Fujio Tokita Movies

Decades after burying the final reel of a silent melodrama detailing the ill-fated romance between a pretty flower seller (Kikuyo Takahashi) and a kindly violinist (Shojiro Kataoka), a former studio errand boy attempts to make amends with the past by connecting with his granddaughter and unearthing the film in writer/director Takushi Tsubokawa's nostalgic labor of love. Years after the death of her father, Nami (Takahashi in a duel role) and her mother (Hideko Yoshida) remain locked in a melancholy state of perpetual mourning. As a child Nami's grandfather ran errands for a big movie studio. Spellbound by the romance that unfolded in the film that was then in production but devastated by the downbeat ending, the young assistant absconded with the final reel and hid it in the one place that nobody would ever suspect. Now and old man who has come to live with his grieving daughter and reluctant granddaughter, the former errand boy realizes just how much damage can be done when one refuses to acknowledge the wrongs of the past. Shot over the course of eleven years, Clouds of Yesterday accurately recreates the look and feel of a silent film during the scenes in the present while presenting the flashbacks to the past in vivid color. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Princess From the Moon (Taketori Monogatari) is based on an ancient Japanese legend. Toshiro Mifune plays a 9th century bamboo cutter who comes across a curious glass capsule, housing a tiny baby girl who holds a crystal ball in her hand. Once released, the infant instantly becomes a five-year-old; the astonished Mifune, whose own child has recently died, decides to adopt the girl. It isn't very long before the child becomes a beautiful adult (Yasuko Sawaguchi), whose blue eyes--a decided rarity in Japan--attract every man within hailing distance. Mifune hopes to hide his daughter away from predatory males, but the girl is constantly courted by eligible bachelors. By and by, the crystal ball begins to emit a strange sound, alerting the girl that she must return to the Moon, whence she came and where she will reign as princess. See Princess From the Moon only if you have an open mind and open heart. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the 1930s, a schoolteacher named Gakuen (Tsutomo Yamazaki), while searching for his missing friend Akira (Go Kato), comes upon a mysterious, drought-stricken village beside a pond. After asking for food from a beautiful young woman named Yuri (played by the noted onnagata performer Tamasaburo Bando), Gakuen discovers that she is married to Akira, who is also the keeper of the village bell. Unless it is struck three times a day, a spirit that dwells in the pond, the Dragon Princess (also played by Bando), will flood the town and kill all its inhabitants. When the Dragon Princess receives an offer of marriage from a prince, she offers to leave the pond in exchange for a human sacrifice, and Yuri is chosen as the victim. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi