JAPANESE FILMS

The Empire of Fantasies

In 1923, the massive earthquake hit the Kanto area. Unprecedented in modern history of Japan, with more than 100,000 causalities, the large part of metropolitan area was burnt to ground. One of the horrifying events in this catastrophe was ethnic cleansing of Koreans by Japanese survivors. Vicious rumors were spread through the frightened people in the devastated area; Koreans were poisoning drinking water, torching houses and preparing for communist revolution. Vigilantes searched for suspected “Koreans” (whoever they considered Koreans) and lynched them to death. In reality, the vicious rumors were spread by Tokyo Police Department. It may sound incredible, but …

 
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Masumura, Ichikawa and Ozu

Speed of Growth In the age of global economy, a self-proclaimed expert announces “your bond is no longer as secure as it used to be” and then whole world goes berserk. A large part of transactions of securities, stocks, bonds, foreign currencies and other monetary entities is processed by computer algorithms without human intervention, in less than a microsecond over the continents. A myriad of security firms, banks, and other companies you never knew how to pronounce their names, destroy your retirement plan in two seconds. Most of us are jittery because off-shoring project in process in the floor below …

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JAPANESE FILMS

Nobuko Rides on a Cloud

  Nobuko Rides on a Cloud (ノンちゃん雲に乗る) 1955, Shin-Toho Prod. Hisatora Kumagai, Hiroji Nakata Dir. Fumindo Kurata Writer Fumindo Kurata, Setsuko Murayama Haruko Wanibuchi, Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita Synopsis A little girl, Non-chan, is walking down the road crying hard. Her dog, Es, is following her. She finds a large tall tree with a nice branch extending out to the river. Non-chan climbs onto the branch, finds herself reflected on the water. She stops crying, and pretending to be a bird, she flaps her arms. Then … When she comes to herself, she was in the clouds. She was saved …

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