Nobuo Nakagawa

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Lino
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Nobuo Nakagawa

#1 Post by Lino » Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:12 am

Please comment on these ones. I'm in a sort of japanese phase and just found out about this director. Apparently, he made a string of groundbreaking horror films - Jigoku being the more famous of them - which are ripe for rediscovery in the West.

The big plus is that they're out on DVD in Japan WITH english subs on most of them (if not all) and I've already found some online reviews for a few. I think this qualifies as Criterion/MoC worthy and I'm dying to get my hands on them.

Here are a few links:

http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Reviews/I-L/jigoku.html
http://www.foutz.net/movies/jigoku1960.shtml
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/jigoku.shtml
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/list_from_code ... key=235514
http://global.yesasia.com/en/artIdxDept ... on-videos/

I was afraid this director is too unknown for this forum...oh, well...guess I just have to start buying them blind.

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Nihonophile
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#2 Post by Nihonophile » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:43 pm

You win the esoteric prize. I've never heard of this guy but I like the sound of jigoku (Hell). Looks like it is up to you to blind buy...

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Steven H
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#3 Post by Steven H » Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:57 pm

I've seen Jigoku and Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan. They're interesting, but in a trashy kitschy over the top kind of way (laughed out loud at a few inappropriate times). Actually, it sounds right up your alley Annie. I doubt you'll be dissapointed.

The last half hour of Jigoku is nuts. Look out for Shigeru Amachi, the "badass" from Fukasaku's Blackmail is My Life.

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Lino
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#4 Post by Lino » Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:14 pm

In Tokyoscope, Patrick Macias writes that Nobuo Nakagawa is "the czar of japanese horror films". That got me wondering which film actually has the honor of being Japan's first entry in the horror genre. Any thoughts? Michael Kerpan? Anyone?

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Michael Kerpan
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#5 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:22 pm

Horror is not my thing. So I will have to defer to anyone who actually knows something about J-horror.

;~}

MEK

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Pinback
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#6 Post by Pinback » Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:02 pm

I think it's very difficult to identify a single Japanese film as the first ever horror, and there's definitely no consensus on the matter. Teinosuke Kinugusa's A Page of Madness (1927) was almost certainly the first Japanese film to feature horrific images, but its purpose wasn't really scaring its audience, and certainly isn't a straightforward horror film.

Nobuo Nakagawa is regarded by most as the first genuine J-Horror auteur, and his films are probably the first examples of horror in the most familiar sense of the word.

It has been said, however, that it is impossible to understand Japanese horror without having seen Godzilla (1954). That's probably an overstatement, but Godzilla was definitely a watershed movie in terrifying Japanese audiences, and can probably be regarded as the first mainstream Japanese horror.

I'd be delighted if anyone else piped up though; I love J-Horror, but I'm far from an expert on the subject.

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#7 Post by Cinephrenic » Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:24 pm


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feihong
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#8 Post by feihong » Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:39 pm

His greatest film that I have seen is Ghost Story of Yotsuya. It is a beautiful, heavily atmospheric film, and the atmospheric build-up pays off in the last third, which quite suddenly becomes very genuinely scary, in the simplest, most old-fashioned of ways. Okamoto was definitely quoting Nakagawa's finale in the ending of his own Sword of Doom, which has a very similar structure but there are fundamental stylistic differences between the two directors' approaches.

I've heard wildly divergent reports on Jigoku, though it is undoubtedly a classic and influential film--it's already been remade twice in Japan, for one thing.

Many of Nakagawa's films for Shintoho are available on DVD in Japan, with English subtitles. They're old DVDs now, and not made with up-to-date quality, but they're still awesome to watch. A couple of the titles are thrillers and samurai pictures rather than horror. I can definitely try and dissuade anybody from trying out Nakagawa's Vampire Man, a movie that is thoroughly off its game, but Ghost Story of Yotsuya goes down as one of my 100 greatest films--really clever, with the fervent eye of a true artist. I think it was Teruo Ishii or somebody who said in a Midnight Eye interview that Nobuo Nakagawa had the same childlike energy, the same excited drive for making films when he began his career as he did when his career was over.

His most rarified celebrated title is a film called "Horror: Koheji is Alive!" It is his final film as a director and he shoots with only three actors (including Nikkatsu Pink film megastarlett Junko Miyashita). Supposedly it's very scary, and since it's produced under the auspices of the Art Theatre Guild, it's produced with real love and quality.

Unfortunately, it's not on DVD or VHS or even PAL tape anywhere in the world.

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#9 Post by Lino » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:21 am

Someone should REALLY do a documentary on this man and his influence in today's cinema. And why aren't his films available in the West?!

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#10 Post by shirobamba » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:42 am

Koheiji would make a great entry to the MoC catalogue! (peerpee, are you listening?) I´ve seen it, almost by chance (I´m not that much into horror) at the Viennale/Vienna Film Festival in 2003, which featured a ATG retrospective. And it was definitely worth the effort.

BTW: there´s an excellent (and cheap! 176 p / € 6.-) catalogue about this retro, with english & german texts available here:

http://www.viennale.at/deutsch/publikationen/

>Retrospektiven > Art Theatre Guild

A short quote from it:

"A perfect example of restraint, nearly all the cuts in the film were shot using fixed camera angles. On top of that Takizawa Osamu, an old friend of Nakagawa´s, advised not to use too many long takes throughout the film. Beginning with the use of only 3 characters (and not a single black cat!), the filmmaker imposed a variety of constraints on the film throughout its production. Ikiteiru Koheiji could easily be called an experiment in stoicism."

(Mori Takuya, in: "Art Theatre, # 151)

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Lino
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#11 Post by Lino » Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:51 am

Thank you so much to all that have replied so far! This seems to be a director really worth exploring. And thank you for providing info on his last film - it really sounds like something very special and also a change of pace for him doing a sort of intimate horror story with ONLY 3 actors. I hope to see that one in the future.

Well, as I haven't even seen any of his films, I went ahead and ordered Jigoku (an obvious choice but one that I am really curious to check out). I also plan to add The Ghost Story (...) to my viewing list in the future as it's gotten so much rave reviews here and practically everywhere I've looked. Be sure that I will share my comments with you when it does arrive.

Edit: It arrived yesterday (ordered from xploitedcinema.com who have a greek edition of the japanese DVD with english subs that's substantially cheaper than the latter) and already watched it.

Well, where to begin? This has got to be one of the most groundbreaking films of any era of filmmaking (remember this was 1959, a year before Psycho or Peeping Tom came out and as my descriptions will stress, these two films look VERY tame when compared to Jigoku).

Prostitution, drug taking, veiled homosexuality, murder, hit-and-run accidents, infidelity, you name it - they're all here in the film's first two thirds! And the best (or should I say worse) is yet to come in the last and terrifying third! Clearly ahead of its time at least 20 years.

Add to this grim scenario an avant-garde soundtrack made of loud noises, screaming, wagnerian music, clearly and consciously made to provoke a sense of vertigo and confusion in the viewer's mind. And I still haven't talked about the fantastic and groundbreaking camera moves that are thrown out in key moments to further enhance the feeling of out-of-balance and mayhem. If you keep reminding yourself that this is 1959, you'll simply not believe your eyes!

And when you finally reach the final third of the movie, the story takes an unexpected turn and plunges you right into Hell and this is not a pretty sight, I tell you... To talk more about this part would be to ruin the film for you who haven't seen it but this is what you can expect: dismemberment, bloody skeletons, gore galore (this was 4 years before Gordon Lewis influential Blood Feast!), rivers of blood, demons beating the hell out of everyone (if you pardon the pun), people burned alive, unnerving close-ups of them screaming, you name it - it's here!

I'm glad I finally watched this one - it was one heck of an experience and one I encourage for anyone to do if you're interested in J-horror and want to know how it all began.

Now that I've seen it, I understand why this film almost put an end to Nakagawa's career. No wonder...

I got hold of Nakagawa's Ghost Story of Yotsuya and watched it yesterday.

I must say I'm not disapointed. The film is really well made, the story very well told and the scares are really scary.

From the two Nakagawa films I've seen so far, I noticed a narrative device he uses very effectively in both of them and it is this: first he introduces the story and shows us what he is going to tell; then, the characters are presented along with their motivations which are not always the best, to say the least; next thing you know, they're all doing horrific things to each other which ultimately causes their demise in the most grueling and terrifying of ways. Cause and effect, indeed.

I really like the way he goes from a very mundane and naturalistic drama to a supernatural and surreal filmic coda. You start with a very straighforward story and then gradually he introduces elements of horror that reach a climax near the end of the movie. This is true both for Ghost Story (...) and Jigoku.

And in my opinion, it is this very crescendo of horror that he is very good at. He prepares you for the scares and it never feels like a disapointment or a forced gimmick when they finally come. Good stuff.

The next one I'll probably be checking is Black Cat Mansion. Any thoughts on this one?

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#12 Post by feihong » Thu May 26, 2005 8:10 pm

Haven't seen this one. I want to, though. I'm also interested to know whether it's a black and white film or a color one.

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#13 Post by Lino » Fri May 27, 2005 3:12 am

From what I've gather, it's both. And I think I've read somewhere that there are flashbacks in the film and that these are told in color while the rest of the film is in B/W.

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#14 Post by filmghost » Fri May 27, 2005 7:29 am

The scenes in the present -mostly in the beginning and ending of the film- are shot in black and white, whereas the rest of the film which is a story that happened in the past is in color. Black Cat Mansion is my favorite film of Nakagawa (I've seen five of his films). Although maybe it's not as experimental and modern as Jigoku is, it's a beautiful film mostly because of the choreographed action scenes of the cat-ghost attacks, which will stay in your mind for a long time...I highly recommend it to everyone interested in Japanese films and horror! I also have the greek DVDs, a series of 9 films, 5 Nakagawa's and the rest from other directors of the same era. They are not high quality, but they are quite watchable...

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#15 Post by feihong » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:38 pm

Where can I find these Greek DVDs?

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#16 Post by filmghost » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:00 pm

Well...in Greece! I doubt if you can order them online from anywhere.

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#17 Post by kazantzakis » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:10 pm

xploitedcinema.com carries some of them.
here

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#18 Post by filmghost » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:40 pm

I think there are also some french editions of the same series of classic japanese horror films, but I'm not sure. Anyway go for any edition you can! The Black Cat Mansion is really good! The covers of the greek DVDs are the same as the japanese but the menus are unbelievably awful...

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#19 Post by Lino » Sat Jun 11, 2005 4:13 am

filmghost wrote: Black Cat Mansion is my favorite film of Nakagawa (I've seen five of his films). Although maybe it's not as experimental and modern as Jigoku is, it's a beautiful film mostly because of the choreographed action scenes of the cat-ghost attacks, which will stay in your mind for a long time...
Got hold of this one and watched it yesterday. God! Nakagawa makes beautiful horror movies - they're so well crafted and gorgeous to look at. I am so sorry that this amazing director is not more well known in the West. He deserves to be ranked among Japan's greatest directors and I really hope that he starts getting more recognition in the future and pray that some american label gets the DVD distribution rights for his films so that he reaches a wider audience.

As I was watching Black Cat Mansion, I was just thinking to myself that it's almost as I was being told a dark Grimm tale or a nightmarish folklore episode. He has a way of leading you in, of taking you by the hand and you somehow just know you're going to be scared but you just can't help but keep watching and listening. Fantastic stuff!

Oh, and the cinematography on this one is so luxurious and elegant lifting the film to a level of artistic excellence as very few were ever able to achieve (Kwaidan comes to mind). Highly recommended, of course.

As a side note, I just want to say that I've been buying all the Nakagawa discs from xploited cinema and coudn't be happier - great service and faster than lightning delivery!

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#20 Post by Nihonophile » Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:49 pm

I just watched Jigoku and was absolutely floored by it. Regarding the ending of the film, can anyone comment on their reaction to it? I can't say I understood the intent of the final shot.

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#21 Post by rumz » Wed Sep 21, 2005 7:32 pm

xploitedcinema has two versions of "Jigoku," with a $20 difference between them:

http://www.xploitedcinema.com/dvds/dvds.asp?title=3457

http://www.xploitedcinema.com/dvds/dvds.asp?title=4448

Does anyone know the difference?

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#22 Post by Lino » Thu Sep 22, 2005 3:31 am

The more expensive one is the japanese edition. The cheaper is the greek one. Both have english subs, the same transfer and the same specs. Go for the greek one.

This film and the rest of Nakagawa's work definitely need some serious restoration. That's not to say that these DVDs look shitty. Not at all. They look perfectly OK. However, given the importance and quality of his work, someone should do something about it.

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#23 Post by rumz » Sat Sep 24, 2005 5:21 pm

Thanks Annie--I've known about Nakagawa for some time, but have not seen any of his films. My thoughts on "Jigoku" to come...

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#24 Post by Lino » Sat Oct 01, 2005 4:31 pm

And here's another enthusiastic review of Jigoku. So rumz, have you watched it yet?

Certainly his ghost stories are more traditionally executed than Jigoku is but that to me does not take merit to what is in fact an amazingly daring piece of work.

My take on it is that he got tired of making the same film over and over again. Besides, he had taken the kaidan formula to near perfection (Black Cat Mansion comes to mind) so for me it comes to no surprise that he decided to take a risk on his next assignement. And what a risk indeed! It practically ruined his entire filmmaking career. Of course, I am only guessing but it doesn't seem so far-fetched a thought.

Every now and then, brave and talented directors jeopardize their own lives for the sake of fine art. Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes it doesn't. Luckily for us, time is always a good healer and a wise adviser. Jigoku has taken its rightful place as an avant-garde horror masterpiece to be ranked alongside other ahead-of-its-time masterworks like Jack Clayton's The Innocents for instance.

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#25 Post by Michael » Sun Oct 02, 2005 9:28 am

The aparent classic look and feel of the story is only deceiving - the truth of the matter and the true gist of the story is much more serious and still shocking to our 21st century minds. It may not be groundbreaking like some other experimental works of its time but it still stirs up the emotions like very few. And that is remarkable given its age.
Very nicely said, Annie Mall. I absolutely agree with every word. Nothing like the way the film evokes the emotions. Unimaginable.

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