Japanese cinema in glorious color ~1955-1969
by zelena33 | created - 15 Aug 2014 | updated - 13 Nov 2015 | PublicAlthough there is a lot of 8mm or 16mm color footage out there of Japan in the postwar years, there are precious few works of cinema shot on the highest quality 35mm, never mind 70mm cinemascope. Films with really great cinematography set in contemporary Japan at that time contain a historical treasure of visual information, not to mention pure aesthetic delight. The good stuff from this group shows a Japan that was going through rapid change, of which very little remains; Japanese society is very quick to literally tear down (or throw away) old infrastructure and consumer goods, the physical artifacts of daily life.
This list contains some films that show Japan in its full 1960s glory of motorbikes, apartment blocks, wallpaper, rotary telephones, short-sleeve dress shirts, transistor radios, and summer dresses.
Will be posting more as I see them, suggestions very welcome.
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1. An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama
An aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada, Mariko Okada
Votes: 10,712
2. Floating Weeds (1959)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama
The head of a Japanese theatre troupe returns to a small coastal town where he left a son who thinks he is his uncle, and tries to make up for the lost time, but his current mistress grows jealous.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Ganjirô Nakamura, Machiko Kyô, Haruko Sugimura, Ayako Wakao
Votes: 8,981
3. Scattered Clouds (1967)
108 min | Drama, Romance
A man falls in love with the widow of a man he killed in a car accident. Eventually she falls in love with him in return.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Yûzô Kayama, Yôko Tsukasa, Mitsuko Kusabue, Mitsuko Mori
Votes: 1,341
4. Gate of Flesh (1964)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
An injured thief on the run finds sanctuary within a brothel of united, ruthless women.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Jô Shishido, Kôji Wada, Yumiko Nogawa, Tomiko Ishii
Votes: 3,377
5. Cruel Story of Youth (1960)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Drama
A harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class men.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Miyuki Kuwano, Yûsuke Kawazu, Yoshiko Kuga, Fumio Watanabe
Votes: 2,535
6. Late Autumn (1960)
Not Rated | 128 min | Comedy, Drama
A widow tries to marry off her daughter with the help of her late husband's three friends.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada, Keiji Sada
Votes: 6,179
7. Good Morning (1959)
Not Rated | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Two boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishû Ryû, Kuniko Miyake
Votes: 11,054
8. The End of Summer (1961)
103 min | Drama
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Ganjirô Nakamura, Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Michiyo Aratama
Votes: 4,505
9. Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
Not Rated | 170 min | Documentary, Sport
Kon Ichikawa examines the beauty and rich drama on display at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, creating a record of observations that range from the expansive to the intimate.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Antonio Ambu, Gary Anderson, Gerry Ashworth, Polina Astakhova
Votes: 2,205
10. Equinox Flower (1958)
118 min | Comedy, Drama
A businessman clashes with his elder daughter over her choice of a husband.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima, Yoshiko Kuga
Votes: 4,858
11. Dodes'ka-den (1970)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama
Various tales in the lives of Tokyo slum dwellers, including a mentally deficient young man obsessed with driving his own commuter trolley.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura, Shinsuke Minami
Votes: 7,626
12. The Sinners of Hell (1960)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.
Director: Nobuo Nakagawa | Stars: Shigeru Amachi, Utako Mitsuya, Yôichi Numata, Hiroshi Hayashi
Votes: 4,575
13. Kyojin to gangu (1958)
95 min | Comedy, Drama
In the middle of a fierce commercial competition between three caramel companies, an executive builds up a ditsy teenage girl as a mascot while simultaneously trying to uncover the rival companies' plans.
Director: Yasuzô Masumura | Stars: Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hitomi Nozoe, Hideo Takamatsu, Michiko Ono
Votes: 1,239
14. Youth of the Beast (1963)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
A violent thug plays opposing yakuza bosses against each other.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Jô Shishido, Misako Watanabe, Tamio Kawaji, Minako Katsuki
Votes: 3,918
15. Summer Clouds (1958)
128 min | Drama
A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his ... See full synopsis »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Chikage Awashima, Michiyo Aratama, Kumi Mizuno, Yôko Tsukasa
Votes: 382
16. The Lovelorn Geisha (1960)
111 min | Drama
Aya is the Madame who runs a restaurant where Geishas meet with their customers to eat, drink, listen to music and sing.
Directors: Yûzô Kawashima, Mikio Naruse | Stars: Yôko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Akira Takarada, Tatsuya Mihashi
Votes: 156
17. A Whistle in My Heart (1959)
126 min | Drama
In the outskirts of a city in Hokkaido, an indigenous Ainu family faces discrimination from their Japanese neighbors, as well as various inter-family problems.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Ken Yamauchi, Yoshiko Kôda, Masayuki Mori, Akira Takarada
Votes: 107
18. Daughters, Wives and a Mother (1960)
123 min | Drama
The story of a family in Tokyo who live under the same roof in a large house and include the widowed sixty-year-old mother, older son and his wife, the youngest daughter and the older ... See full summary »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Hideko Takamine, Reiko Dan
Votes: 418
19. The Approach of Autumn (1960)
79 min | Drama
Single mum (father of child dead) from the country with 6th grade boy comes to Tokyo, leaves the boy to live with his uncle's family - wife, male, female teens, run a struggling greengrocer... See full synopsis »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Nobuko Otowa, Jun Fujimaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Yôsuke Natsuki
Votes: 358
20. Swastika (1964)
91 min | Drama, Romance
A childless housewife falls in love with a beautiful model.
Director: Yasuzô Masumura | Stars: Ayako Wakao, Kyôko Kishida, Eiji Funakoshi, Yûsuke Kawazu
Votes: 1,123
21. The Sun's Burial (1960)
87 min | Crime, Drama
In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Kayoko Honoo, Kôji Nakahara, Masahiko Tsugawa, Fumio Watanabe
Votes: 1,005
22. Odd Obsession (1959)
107 min | Comedy, Drama
A man getting on in years sets out to find a way to resurrect his flagging virility.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Ganjirô Nakamura, Junko Kanô, Tatsuya Nakadai
Votes: 1,003
23. Carmen Comes Home (1951)
86 min | Comedy
A girl who had left her home village for life in Tokyo returns to her home years later, and evokes a scandal when the locals discover that she's a stripper.
Director: Keisuke Kinoshita | Stars: Hideko Takamine, Shûji Sano, Chishû Ryû, Kuniko Igawa
Votes: 701
24. The Man Without a Map (1968)
118 min | Mystery
A private detective is hired to find a missing man by his wife. Contradictory evidence and the lack of clues soon render the case as virtually unsolvable, as the detective grows more and more frustrated.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Shintarô Katsu, Etsuko Ichihara, Osamu Ôkawa, Kiyoshi Atsumi
Votes: 609
25. Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp (1969)
91 min | Drama, Comedy, Romance
Tora-San, an itinerant peddler who is thrown out of his father's house twenty years before but reconnects with his aunt, uncle and sister Sakura. Tora wreaks some havoc in their lives, like getting drunk and silly at a marriage meeting.
Director: Yôji Yamada | Stars: Kiyoshi Atsumi, Chieko Baishô, Sachiko Mitsumoto, Chishû Ryû
Votes: 572
26. Love for an Idiot (1967)
93 min | Comedy, Drama
A 31-year-old man is manipulated by a much younger woman.
Director: Yasuzô Masumura | Stars: Michiyo Yasuda, Shôichi Ozawa, Masakazu Tamura, Isao Kuraishi
Votes: 217
27. House of Bamboo (1955)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Planted in a Tokyo crime syndicate, a U.S. Army Investigator attempts to probe the coinciding death of a fellow Army official.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 4,096
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