Midnight Eye. Masao Adachi.

"This year sees the long-awaited return to our screens of Masao Adachi, one of the most challenging, thought-provoking and controversial figures ever to emerge from the world of Japanese cinema. His new film Prisoner/Terrorist is his first feature in over thirty years." Jasper Sharp talks with "one of the leading figures in the underground experimental scene of the 60s" who would go on to work with Nagisa Oshima and Koji Wakamatsu.

Midnight Eye's also featuring new reviews of five films and a book:

• "Japanese cinema has no shortage of martial arts films that deal with the philosophical challenges of learning how to kill and maim," writes Tom Mes. Shunichi Nagasaki's "Black Belt follows firmly in this tradition, since it tries to give expression to the mindset behind the martial arts and explore the social ramifications of following that line of thought through."

• "Love and Honor isn't a bad film at all, but it's not nearly as good as Twilight Samurai," writes Nicholas Rucka, who also takes note of "a concerted and well orchestrated plan for hailing Yamada as a living legend; a call into the wilds of the film world that Japan still makes those classic samurai films of old and they're deserving of attention. The man who makes them is named Yoji Yamada and he should be remembered in the same breath as Akira Kurosawa or Masaki Kobayashi. The thing is, of course he's not as good - but he can't be disregarded as bad, either."

• Focusing on writer Kankuro Kudo, Tom Mes finds that Maiko Haaaan!!! "has the potential to appeal to both the otaku crowd looking to satisfy their thirst for extravagant pop cultural ephemera and those who like something with a bit more meat on the bone. As long as they don't mind their meat a very lurid shade of red."

• "The surreal ensemble comedy has become one of Japan's most endearing and original genres in recent years," writes Dean Bowman, reviewing Nobuhiro Yamashita's "deliciously absurd" Matsugane Potshot Affair.

• Sion Sono is on something of a tear all of sudden, notes Tom Mes, and "Noriko's Dinner Table surely ranks as one of the best among this recent wave. Presented as a prequel, though actually more of a wrap-around spin-off, to Suicide Club, it is going to confuse quite a few fans just for its sheer restraint. The director commands respect for making the follow-up to his satirical splatter freak-out a subdued, rhythmic, two-and-a-half hour family drama with surrealistic overtones."

And Tom Mes also reviews Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, a memoir by Kurosawa's personal assistant, Teruyo Nogami: "Her story is peppered with revealing anecdotes and entertaining asides that give rare glimpses into life on a movie set... But in addition to trivia, she also gives us invaluable first-hand accounts of the making of Rashomon, of filming in the tick-infested forests of Siberia on Dersu Uzala, and of the falling out between Kurosawa and Shintaro Katsu on Kagemusha.... For any fan of Japanese cinema, and not just those of Kurosawa, Nogami's delightful memoirs are a genuine treasure trove."

Posted by dwhudson at August 27, 2007 4:50 AM