Shotaro Ikenami was a prolific writer of samurai novels, a number of which were adapted for TV and film in Japan. One of his most iconic characters is Baian Fujieda, an acupuncturist who also doubles as a hired killer, who has been the source of a TV series and at least four movies, with Ken Ogata and Ken Watanabe playing the character, among others. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ikenami’s birth on 1923, a consortium of media companies has produced two films based on the series.
Baian the Assassin, M.D. (Part 1) is screening at Camera Japan
Baian may be known to the world as an acupuncturist, including his maid Oseki, who treats him as a combination of nagging wife, mother, and mother-in-law, but he also doubles as a killer for hire, although he picks his targets among people whom he thinks deserve to die. The beginning of the...
Baian the Assassin, M.D. (Part 1) is screening at Camera Japan
Baian may be known to the world as an acupuncturist, including his maid Oseki, who treats him as a combination of nagging wife, mother, and mother-in-law, but he also doubles as a killer for hire, although he picks his targets among people whom he thinks deserve to die. The beginning of the...
- 9/23/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Lest anyone think Rinko Kikuchi has nothing better to do than pose for obscure magazines or engage in public displays of affection with Spike Jonze, she’s once again defied expectations by joining the cast of a traditional jidaigeki drama. Today it was announced that Kikuchi will play the heroine in Tetsuo Shinohara’s Ogawa no Hotori, opposite Noriyuki Higashiyama.
The film is based on a short story by Shuhei Fujisawa (The Twilight Samurai, Love and Honor). Shinohara previously directed an adaptation of Fujisawa’s “Yamazakura” in 2008 which also co-starred Higashiyama.
Set in the fictional Unasaka domain, the story involves a samurai who’s obligated to follow an order that could destroy his relationship with his own younger sister.
Kikuchi, who had to dye her hair from blond back to black for the role, has never appeared in a jidaigeki drama before now. “The screenplay is very good,” she said.
The film is based on a short story by Shuhei Fujisawa (The Twilight Samurai, Love and Honor). Shinohara previously directed an adaptation of Fujisawa’s “Yamazakura” in 2008 which also co-starred Higashiyama.
Set in the fictional Unasaka domain, the story involves a samurai who’s obligated to follow an order that could destroy his relationship with his own younger sister.
Kikuchi, who had to dye her hair from blond back to black for the role, has never appeared in a jidaigeki drama before now. “The screenplay is very good,” she said.
- 9/29/2010
- Nippon Cinema
Lest anyone think Rinko Kikuchi has nothing better to do than pose for obscure magazines or engage in public displays of affection with Spike Jonze, she’s once again defied expectations by joining the cast of a traditional jidaigeki drama. Today it was announced that Kikuchi will play the heroine in Tetsuo Shinohara’s Ogawa no Hotori, opposite Noriyuki Higashiyama.
The film is based on a short story by Shuhei Fujisawa (The Twilight Samurai, Love and Honor). Shinohara previously directed an adaptation of Fujisawa’s “Yamazakura” in 2008 which also co-starred Higashiyama.
Set in the fictional Unasaka domain, the story involves a samurai who’s obligated to follow an order that could destroy his relationship with his own younger sister.
Kikuchi, who had to dye her hair from blond back to black for the role, has never appeared in a jidaigeki drama before now. “The screenplay is very good,” she said.
The film is based on a short story by Shuhei Fujisawa (The Twilight Samurai, Love and Honor). Shinohara previously directed an adaptation of Fujisawa’s “Yamazakura” in 2008 which also co-starred Higashiyama.
Set in the fictional Unasaka domain, the story involves a samurai who’s obligated to follow an order that could destroy his relationship with his own younger sister.
Kikuchi, who had to dye her hair from blond back to black for the role, has never appeared in a jidaigeki drama before now. “The screenplay is very good,” she said.
- 9/29/2010
- Nippon Cinema
Yo Kohatsu's Raise The Castle is a film that requires a certain degree of patience. Stumbling out of the gate it is a film that initially plays like any number of cheaply produced straight to video titles in Japan. The look is flat, the performances weak, the jokes not particularly funny. But then something strange happens. Around the half hour mark the film begins to find its footing. The characters begin to connect with each other and the audience, the rhythm and look of the piece suddenly click together and the film - thankfully - abandons bad slapstick in favor of a more gentle sort of whimsy. And by the time you reach the end something that began as stale and tiresome ends up being a bit of a charmer.
The setting is the village of Sanage, a remote small town in the Japanese countryside, a town that the...
The setting is the village of Sanage, a remote small town in the Japanese countryside, a town that the...
- 7/10/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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