As someone with a soft spot for social realism/docu-real storytelling (ie Sean Baker, the Dardennes), watching Sadao Yamanaka’s Humanity & Paper Ballons was an incredibly captivating experience. Is it a little funny that the latter of the two kanji stands for “feelings, emotions, passion”, since no character in the film seems to have any of these? But it is much more difficult to answer the other. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Our online film club‘s journey through Kurosawa related cinema continues for the next four weeks with Sadao Yamanaka‘s 1937 period drama Humanity and Paper Balloons, which many critics and film makers including Kurosawa himself have listed as one of the most influential Japanese films of all time.. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. | When this film is viewed it will become apparent how big a loss he was to artistic directing. Feel a little queasy 3-starring a film whose political boldness vicariously resulted in its director’s death (look it up— seriously depressing), but this was just too narratively busy for me. | Thanks for your thoughts Ugetsu! Isn’t it curious though that the Japanese compound 風船 (fuusen, paper balloon) is composed of the characters for “wind” and “ship”? Not that all films should go somewhere, but even with films like Ozu’s, which sometimes feel almost openly hostile against the notion of a “plot”, there usually ends up being something important in there, at the heart of the thing, which moves me. Posted in Film Club, Website Announcements, Tagged with Film Club, humanity and paper balloons, sadao yamanaka, Akira Kurosawa info • The Akira Kurosawa Community When World War II came, he was drafted into the Imperial Army, and tragically lost his life in 1938 at the age of 28. Even the kidnapping hero's one-up on the local gangster didn't…. Mobile site. Within each year…, Andrew Liverod 11,875 films 412 17 Edit. Sound-stage exterior sets = eight (8) stars; cinematography = four (4) stars; subtitles = three (3) stars. Director Sadao Yamanaka presents period mini dramas about "typical" life in a small village on the cusp of being absorbed into Edo (Edo exurbia?). The Shogun sentences Lord Asano to commit suppuku and deprives ... See full summary ». The characters are perfectly realised, you care for most of them even as the directorial distance and cutaways to dolls tells you again and again that their concerns are almost meaningless in their futility. The number of films he directed is impressive, considering that he was less than half a year Kurosawa’s senior and died more than four years before the latter’s own debut film. Probably not, as at least IMDb lists the Japanese release date as November 23, 1937, which is three months after Yamanaka’s film premiered. More information about our film club, including the full schedule, can be found here. But humans just seem to be more likely to want to preserve a sense of social order. I’m not so sure if it’s the camera work though, but rather the way the film is narrated, with quite much taking place off screen or only being referred to. Explore more than 1,500 films on the Criterion Channel, with filters for genre, decade, country, and director. A petty piece of criticism, I know, but I can’t help it. Humanity and Paper Balloons, unlike most other Japanese films of this period, is a historical film with a critical edge. Jean Renoir’s version of Gorky’s play actually came out only a year before Humanity and Paper Balloons. He was a key figure in establishing Japanese period films, along with fellow cinema giants Ozu, Mizoguchi and Naruse. All of these elements also have to be put into perspective of Yamanaka tragically short life. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. I do get that it could be seen as an allegory of depression era Japan (although I’m not sure if Japan even was that hard hit by the 1930s economic recession), and as a snap shot of that it does work, but I don’t see any real questions asked, solutions offered or specific problems pointed out. A depressing and cynical microcosm of lower-class struggle, (Bonus points for including a blind masseur named Ichi). Just confirm how you got your ticket. As I pointed out in my introduction (or an attempt at one), Humanity and Paper Balloons was based on a kabuki play, but turned that play into something like a corrupted version of itself. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Cheat them to make them content with the result. The lives of two slum neighbors, one of a happy-go-lucky gambler and the other of a poor ronin, converge when the two get involved with the affairs of a powerful samurai official and his gangsters. Probably quite a bit. I thought what I saw was pretty impressive and modern. Because to acknowledge that the world can be…, "How could he kill himself on such a nice day. A contemporary of Ozu, Naruse, and Mizoguchi, Yamanaka made 22 films before his death in Manchuria in 1938 at the age of 29 but sadly only three have survived. Humanity and Paper Balloons Sadao Yamanaka Japan, 1937 Humanoids from the Deep Barbara Peeters United States, 1980 Human Voice Edoardo Ponti United States, 2014 Others, through circumstances outside of their control, find themselves outside of these systems, and they have to do unseemly things to find a way to survive. The suicides that bookend the film seem a little too convenient, and while the final suicide (which isn’t really a suicide at all of course) is presented brilliantly, as is most of the film, I don’t really see the point of it, either in terms of characters’ reality or narrative purpose. The Battle of Chile Part One represents all three parts. can be used to positive or negative effect. The characters are more rational and feisty than ordinary viewers expect. I’ve just watched it for the second time and it confirms my original view – it really is a great film, up there with some of the very best Japanese films. It’s really a pity Japanese films are available so randomly — some films here, others there. My only problem was I had genuine difficulty parsing the storyline so this could just grow in estimation upon rewatch. (1937). Japanese director Sadao Yamanaka made 24 films in his short seven year career. Viewed on Streaming. It's been a long day so I really had to fight myself to stay awake through the film's entire duration, but I fought through my fatigue and I'm really glad I did because I really enjoyed it. Don't have an account? The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. I do think that you are missing something! I think this movie will live with me for many years. The seriousness of the film’s approach to the period film genre was also highly influential, Richie in his A Hundred Years of Japanese Film calling Yamanaka possibly “the finest of the directors of the new jidaigeki” of the late 1930s, whose “ambition was to further modernize the period picture”. I just don’t really like watching it. Sound recording and score (what little there is of it) are OK. Humanity And Paper Balloons is in my mind one of the most visually beautiful Japanese films ever to grace cinema.

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