Films with: Ichikawa, Kon

Dodesuka-den

This film follows the lives of the people who live in a slum, built in a garbage dump. A mentally disabled boy is obsessed with streetcars, driving an imaginary streetcar around, chanting "Dodes'ka-den! Dodes'ka-den!"--Mimicking the sound of the wheels. Some of the neighbors are a young woman living with her lecherous uncle; a pair of friends who get drunk and swap wives; a possibly mentally ill beggar and his son who live in a deserted car; and a man with five children who knows he is not the father of any, but treats them as if they were his own. Although they may dream of better times, these people are trapped--both physically and psychologically--doomed to live a life of disappointment (or worse), but many find ways to carry on.

DVD 10412

Nobi Fires on the plain /

"Denied hospital treatment for tuberculosis and cast off into the unknown, Private Tamura treks across an unfamiliar Philippine landscape, encountering an increasingly debased cross section of Imperial Army soldiers, who eventually give in to the most terrifying craving of all"--Container.

DVD 10623

Sasameyuki The Makioka sisters /

Japan, 1938. War is looming on the horizon, but the Makioka sisters are far more concerned with their domestic troubles. The sisters have taken over their family's kimono manufacturing business in Osaka, and are well off, traveling together to view the changing of the seasons--cherry blossoms in Kyoto, brilliant leaves in the fall. Tsuruko and Sachiko, the older two, have been married for quite some time. Tradition demands that they marry in order of their birth, but marrying off the shy, conservative Yukiko is proving difficult. These challenges have been particularly frustrating for youngest sister Taeko, who is eager to marry and move on with her life. A graceful study of a family at a turning point in history, and a poignant evocation of changing times and fading customs.

DVD 10890

Tōkyō Orinpikku Tokyo Olympiad /

An epic study of athletes struggling to excel against their own bodies and against each other. Kon Ichikawa used 164 cameramen and over 100 cameras to show the humanity of the competitors-- the tears of the Japanese women volleyball champions, the bellow of the hammer throwers, the pain of the collapsed marathon runner and the solitude of the loser, finishing his lap, picking up his sweats and leaving the field.

DVD 1581