ANOTHER NIGHT AT THE FLICKS! Seeing Toho and Shochiku Classics!

Poster art promoting the "Into Nightmares" program at the Laputa Asagaya. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Tonight, I returned to the Laputa Asagaya for another fun evening of flicks. Tonight's double featured started with the Toho drama One's Longing (1961), directed by Seiji Maruyama. After that, the horror classic Goke Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) was screened. It should probably go without saying that it was a superb double feature.

My tickets for the evening! Photo by Brett Homenick. 

One's Longing was of particular interest to me due to the fact that it stars Yumi Shirakawa, my favorite actress. For most Japanese movie buffs, however, it's more notable for being one of the last films of Setsuko Hara before her sudden retirement in the early '60s. The movie tells the story of a love triangle between Shirakawa, Hara, and the object of their affections, Tatsuya Mihashi.

A poster for One's Longing hangs in the theater lobby. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I mostly know director Maruyama from his war films, so this quiet drama was something of a revelation for me. There are some outdoor scenes in the woods that are simply gorgeous. It is very often a stunning film. We also get to see a different side of Yumi Shirakawa, who (at least in the films I've seen her in) usually plays mature and feminine women. Here, she plays a girlish (even impish) young lady, which in the context of this film makes a lot of sense, considering that Setsuko Hara was the older and more mature of the two actresses in the picture.

A poster for Goke Body Snatcher from Hell, also in the lobby. Photo by Brett Homenick. 

After One's Longing wrapped, there was a short break before Goke Body Snatcher from Hell screened. This was the second time I've seen the film screened in Japan, and I've enjoyed it immensely both times.

Promotional material for Goke. Photo by Brett Homenick. 

One funny thing to note. While I was waiting for One's Longing to start, the theater played a pre-recorded audio announcement for the Toho movie Mount Hakone (1962), to be screened next week. I thought to myself how much the voice sounded like that of Shinichi Yanagisawa, only to have the voice identify itself as being that of ... Shinichi Yanagisawa.

Promotional material for One's Longing. Photo by Brett Homenick. 

It was an amusing moment. In the recording, Yanagisawa-san discussed the cast and crew of the film and injected his brand of comedy into the announcement. I'll have to mention it to Yanagisawa-san the next time I see him.

More promotional material for One's Longing. Photo by Brett Homenick.

All in all, it was another enjoyable night at the movies. I'm very glad I caught both movies, and I'm already planning my next evening in Asagaya.

A NIGHT AT THE FLICKS! Asagaya Is the Place to Be!

Signage outside the Laputa Asagaya in Tokyo, announcing its two-month-long Toho program. Photo by Brett Homenick.

The Laputa Asagaya is running two concurrent programs of great interest to me (and readers of this blog). The main program (featured above) is the Toho Bungei Eiga ("Toho Literary Movie") program, which will feature all kinds of classic Toho films from the Showa era. No tokusatsu or genre pictures are on tap, but there are several intriguing movies that will be screened that I hope to catch.

The other program only runs at night, and it's called "Into Nightmares." As you'd expect, the focus is on horror and other strange films, covering a 20-year span (1968 through 1988). Everything from Shochiku's The Living Skeleton (1968) to Toho's Bloodthirsty trilogy will be screened in the upcoming weeks at 9:00 p.m.

My tickets for tonight's films on top of a program booklet. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Tonight, I took in two films. The first one is called Zou (Elephant, 1957). It's a Toho drama directed by the legendary Kajiro Yamamoto (who mentored Akira Kurosawa and Ishiro Honda) and helmed The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya (1942). A bevy of Toho regulars appear in the film, including Keiju Kobayashi, Momoko Kochi, Sachio Sakai, and several others. The setting is the Tokyo Ueno Zoo, and most of the drama centers around an elephant named Tonki (who's very popular among the locals) and an old zookeeper who's grown attached to the animal. Sadly, the animals at the zoo eventually become casualties of war. It's a real tear-jerker that would make any animal lover a little weepy. An interesting touch was that, in one scene, the elephant starts roaring like Toho's King Kong! Nice to find a tokusatsu connection in a film as far removed from fantasy as this one. Also a shout-out to the cute baby lion featured in the film named Katrina (whom some young schoolchildren repeatedly refer to by name).

The other film I watched was Kinji Fukasaku's Black Lizard (1968), a very bizarre film that almost defies description. I watched it many years ago (circa 2002), and it had such little impact on me that I hardly remembered anything of it! So it was basically like watching a brand-new movie tonight. It was certainly very stylish, perhaps the most stylish Fukasaku film I've ever seen. But it's very campy and outlandish, without being too laughable. Again, it's hard to describe. But it's an entertaining film, and I'm glad I gave it a second look. 

I'll definitely be back for more!