Away from Hollywood’s stifling commercial limits, Fumiyo Kouno’s manga about a young bride in wartime Japan has no illusions regarding the human price of war. Young Suzu takes in a new family, endures the hardships of a militarized country and wartime privations, but nobody is ready for what’s coming. Sunao Katabuchi’s historical drama makes stunning use of animation.
In this Corner of the World
Blu-ray + DVD
Shout! Factory
2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Kono sekai no katasumi ni / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 22.97
Japanese Voices: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Megumi Han, Natsuki Inaba, Nanase Iwai; English Voices: Laura Post, Kira Buckland, Barbara Goodson, Todd Haberkorn, Jason Palmer.
Character design: Hidenori Matsubara
Original Music: Kotringo
Written by Sunao Katabuchi, Chie Uratani, from the manga by Fumiyo Kouno
Produced by Taro Maki, Masao Maruyama
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
American feature films are now a commercial desert dominated by expensive blockbusters, with a...
In this Corner of the World
Blu-ray + DVD
Shout! Factory
2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Kono sekai no katasumi ni / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 22.97
Japanese Voices: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Megumi Han, Natsuki Inaba, Nanase Iwai; English Voices: Laura Post, Kira Buckland, Barbara Goodson, Todd Haberkorn, Jason Palmer.
Character design: Hidenori Matsubara
Original Music: Kotringo
Written by Sunao Katabuchi, Chie Uratani, from the manga by Fumiyo Kouno
Produced by Taro Maki, Masao Maruyama
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
American feature films are now a commercial desert dominated by expensive blockbusters, with a...
- 10/24/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:
Profound Desire(s) of the Gods is a sprawling, disturbing, ambitiously weird would-be epic about a clash of societies within the territorial boundaries of a rapidly modernizing Japan. It’s set on the fictional southern island of Karuge, where ancient tribal customs and animistic worship rituals still held most of the inhabitants in a strong (though inevitably loosening) grip. The narrative conflict stems from outsiders who want to convert the arable land into a sugar cane plantation and exploit the island’s inherent value as a tourist destination. But the forces of commerce and technological efficiency are ill-prepared to deal with the stubborn resiliency of the people they encounter, or the baffling complex of myths and taboos that compel them.
The film was a major throw down by Shohei Imamura, a director who had achieved enough commercial success with his...
Profound Desire(s) of the Gods is a sprawling, disturbing, ambitiously weird would-be epic about a clash of societies within the territorial boundaries of a rapidly modernizing Japan. It’s set on the fictional southern island of Karuge, where ancient tribal customs and animistic worship rituals still held most of the inhabitants in a strong (though inevitably loosening) grip. The narrative conflict stems from outsiders who want to convert the arable land into a sugar cane plantation and exploit the island’s inherent value as a tourist destination. But the forces of commerce and technological efficiency are ill-prepared to deal with the stubborn resiliency of the people they encounter, or the baffling complex of myths and taboos that compel them.
The film was a major throw down by Shohei Imamura, a director who had achieved enough commercial success with his...
- 7/4/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Being provided with the opportunity to talk to Takashi Miike, on the occasion of his latest film — the “crazy”-if-somewhat-languid vampire gangster blow-out Yakuza Apocalypse — is a tricky proposition. For someone with that kind of prolificacy, how can you keep it to just one film? However, we tried to talk to him about ostensibly everything surrounding his fascinating career, and one can check out the full conversation below.
The Film Stage: You’re noted for how many films you make — usually two or three a year. Do you still find it easy to make that many?
Takashi Miike: There was a time when I made five or six movies a year, but those were really low-budget ones — the shoots would only take 2 weeks or so. But now I take about two months to make one film, and next year it should be the same pace.
Recently there was an...
The Film Stage: You’re noted for how many films you make — usually two or three a year. Do you still find it easy to make that many?
Takashi Miike: There was a time when I made five or six movies a year, but those were really low-budget ones — the shoots would only take 2 weeks or so. But now I take about two months to make one film, and next year it should be the same pace.
Recently there was an...
- 10/7/2015
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
Tokyo — Director Yoshimitsu Morita, whose films depicted the absurdity and vulnerability of everyday life in conformist Japan, has died. He was 61.
Morita, who won international acclaim over his prolific 30-year career, died Tuesday of acute liver failure at a Tokyo hospital, said Yoko Ota, spokeswoman at Toei Co., the film company behind his latest work.
Morita's movies were distinctly Japanese, depicting the fragile beauty of the nation's human psyche and visual landscape while daringly poking fun at its ridiculous tendency for rigid bureaucracy and ritualistic hierarchy.
Morita made a splash among global film buffs with 1983's "Family Game," starring Yusaku Matsuda of "Black Rain" as an offbeat tutor who forms a heartwarming relationship with a young man in a stereotypical middle-class family.
Its striking cinematography, focusing on rows and rows of identical apartments and people dining solemnly sitting side by side, was an exhilarating parody of Japanese family values.
His...
Morita, who won international acclaim over his prolific 30-year career, died Tuesday of acute liver failure at a Tokyo hospital, said Yoko Ota, spokeswoman at Toei Co., the film company behind his latest work.
Morita's movies were distinctly Japanese, depicting the fragile beauty of the nation's human psyche and visual landscape while daringly poking fun at its ridiculous tendency for rigid bureaucracy and ritualistic hierarchy.
Morita made a splash among global film buffs with 1983's "Family Game," starring Yusaku Matsuda of "Black Rain" as an offbeat tutor who forms a heartwarming relationship with a young man in a stereotypical middle-class family.
Its striking cinematography, focusing on rows and rows of identical apartments and people dining solemnly sitting side by side, was an exhilarating parody of Japanese family values.
His...
- 12/21/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Kuroi ame / Black Rain (1989) Direction: Shohei Imamura Screenplay: Shohei Imamura and Toshirô Ishidô; from Masuji Ibuse’s novel Cast: Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Shoichi Ozawa Animego’s DVD release of Shohei Imamura’s Black Rain includes as a bonus feature a selection of World War II-era anti-Japanese propaganda films. Sponsored by various U.S. government bureaucracies, most of these shorts traffic in the usual sort of wartime racism and paranoia which, depending on your sensibility, you will find either disturbing or amusing. The most egregious of these is something called My Japan, which features an actor in yellow-face hectoring the American audience into buying more war bonds by boasting that Japan won’t be defeated [...]...
- 4/8/2010
- by Dan Erdman
- Alt Film Guide
AnimEigo has released a massive DVD box set titled Japan at the War. The set compiles four previously released AnimEigo titles with the intent of providing a Japanese perspective on the Second World War. Kihachi Okamoto's Japan's Longest Day (1967) and Battle of Okinawa (1971) are featured as are Kosaku Yamashita's Father of the Kamikaze (1974) and Shohei Imamura's highly acclaimed Black Rain (1988). Detailed synopses (courtesy of AnimEigo) and full technical specs are featured below.
Japan's Longest Day
On August 15th, 1945, the Japanese people faced utter destruction. Millions of soldiers and civilians were dead, the rest were starving, and their cities had been reduced to piles of rubble--two of them vaporized by atomic bombs. The government was deadlocked. To break the impasse, the cabinet took the unprecedented step of asking the Emperor to decide the fate of the nation. Toshiro Mifune leads an all-star cast in a powerful film about...
Japan's Longest Day
On August 15th, 1945, the Japanese people faced utter destruction. Millions of soldiers and civilians were dead, the rest were starving, and their cities had been reduced to piles of rubble--two of them vaporized by atomic bombs. The government was deadlocked. To break the impasse, the cabinet took the unprecedented step of asking the Emperor to decide the fate of the nation. Toshiro Mifune leads an all-star cast in a powerful film about...
- 4/6/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Creative artists of every variety have made incisive, satiric or powerful statements about nuclear threat. They have offered cautionary works that depict the horror of the bomb or its meaning in our society. What these artistic statements share, however, with rare exceptions, is an avoidance of the specific subject of Hiroshima. Since August 1945, hundreds if not thousands of "nuclear" movies have appeared. Americans have been exposed to several foreign films on the subject, most notably Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, Shohei Imamura's Black Rain and, of course, Alain Resnais's classic 1959 drama Hiroshima, Mon Amour. These films are original or highly imaginative and contain striking images. At least one American "nuclear" film was a work of genius (Dr. Strangelove), and several others explored the issue thoughtfully (Fail-Safe, The War Game, Testament and Desert Bloom). But more often the fear of...
- 8/10/2009
- by Greg Mitchell
- Huffington Post
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.