Four old Japanese movies I like

I've been watching some old Japanese movies recently and find their perspective very different from modern movies.



Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) - 1948
First up is an early Akira Kurosawa movie showing the chaos and struggle of post war Japan. The usual suspects of Kurosawa movies, Shimura Takashi and Mifune Toshiro are here doing their usual excellent acting, this time as unsympathetic antiheroes in an unpleasant and degraded Tokyo.



Sugata Sanshiro - 1943
Kurosawa's first movie, it's based on a best selling novel dramatizing the exploits of a famous Judoka in the 1880's. The cinematography is really beautiful in the restored version and the sense of a self contained culture with its own vision of beauty and order is very striking.

The pivotal 1886 match between Kodokan Judo and jujutsu schools which established Judo as a superior method of self defense is shown as a key phase in Sanshiro's development.

Thematically the movie shows Sanshiro's evolving faith in his teacher and his art of Kodokan Judo as a Way that connects nature and all human activity.



The 47 Ronin (Genroku Chushingura) - 1941
This movie takes a lyrical and measured pace through the story with a Noh flavor imbuing the scenes. From the opening tableau in the Shogun's palace to a beautiful scene of Oishi Kuranosuke's wife and daughter leaving their home, the movie takes a very personal and visual approach to the story.

Some people seem to prefer the 1963 Hiroshi Inagaki version, though for me the wartime perspective in this movie about what constitutes the Japanese ideal makes this film more interesting.



Dragon Painter - 1919
My last choice is a silent movie based on a book by Mary McNeil Fenollosa, wife of Ernest Fenollosa, the subject of a previous post. The restored French print is very nice and shows off the magical and artistic ambiance of the story.

Though the movie was made in California with Yosemite standing in for rural Japan, the story is about artists and the artistic tradition in Japan.

This film was made by Sessue Hayakawa who most people know from the "Bridge on the River Kwai" as the Japanese officer. Surprisingly, Hayakawa was a major star of the silent film era and acted in over 50 movies by 1920.