Kichiemon Nakamura Movies
- 1990
Acclaimed director and headmaster of the Sogestsu school of flower arranging Hiroshi Teshigahara helms this elegant historical drama about tea master Sen no Rikyu. A Buddhist priest who talks of the beauty of a single flower or the shape of a hand holding a teacup, Rikyu (played by Rentaro Mikuni) not only perfected the art of the tea ceremony, but he was one of the primary arbiters of taste during his age. That era was a bloody one, culminating in the uniting of Japan's disparate kingdoms by a series of strong leaders. The most ambitious and the most extravagant was Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Tsutomu Yamazaki), who favored flashy displays of wealth as much as he did violent conquest. Hideyoshi thought of the tea ceremony not as an art but as a show of refinement and power. In 1587 he held a ten-day tea-drinking orgy in Kyoto and Osaka. Hideyoshi chose Rikyu to oversee it and soon the buffoonish, violent leader and the reserved master were engaged in a thinly veiled clash of wills. Rikyu eventually does teach Hideyoshi that beauty is found in the minute. Yet when Hideyoshi receives both guns and a globe from Portuguese missionaries, he is overwhelmed with Napoleonic visions. When Rikyu expresses his reservations about Hideyoshi's impending invasion of Korea and China, the potentate demands an apology. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rentaro Mikuni, Tsutomu Yamazaki, (more)
- 1978
For a brief period during the 16th century, the Portuguese and Dutch were permitted influence in Japan, with the result that a considerable number of Japanese converted to Christianity. By the late 16th century, a reaction against these outside influences was in full sway. In this story, Lady Ogin is unable to marry her lover because he has become a Christian, and Christians are being persecuted by the Shogun Hideyoshi. This tragic romance is based on a story by Toko Kon. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takashi Shimura, Ryoko Nakano, (more)
- 1970
A young boy becomes a soldier in this Japanese WW II-set drama. The story begins as the young man enters the Etajima Naval Academy. At first, the notion of fighting disinterests him, but then some of his classmates are sent to China to fight the Sino-Japanese War. He suddenly applies himself and he graduates at the head of his class. Unfortunately, his mother died while he was in school and so after graduation he visits her grave. Later he receives pilot training and is assigned the mission of aerially escorting the most famous military figure in Japan, Admiral Yamamoto. The youth loses his life in the endeavor. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
A masterpiece of Japanese New Wave cinema, renowned filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda directs this brilliant modernist reworking of a famous 1720 bunraku (puppet theater) play written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Set in Osaka in the 18th century, the film centers on the doomed romance between Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura), a down and out married paper merchant passionately in love with doe-eyed courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita), whom he cannot afford to buy out of servitude. Koharu herself has also fallen in love with Jihei; she even starts turning away other patrons to be with him. Their love is further imperiled by Tahei (Hosei Komatsu), a rich, obnoxious merchant who flaunts his ability to buy Koharu's indenture. Suicide is the only way for the two to be together. Jihei's wife Osan (also played by Iwashita) senses the couple's intent and writes Koharu a letter pleading for his life. Touched by the sincerity of the letter, Koharu feigns reservations with killing herself, prompting Jihei to tearfully renounce her. Later, as Jihei skulks about the house as his wife runs the family business, he overhears that Tahei has at last bought his former lover's contract. Knowing that Koharu would just as soon kill herself, Osan -- the ideal of the dutiful wife -- offers Jihei her kimonos to pawn to save her husband's lover. Just as everything seems to be working out for the better, Osan's misinformed father bursts in just before Jihei is about to leave. The enraged old man cannot believe that Jihei is sacrificing his family for a prostitute and drags Osan away, demanding a divorce over Osan's protestations. Later, Jihei and Koharu--together at last--steal into the night, cut their hair -- absolving them from societal obligations -- and make love all night in a graveyard before they commit double suicide. This film won the prestigious Kinema Jumpo "Number One" prize for both Best Picture and Best Actresses. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kichiemon Nakamura, Shima Iwashita, (more)
- 1968
Set in feudal Japan, this atmospheric and violent ghost story (whose title literally translates as The Black Cat in the Bush) begins with the brutal murder of two women by a band of mercenary samurai, whose leader is subsequently tracked down, seduced, and murdered by a young woman possessed by the shape-shifting specter of his victim. Called upon to avenge the warrior's death is none other than the woman's former husband, who has been ordered by his superiors to assassinate the guilty party. Plot twists abound as the older, vengeful spirit seeks to exact poetic justice despite the younger ghost's reluctance to destroy the man who once loved her. Though not on the epic level of Kwaidan or Onibaba, this adaptation of an ancient folk tale benefits from the same cultural richness, as well as a touch of social allegory. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, (more)
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