Fwd: Japanese train films/FOR MARKUS

Sat Jan 24 21:58:31 EST 2009

Markus, I still had this in PC storage but don't seem to have saved  
any others.  Your friend is welcome.  FB

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Faith Bach <faithbach at yahoo.co.jp>
> Date: September 12, 2008 9:10:25 PM JST
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: Japanese train films
>
> High & Low is certainly the best!
> For specifically Nostalgic trains, nobody seems to have mentioned  
> yet the wonderful long rattling trip to Tokyo from Kyoto in  
> Mizoguchi's Gion Bayashi (1954), or the luminous final onboard  
> scene in his Waga Koe wa Moenu (1949), which really is worth  
> sitting thru the whole film for.  Not to mention the two (count  
> 'em!) absolutely classic "leaving-on-a-Meiji-period-train" scenes  
> central to his Zangiku Monogatari (1939, but also in the other two  
> less inspired versions, 1956 & 1963).  And one can hardly leave out  
> the end of Ozu's Ukigusa  (1959) with Kyo Machiko & Ganjiro II in  
> perhaps their best respective moments of cinema acting;  nor the  
> ditto of his 1957 Tokyo Boshoku with Yamada Isuzu at the train  
> window...
> There is also a weird & wonderful "muri shinju" murder scene on and  
> off a train platform in Naruse's 1960 Yoru no Nagare, quite a shocker.
> Better stop while I still can!
>
> Faith Bach
> On Sep 12, 2008, at 3:57 PM, Peter Grilli wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> It's hard to know where to stop listing train scenes in Japanese  
>> films.  There are many, many, many more.....!
>>
>> Peter Grilli
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- 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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>> 9/11/2008 7:03 AM
>> >
>> >
>

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