Hosei Komatsu Movies

Veteran filmmaker Juzo Itami spins this biting satire cum do-it-yourself video about the do's and don'ts of dealing with yakuza extortion techniques. The film centers on the posh Europa Hotel that lost a big conference bid to its rival; the reason was because gangsters were openly conducting business and harassing customers in the lobby. The hotel manager (Akira Takarada) drafts bellboy Wakasugi (Masahiro Murata) and pudgy middle manager Suzuki (Yasuo Daichi) into the heretofore non-existent yakuza task force. These two nice guys have no clue how to handle their sneering, loudly dressed adversaries. Paying them off only results in them demanding more money, and talking to them results only in a hail of insults. Enter Mahiru Inouye (Itami's wife Nobuko Miyamoto) -- a gutsy lawyer who is intimately familiar with Japan's newly installed anti-racketeering laws. Bribery, she tells the pair, won't stop their problem -- recording equipment, surveillance cameras, and a little backbone will. When asked if the yakuza might whack them for their defiance, Inouye laughs it off, arguing they won't risk jail killing a non-yakuza. In spite of their abusive language and menacing leers, they are first and foremost businessmen. This film proved to be so accurate about how to thwart mob shakedowns and so unflattering to the yakuza (who are used to being portrayed as latter-day samurai), that days after this film was released, Itami found himself on the receiving end of a gangland knife attack. The pugnacious director wore the resulting scars on his face as badges of honor. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation, such as scholars and noblemen. In this historical and biographical drama, this is the situation that the young Shinran (1173-1263) discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time. There was nothing out there for the common man, and the common man was desperately in need of hope and succor. Out of his experiences, the compassionate priest came to understand that "self-power" forms of practice were not especially helpful, and his teachings emphasized "other-power," the compassionate intervention of the Buddha Amida (Amitabha), which followers could receive by reciting an homage to him (Namo Amida Butsu). This alone would ensure the devotee's rebirth in Amida's Pure Land (a kind of heaven) and many blessings in this life. Hence, the school of Buddhism he founded came to be known as "Pure Land" or Shin Buddhism, and along with its many offshoots it became (as intended) the most popular and widespread form of Buddhist practice in Japan and continues in that role today. As for this complex movie, though lavishly produced, it was reportedly quite confusing to less well-informed (usually non-Japanese) audiences and failed to involve those for whom these religious controversies were not particularly compelling. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s the rough-hewn blind shamisien player and folk-song collector named Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a peasant on a remote and arid island. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This sad tale, based on a true story of a Japanese-born Korean student who raped and killed two girls in 1958 and was then hanged in 1963 when he reached maturity, is turned by director Nagisa Oshima into a black farce reminiscent of the darkly satirical, anti-authoritarian films of Luis Buñuel. The film opens with the hanging of the criminal, but the noose fails to kill him. Instead he gets amnesia, and the executioners and officials reenact the crime, hoping to jog his memory and prove that he is guilty. Soon they begin to identify with their roles, and the line blurs between the crime and its reenactment. The film ends as a bitter indictment of Japanese nationalism, capital punishment, and Japanese institutional prejudice against Koreans. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The unstable social milieu of postwar Japan is brought into play in Violence at Noon. Two young women, whose lives are far from blissful, are raped by an equally disenfranchised assailant. Director Nagisa Oshima seems to argue that it is the horrid living conditions endured by the rapist and his victims, rather than the rape itself, that should be condemned. Oshima sustains audience interest with his lightning-paced editing, offering some 2000 separate shots in the space of 90 minutes. Violence at Noon begins simply, but ends in so complex a fashion that more questions are raised than can ever possibly be answered. The film's original Japanese title was Hakuchu no Torima. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The epidemic of juvenile delinquency in the mean streets of a Tokyo slum is depicted in this sordid story of sex and violence. The group is dwindled by suicide, murder, gang warfare and accidents as they engage in arson and gunplay. Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, the members of the gang head down the dead-end street to oblivion, despair and certain death. The film attempts at the beginning to give some semblance of a stance on morality before the depraved characters begin the inevitable downward spiral. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi