5 Lost Films by 5 Masters of Japanese Cinema

Here is the list of lost films by 5 Japanese masters: Shozo Makino, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Sadao Yamanaka and Akira Kurosawa. I guess you may pick other films, but I will state my case.     Goban Tadanobu, Genji no Ishizue (碁盤忠信 源氏礎, 1909) Directed by Shozo Makino Produced by Yokota Shokai Starring Matsugoro Ono-e Though this is not a first dramatic cinema in the Japanese history, this is definitely the most important work during the early period of Japanese cinema. It is the first film to star the Star of Japanese Cinema, Matsunosuke Ono-e, and kicked off the life …

Love, Be With Humanity (1931)

Experience in a movie theater is not about the movie itself sometimes. It is about sharing time and space with total strangers. Most of the time, you don’t know who this person is sitting in the next seat. Sometimes it’s a guy munching on popcorn, sputtering the salver-coated debris whenever he finds something funny on the screen. Sometimes it’s an old fat lady who wiggles in the seat uncomfortably whenever a sexually-explicit scene comes up. Of course, there is always a soul who just snores through whole 2 hours of matinée. But somehow we share the time and space, – …

The Trio’s Engagements (1937)

Star system is always the central piece of movie industry. A big star muttering horrible lines in an awful script is still better than unknown actors playing the performance of the decade in an excellent indie movie. At least in box office terms. When you need a boost in numbers, you are better off with two stars instead of one. Let’s make it three, then you have a sure hit.