Celebrating the Life and Career of Director Nobuo Nakagawa!

Nobuo Nakagawa, as painted by Yuji Yorimoto. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Saturday, June 20, I attended a special tribute event for one of Japan's most recognized directors around the world, Nobuo Nakagawa (1905-1984). The event was held at the Laputa Asagaya, a venue at which I've seen countless movies over the years. For this Nobuo Nakagawa event, I elected to attend only the reception.

A script for The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959) on display. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Last month, I received an invitation to attend via email, and naturally I RSVPed. All I knew was that the guest of honor would be Yuji Yorimoto, who worked as an assistant director for director Nakagawa on television for series like Oniwaban (1968) and The Wandering Samurai (1973). Mr. Yorimoto, who was born in 1941, is currently a painter.

Akihide Tsuzawa. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I entered the hall as Mr. Yorimoto was finishing up his Q&A. In the audience, I thought I saw Akihide Tsuzawa, who worked with director Nakagawa as a child actor, but in the moment I couldn't be 100% sure. After the interview was over, and I was looking at some of the artwork and photos on display, Mr. Tsuzawa approached me and asked if I was me. Well, of course I'm me! Mr. Tsuzawa didn't know I had returned to Japan and was surprised to see me. He also wasn't quite sure if it was me because I've apparently lost a little weight since he last saw me. It's true; I haven't been chowing down like I used to!

With Akihide Tsuzawa. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I spent a good while chatting with Mr. Tsuzawa and even exchanged phone numbers and messaging-app info with him until he was called upon to give a kampai speech in honor of director Nakagawa. I caught up with Mr. Tsuzawa toward the end of the reception and continued our conversation.

Shinkichi Nakagawa. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I also greeted the son of director Nakagawa, Shinkichi Nakagawa, who greeted me and thanked me for coming back to the event. If I recall correctly, I only saw Mr. Nakagawa in passing at the last one I attended, so it'd been a few years since we actually spoke to one another.

With Shinkichi Nakagawa. Photo by Brett Homenick.

One semi-amusing anecdote was, when I went to say my farewells to Mr. Nakagawa, a staff member was introducing a young man to Mr. Nakagawa, pointing out that he was 19 years old. So I joked that I was also just 19 years old, to which Mr. Nakagawa replied something like, "And then some!" Really glad I got a chance to see Mr. Nakagawa again.

Tomoo Haraguchi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

At these particular events, it's rare to see a figure from the film world in attendance who didn't have some direct connection with director Nakagawa, so I was surprised when I spied Tomoo Haraguchi in the audience.

With Tomoo Haraguchi.

It was doubly surprising because Mr. Haraguchi is a pretty rare guest at recent kaiju-related events, so it was great to speak with him and to get his business card. 

Masahisa Sakashita with Mr. Yorimoto. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Right before I left, I wanted to greet Masahisa Sakashita, whom I've met at each Nobuo Nakagawa event I've attended. While he worked his way up through Nikkatsu Studios during the 1970s, more recently he has worked as a freelance television director.

With Masahisa Sakashita. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Mr. Sakashita asked me what Nikkatsu movies I liked since that was his studio. I named Gappa (1967) and the movies of director Seijun Suzuki and actress Masako Izumi. I think he was a bit surprised that I actually knew some names!

With Mr. Yorimoto.

And that's a wrap! It was raining cats and dogs when I attended, but the fun I had and connections I made during the event certainly made the trek well worth it. 

No.

Brought to you by the "Oscar-winning team behind Godzilla Minus One," or whatever.

No. Nope. Sorry. Not even out of the gate. Uh-uh. No way. Not a chance in a million. Nothing doing. Absolutely not. Aw, hell nah. Shuffle all the way off to Buffalo with that.

Much like cow dung on the farm, the trailer for the Netflix adaptation of The Human Vapor (1960) just "dropped," and it's just as bad as I was expecting. I gave up on it completely upon seeing the image above. Thanks but no thanks -- waste somebody else's time, who will no doubt give it seven stars and three thumbs up on his personal Letterboxd account. "The greatest Japanese film since either Rental Family or Bullet Train Explosion! (I haven't seen Exit 8 yet.)"

I can't imagine why this thing would appeal to anybody who admires the original film or even any pre-Shin Godzilla (2016) tokusatsu work, but I can't imagine a lot of things that nonetheless exist. I mean, I don't know why someone's interest in Japanese SFX would start with Heisei-era Ultraman shows and pretty much ignore everything that came before them, so I'm bemused by how many such people are active on Twitter.

Great idea!

Even Godzilla (1954), formerly the undisputed sacred cow of fandom if there ever was one, is no longer secure in its position of "You don't understand cinema if you don't automatically rank it number one." Once slapped onto every top 10 list in the number-one position by rote, now it's more and more often supplanted by the overhyped, overpraised, and overdiscussed CG cartoons of the last 10 years. (Recency bias? What dat?)

We sure are in a brave new world of discourse if the year 1954 doesn't elicit the reflexive oohs and aahs of yore from the online purveyors of Martin Scorsese memes. Get with the times, yo! How can anything Ishiro Honda ever committed to celluloid compete with a truly C I N E M A T I C lecture on Freon gas? Do I need to show you a picture of David Lynch talking into a microphone in order for you to get it? How can you even think to question me when it says "film critic" right there in my Twitter bio?

There are folks who I assume are sincere when they say they like the Attack on Titan movies, so I'm sure the latest toku offering from the streaming platform that gave us Godzilla Singular Point and Ultraman Rising will see its defenders, too. (In fairness, those two projects do share a voice actor in common who gave us the single greatest line in film history, per Roger Ebert.) I mean, yeah, it may not be worth a whole lot, but I guess it's something.

I'm doing my part!

Suffice it to say, I'll be happily skipping this one, even as it earns an 11/10 on Letterboxd by our intellectual superiors, who continue to be shocked and amazed at how emotional Brendan Fraser was in Rental Family or spout goony nonsense like, "This is the greatest video game adaptation ever!"

Though, in fairness, Street Fighter (1994) is pretty fun.