From witty, loose-limbed swordplay films to taut melodramas teeming with social detail; from a wildly stylized fable to a modernist detective story, the midcentury films of Tomu Uchida sample nearly every genre and pleasure that Japanese cinema can offer, and do so "with a vitality and a love of cinema we search for in vain in the films of today" (Max Tessier). Discover these recently rescued films along with us!
Read full descriptionA murderer finds that secrets are never hidden forever in Uchida's spectacular 'Scope film noir, one of the best Japanese crime films ever. "The director's masterpiece without doubt."-Positif
A disillusioned samurai retreats into simple pleasures, but cannot escape his warrior destiny, in "perhaps Uchida's strongest critique of samurai codes."-James Quandt
Uchida's masterful 'Scope epic, shot in the mountains of Hokkaido, about the reclusive Ainu people. "An undeniably exhilarating visual experience."-Midnight Eye
Life and love in a Japanese dive bar. "Exuberant and inventive . . . A remarkably warm-hearted and accessible evocation of the postwar period."-Midnight Eye
Introduced by Sharon Hayashi. Judith Rosenberg on Piano. A rookie policeman suspects his old friend of a crime in this high-energy, visually inventive silent crime saga. With short History of Crab Temple.
Japanese folk tales meet Kabuki theater meet crazed cinematic excess in Uchida's story of a fortune teller and his lover, a fox spirit. A film of "wild and fabulous artifice."-Alexander Jacoby
A love affair between a courtesan and a gentleman turns tragic in this classic Kabuki tale, brought to life in Uchida's gorgeously stylized adaptation. "An absolutely beautiful piece of cinema."-Midnight Eye
Uchida's samurai "road movie" provides key insights into Japan's postwar populist and pacifist tendencies. "Both progressive and nostalgic, humanistic and nationalistic, peaceful and violent."-Craig Watts
A disfigured merchant finds love with a prostitute in Edo's infamous red light district. "Enthralling . . . the finale is a real jawdropper."-Midnight Eye