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Bursting Balsam Flower: My Chikuho, My Korea

Having spent her childhood in Dalian and Harbin in the former state of Manchukuo, Taeko Tomiyama carried within her the conviction: “As an Asian, as a woman, I will begin from the margins of beauty.” Noriaki Tsuchimoto, on the other hand, directed numerous films related to Minamata disease. He confronted the suffering of pollution victims head-on, continuing to convey the harshness of life with unflinching clarity. In an interview, Tsuchimoto once remarked: “Within Tomiyama’s narrative world lies something that could be called her eros, her utopia, her aesthetics of liberation. Why does she persist in creating such dark lithographs on the themes of Chikuho and Korea? And how is it that, while doing so, she can also simultaneously depict a world of such beauty?” This film not only reveals the allure of the lithographs themselves, but also centers on the dialogue between Tsuchimoto and Tomiyama. It is a portrait of two comrades, earnestly pursuing the meaning of artistic expression.

Bursting Balsam Flower: My Chikuho, My Korea

NR 1984
ブランキック公三

The repetition of a dull student activist's everyday life, with its limited scenery and abbreviated dialogue, slowly but surely changes with the addition of new drama. The three women's different feelings of sorrow, tenderness, and strength are deeply connected to the protagonist and flow together in a single emotion. The power of the image of a man running from his friends to the personal terrorism of a "powerful man" near the end of the film overlaps the space between the two disparate characters and makes the film more than a drama. The power of the images that run from the comrades to the personal terrorism of a "powerful" person near the end overlaps all the different spaces between them and shows us more than the development of the drama.

ブランキック公三

NR 1980
Under the Erotic Tokyo Tower

The Tokyo Tower is a symbol that has become an indispensable part of the Tokyo landscape, even if it is said to be an imitation of the Eiffel Tower. The story of Yumiko, who comes from Wakayama on a school trip to Tokyo, also revolves around this symbol. Yumiko is 17 years old and in love with a classmate. Three years later, Yumiko's love blooms again in this city at the age of 20... This is a movie "by girls for girls", with the sharp point of view of a female director, which exposes the cuteness and ugliness of women through the simple, pure and honest protagonist, without any pretence. Yumiko runs around the screen in a cheerful yellow voice, explaining the subtle psychology of a girl in love.

Under the Erotic Tokyo Tower

NR 1989
EXIT

This film depicts from the inside the murderous intent of a street thug who attacks a passing pregnant woman. One day, after cutting a maggot to death, the man's previously dormant madness overflows like a dam and floods him with the next carnage. A maggot, a cockroach, a small dog and a pregnant woman. The film uses black-and-white and colour to depict the mental state of the protagonist as he slowly builds up to the murder. In the last scene, the inner world of the man is symbolically expressed, and the urgency with which he searches for an answer is overwhelming. This is a highly accomplished film, both visually and thematically.

EXIT

NR 1989
Heavenly Warrior Fantasy Legend Lemuria's Conspiracy

"Heavenly Warrior Fantasy Legend" is a promotional video produced and released in the late 1980s at the Takeshima Fantasy Museum in Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture, to commemorate the museum's 30th anniversary. It is believed to be a work from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, but the exact production year is unknown, although there are records indicating it was sold at the museum in 1987. Set in Gamagori City, the story features a heavenly warrior, played by Shinobu Sakagami, struggling in the human world. It also served as a promotional video for the Takeshima Fantasy Museum, a tourist attraction at the time. Production Background: Produced by the former management of the Fantasy Museum amidst the economic downturn following the collapse of the bubble economy, it was created to promote the museum's 30th anniversary.

Heavenly Warrior Fantasy Legend Lemuria's Conspiracy

NR 1987
Where are You?

She is a very ordinary girl of today. Her father is an ordinary salaryman, and she has grown up without any problems. But when she turns 18, her feelings are complicated. Things have been a bit weird lately. "I don't think I'm naturally compatible anymore. The film lyrically portrays the true feelings of a lonely, pretty girl who doesn't want to grow up yet and wants to be spoiled more by her parents. The tasteful cutting captures the girl's eroticism in a refreshing way.

Where are You?

NR 1988
The Time Slit

This film was very delicate to process because of the static electricity that sucks up dust. The filmmaker wanted to keep on the screen a kind of dust protection that would be the equivalent of human eyelashes. This is why eyelashes appear continuously throughout the film. The image of the comb, which gradually becomes a musical instrument, was also indispensable. The dust gradually covers the image. The sound is also dusty. Suddenly, the image splits in two and the time of the cinema begins to double.

The Time Slit

NR 1989
Double Fantasy

Amid the hustle and bustle of the city, a couple is having a bitter, messy breakup in broad daylight. Meanwhile, in a beautiful park on the outskirts of town, another couple is enjoying the excitement of their very first date. Who could possibly imagine that these two completely unrelated couples would become bound together by fate through a single fleeting encounter? This is a dark yet fantastical love story that delivers a sharp blow to anyone who thinks other people’s romances have nothing to do with them. Just as you begin to grow weary of the cheerful young couple’s storyline and find yourself anxiously following the troubled couple’s drama, the film comes to an end with a shocking finale that leaves you with only one possible reaction: What?

Double Fantasy

NR 1985
Earth Stone

I wanted to make a film about an alien wandering around in a field somewhere, observing nature. As he marvels at insects and focuses on wormholes in the leaves, the sun sets and dawn breaks, and then the sun sets and dawn breaks again. There are many familiar things on Earth, but when they get wet from the rain or when we shine a flashlight on them, they seem unusual, like moon rocks. The film is double run Super 8. It's the same width as 16mm film, but after development it's cut in half to make Super 8 film. It's not double 8.

Earth Stone

NR 1986
I am an otter

This year, I was asked about Toshio Yamazaki, and when I did a Google search, nothing came up. This is not good. Toshio Yamazaki has the same last name as me, but in the mid-1980s I was called "good Yamazaki" and Toshio was called "bad Yamazaki.” He suffered from schizophrenia, which caused him to become paranoid and often made aggressive phone calls. As a result, no one contacted him and he eventually died alone, but it took a long time to find him. So the manager of his apartment disposed of everything in his room and now most of his works are no longer in the world. Fortunately, this work, which was also screened at PFF, was saved on a 3/4-inch videotape from that time, and a memorial screening was held of a film that was dubbed onto DV. I will upload this material to YouTube with English subtitles. The original was supposed to be in color, but the color signal could not be restored, so it is in black and white, but black and white may be a better fit for this work. -Mikio Yamazaki

I am an otter

NR 1985
Dazzle

This puppet animation is set in a time when darkness still reigned when people were still afraid of what lay beyond the stillness of the night. In the evening, a husband leaves the house with a guilty look on his face, and his wife, feeling something, gently sends him off. The wife notices a shadow on the shoji and chases after it, but what she sees are the creatures of the underworld... The house and the townscape are so elaborate and emotional that we forget that they are models. The house and the town are so elaborate and emotionally rich that we forget that they are models, and the dolls, moving with an awkward rhythm, play out the drama of a mysterious and violent woman in a gentle manner.

Dazzle

NR 1989