From the Vault: November '21 Streaming
An Intro to Japanese Cinema, Sam Neill, Texas on Film, and Noirvember
November 4, 2021
Welcome to November! And November streaming.
I can't speak for anyone else, but this October was crazy...Spooky Season is no joke! This month's streaming is relatively light by comparison, but there's plenty in the archives to get you through the long holiday weekend when you're not outside touching grass (I just learned about the dreaded "Witch of November" and "witch storms," very cool). I had so much fun with last month's programming that films from those programs inspired pretty much all of this month's themes. We've got retrospectives on two very different parts of the world, both known for their cultivation of rice (one taught the other), as well as an underrated leading man to get us through the rest of fall. And if you thought I forgot about Noirvember...ok well, I did initially forget about Noirvember. But she's here as well!
"A" is for Anno, B is for "Beat" Takeshi, C is for A Colt is My Passport: An Intro to Japanese Cinema
After watching so many wonderful Japanese films this spooky season, I've been inspired to finally launch a proper Japanese Cinema retrospective, which has been percolating on the backburner for a while now. Japan has one of the oldest film industries in the world and has certainly proved one of the most influential, inspiring Eastern and Western filmmakers across all genres with some of the greatest accomplishments of the medium: Tokyo Story, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Godzilla, Battles Without Honor or Integrity, In the Realm of the Senses, Branded to Kill, Cure, Audition, House, Lady Snowblood, Funeral Parade of Roses, Ran... it's impossible to overstate the impact such films have had in driving international trends in visual storytelling. The history of Japanese film extends past the invention of film cameras in the 19th century to the popular tradition of the magic lantern, thought to have been brought to Japan in the 18th century. Japan was one of the first countries to begin making films upon the invention of film cameras, leading to a strong silent film tradition that lasted until the 1930s, though unfortunately a good deal of films from that era are now thought to be lost. (A fascinating peculiarity of this era were keikō-eiga, or "tendency films," which showcased a strong anarchist and radical tradition, which were silenced by government censorship in the 1930s). Groundbreaking filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, and Kenji Mizuguichi began their careers in the classic cinema era, only to find tremendous success after the war, when new creative freedoms allowed them to look to the past and future to reconcile Japanese national identity in the face of jingoism and subsequent defeat and occupation. No other country has perfected the art of self-reflection quite like Japanese cinema, where jidaigeki (or period dramas, under which samurai films are the most popular subset) excavate historical events, people, and traditions to interrogate their distance, resonance, and incongruity with contemporary moments. After the war and occupation, gendai-geki, or contemporary dramas, became essential documents of how the encroaching influence of the West -- and American domination -- irrevocably changed Japanese culture, just as kaiju films explored the devastating impact of atomic weaponry on the psyche of the Japanese people. Inspired by international cinema movements, the post-War Japanese New Wave (Nūberu bāgu) saw the arrival of visionary directors like Nagisa Ōshima, Seijun Suzuki, Masahiro Shinoda, and Masaki Kobayashi, whose films inspired generations of countercultural and independent filmmakers and pushed the limits of what film could be, resurrecting the radical leftist tradition of the pre-War tendency films. And then there's animation. Originating in 1917, commercial Japanese animation came to dominate and define the medium after its explosion in the post-War period. Anime films like Akira, Paprika, Ghost in the Shell, End of Evangelion, and the entire Studio Ghibli creative output have not only set trends in animated storytelling but also influenced Western directors working in live action like The Wachowskis, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, James Cameron, and so many more. This is to say nothing of the numerous microgenres that the country has perfected: the yakuza film, martial arts cinema, J-Horror, and post-War/youth in revolt taiyozoku films. Although nowhere near exhaustive, this program is intended as an entrypoint into the diverse films this groundbreaking industry has given us over the last 100+ years.
"I'm serviceable. I'm durable. I get the job done," The Strange Career of Sam Neill
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