FW: Japanese train films

[Eija Niskanen]

The above-mentioned nostalgia and trains feature really well in the
Tora-san movies aka Otoko wa tsurai yo series.

And don't forget imaginary trains in Akira Kurosawa's Dodeskaden.

If anime is OK, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away has a long beautiful
sequence of a train travel over water. As does also Isao Takahata's
Only Yesterday, where the main character is joined by her childhood
self during a train journey.

Eija

On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 10:09 AM, Peter Grilli <grilli at us-japan.org> wrote:
> I forgot to mention another of my favorite Japanese train scenes:
>
> The sequence of train-cars repeatedly coupling – beautifully shot by
> Miyagawa Kazuo – as a cutaway shot following one of the many sex scenes in
> Ichikawa Kon's film version of Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's novel Kagi ("The Key."
> The film is titled, in the U.S., as "Odd Obsesson.")
>
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> Peter
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Grilli [mailto:grilli at us-japan.org]
> Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 2:57 AM
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Cc: grilli at us-japan.org
> Subject: Re: Japanese train films
>
>
>
> One of the alltime greatest train sequences in the history of movies is the
> ransom-money drop from the Shinkansen in Kurosawa's  Tengoku to Jigoku
> ("High & Low" ).
>
>
>
> For a station scene, I love the tense scene near the end of Kurosawa's Nora
> Inu ("Stray Dog"), in which detective Mifune Toshiro suspiciously eyes all
> the people in the waiting room of a little suburban station, desperately
> trying to identify which one is the killer.
>
>
>
> There are so many trains in Japanese movies one doesn't know where to
> begin.  Others have already mentioned many train scenes.
>
> One rarely seen film that is full of trains is  Tooi ippon no michi  ("The
> Far Road") -- actress Hidari Sachiko's 1977 debut film as a director in a
> narrative about a stationmaster's family.
>
> Speaking of Hidari, I recall train scenes in her 1955 film for Tasaka
> Tomotaka Jochukko ("The Maid's Kid")
>
>
>
> And then there's Ichikawa's 1957 Mannin Densha  ("A Full-Up Train") and the
> unforgettable train scene at the beginning of the various different film
> versions of Kawabata Yasunari's novel Yukiguni ("Snow Country"), and the
> long journey in Yamada Yoji's Kazoku ("Family").
>
> Just about every Japanese film with the word "furusato" (hometown) in the
> title has a train journey in it and a nostalgic journey home.
>
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>
> Some other memorable Japanese train stations appear in Imamura Shohei's 1955
> Nishi-Ginza Eki-mae  ("In Front of Nishiginza Station") and Toyoda Shiro's
> 1955 Mugi-bue ("Grass Whistle")
>
> Not exactly a station, but the final scenes of Shinoda Masahiro's beautiful
> 1977 film Hanare-goze Orin ("Banished Orin" or "Melody in Gray") show
> railroad track being laid in a steep mountain pass  (and I also recall
> several trains-in-the landscape scenes in that film as Orin travels through
> Tsuruga and Ura-Nippon.
>
> There's also a powerful train scene at the end of Kobayashi's great (but
> rarely seen) 1968 film Nihon no seishun  ("Youth of Japan" or  "Diary of a
> Tired Man").
>
>
>
> One odd sequence involving train stations is the party scene in Kurosawa's
> 1993 film Maada-dayo ("Not Yet"), at which a drunken partygoer takes it upon
> himself to recite the names of every train station on the main train line
> from the north of Hokkaido to the very south of Kagoshima.
>
> And don't forget Kurosawa's script Runaway Train, which was finally made
> into a movie of the same name in 1985, directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and
> starring Jon Voight.
>
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>
> It's hard to know where to stop listing train scenes in Japanese films.
> There are many, many, many more.....!
>
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>
> Peter Grilli
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> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Brian Ruh" <brianruh at yahoo.com>
>
> To: "KineJapan" <kinejapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
>
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:27 PM
>
> Subject: Japanese train films
>
>
>
>> Since reading this article [1] in the Japan Times, I've been thinking
>> about Japanese trains. (I love things like subway cars and trains. I think
>> it stems from growing up in a place where there wasn't anything like that.)
>> Can anyone recommend any good Japanese films that prominently feature
>> trains, stations, etc.? (When I try a Google search on the subject, I'm
>> inundated with results for Densha Otoko.)
>>
>> Any time period or genre would be great. (I particularly like the train
>> scenes in Shinkai Makoto's "5 Centimeters Per Second" even though they're
>> animated.) Thanks in advance!
>>
>> [1] http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080909jk.html
>>
>> Best,
>> Brian
>>
>> Brian's Essential Reading:
>> http://www.oshiibook.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> 7:03 AM
>>
>>



-- 
Eija Niskanen
conference co-ordinator, Imaginary Japan
tel +358-9-191 21672
mobile +358-50-355 3189