Bunta Sugawara Movies

Animator Goro Miyazaki, son of the famous Hayao Miyazaki ("The Walt Disney of Japan"), makes his directorial debut with the animated feature Tales from Earthsea (aka Gedo Senki). Miyazaki loosely adapted the work from the third and fourth volumes in best-selling sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin's infamous series of cult novels -- all set in Earthsea, a Tolkien-esque fantasy realm. Gedo Senki opens at a point when Earthsea is deteriorating rapidly, and the power of magic is waning -- tendencies signaled by the sudden, frightening reappearance of dragons in the land of humankind. Ged Sparrowhawk was once a lowly goat herder but is now known as Lord Archmage, the most powerful of all wizards. He soon meets Prince Arren of Enlad -- a teenage boy chased by a "shadow," the force that is tipping the world out of balance and driving innumerable people to the point of insanity.

The men team up and journey to Hort Town, the Earthsea capital city, where they find the entire community turned upside down -- craftsmen have abandoned their trades, slavery runs rampant, addicts clamor in the streets. They ultimately find refuge in the priestess Tenar's palace, also occupied by the scarred orphan girl Therru. While the latter initially avoids Arren in fear of his "dark side," Arren bides his time in the nearby fields, being mentored by Ged on the balance of creation. Therru eventually opens up to Arren, but he grows increasingly disturbed by nightmares about being chased by the shadow, and his daytime fear of it grows absolutely overwhelming. Ged then discovers that the cause of the kingdom-wide "imbalance" is actually his old arch nemesis, the wizard Cob, who has opened up the gateway between the living and the dead, and hopes to attain eternal life, meanwhile plotting to murder Ged in vengeance for an act he committed long ago.

In fear of his evil self, Arren absconds from Tenar's palace -- actively fleeing from the shadow -- but ultimately faints and turns up at the castle of Cob. The latter's minions give their guest "hazia," which causes him to lose his bearings and tell Cob his real name. Arren thus becomes enslaved to the wizard. Meanwhile, Ged and Therru turn up, and bring Arren back to full awareness. With their assistance, he is able to surmount the temptation of eternal life; he then does an about face, and, with the assistance of an enchanted sword, prepares to do battle with Cob. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Yoichi Higashi's Watashi No Gurampa (My Granpa) concerns the relationship between ex-convict Kenzo (Bunta Sugawara) and his 14-year-old granddaughter Tamako (Satomi Ishihara). Kenzo was behind bars for killing a gangster. Upon his release, he goes to live with his son (Mitsuru Hirata), whose marriage is on the rocks. Already a loner, Tamako is ostracized further when it is discovered that her grandfather is a murderer. Kenzo soon helps defend Tamako from bullies at school. When Tamako stands up for herself, she comes to believe that she has inherited some of her grandfather's great strength. Eventually, an associate of the man Kenzo killed comes looking for revenge, along with the dead man's son. My Granpa was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

As the Japanese studios were declining in 1969, four legendary directors from that country's "golden age" of cinema -- Kon Ichikawa, Masaki Kobayashi, Keisuke Kinoshita, and of course Akira Kurosawa -- banded together to start their own production company. The financial and critical failure of the studio's first feature, Kurosawa's Dodes'ka-Den (1970), scrubbed all subsequent projects. One of the shelved works was this film, which was adapted by the quartet from Shugoro Yamamoto's "Diary of Town Magistrate" and was originally going to be directed by all four masters. With the passing of Kurosawa and Kinoshita in 1998, directing duties of this almost forgotten script fell to the group's sole survivor: 85-year-old Ichikawa. The film centers on Koheita Mochizuki (played by charismatic leading man Koji Yakusho), a samurai selected by the regional lord to be the magistrate of the particularly lawless district of Horisoto, a place where three such officers disappeared. This appointment arouses more than a little curiosity from the locals; Mochizuki's reputation for liquor and general licentiousness has earned him the nickname Dora-Heita, or "alley cat" (meaning "playboy"). In fact, Mochizuki has carefully cultivated his debauched persona, as he quietly tells his friend Senba (Ryudo Uzaki), who works as district administrator. He exhorts his pal to keep the rumors circulating. When the venerable district council -- who is aghast at Mochizuki's slatternly appearance -- almost votes to remove him, Dora-Heita reveals the lord's signed letter of endorsement giving him absolute authority. His first task is to clean out three powerful gangs who control Horisoto, keeping it awash in prostitution, extortion, gambling, and murder. Though samurais are forbidden to sullen themselves with such riff-raff, he boldly ventures into the prohibited brothel quarters and plays up his libertine persona in order to suss out the real criminals. In the process, he profoundly offends a band of right-thinking young samurais who soon plot to assassinate the heretical Dora-Heita. With almost everyone in the area out to get him, Mochizuki's life is further complicated by the appearance of geisha and former mistress Kosei (Yuko Asano), who demands that he take her back. Told with a sly sense of humor that was common to all four directors, this film is directed with a muscular dynamism that recalls the best of the samurai movies of old, such as Yojimbo (1961) and Harakiri (1963). Dora-Heita was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The Japanese actress and film director Kinuyo Tanaka had a career as significant to that country's movie industry as Lillian Gish's was in the U.S. -- it spanned the early days of silent movies and continued well into the 1970s. This biographical drama covers her career up to the point when she is working on The Life of Oharu (1952) with director Kenji Mizoguchi. In addition to reviewing the great actress's professional life, the movie provides a brief tutorial in the history of Japanese cinema. In real life, she continued to be a potent presence both in front of and behind the camera until her death in 1977, winning an award at the Berlin Film Festival for her acting work in Sandakan 8 ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Burmese Harp (Biruma No Tategoto) is Japanese director Kon Ichikawa's color remake of his own classic 1956 film of the same name (aka Harp of Burma), retelling the story of a Japanese soldier whose horrible experiences in Burma during World War II pave the way to his becoming a monk. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this gangster film, the Japanese mafia (yakuza) are shown to be "dark suits," or corporation men, not substantially different from their legitimate cousins in the business world. Most of their time is spent going from one interminable business meeting to another, but occasionally they are forced to deal with a situation by committing extremely public murders. The cast list includes the world-renowned actor Toshiro Mifune, and locally famous Kyoko Kishida. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Japanese cult film still finds its way onto TV from time to time. The film's titular hero, one of the best assassins in Tokyo, finds that a contract has been taken on his own life -- and he must outwit the bad guys to survive. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

A long-standing gang war on the streets of Hiroshima escalates despite police pressure in this, the fourth film in Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series. It's 1964, and with the Tokyo Olympics turning the eyes of the world to Japan, lawmen have set out to keep the Yakuza -- Japan's organized crime system -- out of sight. While dozens of low-level mobsters are thrown into jail, crime lord Takeda (Akira Kobayashi) attempts to keep the peace for the best of all parties on the wrong side of the law. But when a high-ranking Yakuza figure is killed by a low-level "mechanic" in a moment of anger, an explosion seems imminent. Meanwhile, gangster Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) sees an opportunity to use the chaos to settle a score against a mobster who had done him wrong years before. Jingi Naki Tatakai: Chojo Sakusen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4: Police Tactics would be followed in 1975 by Jingi Naki Tatakai: Kanketsu-Hen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 5: Final Episode), the last film in the series. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Kinji Fukasaku's violent chronicle of mob warfare in post-war Hiroshima continues with this, the third film in the Yakuza Papers series. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) struggles to remain independent and neutral in the midst of an ongoing battle between two mob families, but his drams of brokering a balance between them are dashed when a crime syndicate from Kobe enters the picture. Meanwhile, the man who is to one day lead the Muraoka family is killed, leading to a fierce and bloody battle for control dominated by the opportunistic Uchimoto (Takeshi Kato). Jingi Naki Tatakai: Dairi Senso (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 3: Proxy War) was followed in 1974 by Jingi Naki Tatakai: Chojo Sakusen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4: Police Tactics). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Kinji Fukasaku directed this powerful and uncompromising look at the deadly stakes of life among the Yakuza -- the Japanese Mafia. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) is a former Japanese soldier who, following his nation's defeat in World War II, finds himself in a prison cell in Hiroshima on a murder charge. While behind bars, Hirono gains a loyal friend in fellow criminal Wagasugi (Tatsuo Umemiya), and upon his release Hirono joins Wagasugi in an underworld gang. What starts as a seemingly easy way to earn some quick money becomes something darker and bloodier as Wagasugi and his comrades fall into a violent street war against another mob faction that grows into a long-standing feud. Jingi Naki Tatakai (aka The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity) was the first in a series of five successful crime films from Fukasaku. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi