her death in 1993 was a tireless campaigner on behalf of bringing Japanese films to the world and the world cinema to Japan. In 1982 she created the nonprofit Japan Film Library Council (now known as the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute), an organization dedicated to keeping the leading Japanese directors’ work in circulation; the eight filmmakers united here are all better known today because of her support.

The series begins on Wednesday with Akira Kurosawa’s famous “Rashomon” (1950) at 5 p.m. and continues that day with Kon Ichikawa’s seldom-seen period drama “Her Brother” (1960) at 7 p.m. and Kaneto Shindo’s portrait of an aging stage actress, “A Last Note” (1995), at 9 p.m. Thursday brings a 1976 entry from Yoji Yamada’s long-running “Tora-san” series, “Tora-san’s Sunrise and Sunset,” at 6:15, and Nagisa Oshima’s radical 1966 take on the lovers-on-the-run genre, “Violence at Noon,” at 8:30. The series continues through Aug. 14, with work by Sumiko Handeda, Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki to come. Walter Reade Theater 165 West 65th Street, (212) 875-5600, filmlinc.org; $11. (Kehr)


ALSO: another neat link to a book on japanese sex cineama
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/behind-the-pink-curtain.shtml

Ugetsu (Monogatari) aka "This isn't Africa, get that off your head."

Theme: Japanese films of the 1950's (#3)

Released: 1954 (b&w)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Actors:

• Masayuki Mori (Genjurô)
• Machiko Kyô (Lady Wakasa) same as in Rashamon
  
• Kinuyo Tanaka (Miyagi)
• Eitarô Ozawa (To^bei) (as Sakae Ozawa)

Nominated for an Oscar for best b&w Costume Design in 1956.
Won 2 Mainichi Film Concours awards in 1954 (Art Direction and Sound Recording).
This film is listed as Drama/Fantasy so watch out for some awesome twists!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046478/

@ the Crow's Nest
Present: Chris, Devin, Big John, Lincoln, Matt

Gojira

Theme: Japanese films of the 1950's (#2)

Released: 1954 (b&w)
Director: Ishiro Honda
Tagline: The legend begins...
Actors:

• Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata)
• Momoko Kôchi (Emiko Yamane)
• Akihiko Hirata (Daisuke Serizawa-hakase)
• Takashi Shimura (Kyohei Yamane-hakase)
• Fuyuki Murakami (Professor Tanabe)

Gojira is a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira).
There is a TON of interesting triva about this film on imdb.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/


@ the Crow's Nest
Society members present: Chelsea, Devin, Jenny, Big John, Lincoln, Matt, Zach

Rashomon

Theme: Japanese films of the 1950's (#1)

Released: 1950 (b&w)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Tagline: The husband, the wife...or the bandit?
Actors:

• Toshirô Mifune (Tajômaru)
• Machiko Kyô (Masako Kanazawa)
• Masayuki Mori (Takehiro Kanazawa)
• Takashi Shimura (Woodcutter)
• Minoru Chiaki (Priest)
• Kichijiro Ueda (Commoner)

Won Best Actress award in 1951 at the Mainichi Film Concours in Tokyo, Japan.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876/

@ the Crow's Nest
Society members present: Chelsea, Chris, Devin, Jason Adams, Jenny, Big John, Zach
Notes: Jen swooned over Humphrey Bogart. There was low to average making fun of this movie.

Go to town with your comments kids!
Coming up Thursday the 18th, GODZILLA!