Kenjiro Uemura Movies
- 1960
The second of Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy was titled The Road to Eternity (originally Zoku Ningen No Joken). Picking up where 1958's No Greater Love left off, this 1961 film finds the gentle, pacifistic Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) being sent to basic training camp in Manchuria in the waning days of World War II. Kaji struggles bravely to stick to his non-aggressive principals, only to be beaten and tortured for his troubles. Pushed to the edge, Kaji ends up killing a fellow soldier in the heat of battle. The film concludes with the surrender of Japan, but the story is open-ended enough to allow for a sequel: 1970's A Soldier's Prayer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, (more)
- 1953
Originally released as Jigokumen, Gate of Hell was one of the most popular Japanese imports of the 1954-55 American film season. Set in 12th-century feudal Japan, the film stars Kazuo Hasegawa as Moritoh, a samurai whose courage in defending his ruler is to be rewarded with anything he desires. He desires the beautiful, aristocratic Lady Kesa Machiko Kyo who happens to be already married to another samurai, Wataru (Isao Yamagata). Moritoh attempts to persuade Kesa to leave her husband but her devotion is unshakeable. The winner of two Academy Awards and a Cannes grand prize, Gate of Hell is perhaps the most dazzling example of Japanese color photography of the 1950s. The film was based on a well-known play by Kan Kikuchi. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Machiko Kyo, Kazuo Hasegawa, (more)
A dedicated army surgeon finds his once-bright future suddenly obscured when he contracts syphilis while performing a life-saving operation in this early collaboration between director Akira Kurosawa and Toshirô Mifune. Contaminated with a disease that was virtually incurable in 1940s Japan, Fujisaki returns home from the war to work presided over by his obstetrician father (Takashi Shimura). As Fujisaki furtively agonizes over the havoc that the disease will wreck on his upcoming marriage, his noble attempts to save the lives of his many patients masks a silent desperation that will likely remain with him to his final hour. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, (more)
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