Jeremy Clarke 16
Tampopo
By Jeremy Clarke. This so-called ‘Noodle Western’ always sounded somewhat off-the-wall. It impressed when it first appeared in 1985 and viewing it again on Criterion’s new Blu-ray, Tampopo has stood the test of time well. “This’ll be famous in the history of cinema” says cast member Fukumi Kuroda in director Juzo Itami’s 90-minute edited diary […]
Lowlife Love
By Jeremy Clarke. Lowlife Love is the first film production from Third Window Films, which for just over a decade has been distributing movies from Japan and the Far East through UK cinemas and home video. For this opening foray, founder-turned-producer Adam Torel has chosen to work with writer/director Eiji Uchida whose earlier Greatful Dead […]
The Life of Oharu
by Jeremy Clarke. Originally released to international acclaim in 1952, this live-action drama chronicles the slow decline over a lifetime of an imperial lady-in-waiting, step by horrible step, to the level of a street prostitute. It’s based on the novel The Life of an Amorous Woman by Ihara Saikaku, first published in 1686 and set […]
The Handmaiden
by Jeremy Clarke. Weighing in at a lengthy two and a half hours, this lavish, sexually-explicit, South Korean pot-boiler is based on Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel Fingersmith, but moves the location from Victorian England to Japanese colonial-era Korea.
Lone Wolf and Cub
By Jeremy Clarke. The Lone Wolf and Cub franchise began life as a manga in 1970 by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. It proved hugely popular in Japan, where in 1972 the first four of six films appeared. Two more followed in 1973 and 1974. Criterion’s new three-disc Blu-ray release collects together all […]