#noboru nakaya

[fuckyeahmeikokaji]

Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子) and Noboru Nakaya (仲谷昇) in Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫), 1973, directed by Toshiya Fujita (藤田敏八).

[ulkaralakbarova]

Time of the Apes

A female scientist and two children are accidentally transported into a future dominated by primates. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Catherine: Reiko Tokunaga Caroline: Hiroko Saito Johnny: Masaaki Kaiji Commander: Hitoshi Ōmae Gōdo: Tetsuya Ushio …: Baku Hatakeyama Pepe: Kazue Takita …: Noboru Nakaya Film Crew: Original Story: Sakyo Komatsu Original Story: Koji Tanaka Original Story:…

[byneddiedingo]

Meiko Kaji in Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973) Cast: Meiko Kaji, Toshio Kurosawa, Ko Nishimura, Masaaki Daimon, Miyoko Akaza, Eiji Okada,  Sanae Nakahara, Noboru Nakaya. Screenplay: Norio Osada, Kazuo Kamimura, Kazuo Koike. Cinematography: Masaki Tamura. Production design: Kazuo Satsuya. Film editing: Osamu Inoue. Music: Masaaki Hirao. An often fascinating, often grisly tale, based on a popular manga, of a woman not only born but conceived to take revenge for her mother's rape and her family's murder. Among other things, it's an acknowledged source for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003).

[docrotten]

LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973) – Episode 172 – Decades Of Horror 1970s

“You’ve made an unbreakable vow. In the name of vengeance, you must foreswear all human emotions, all love and hate, everything.” Your basic all-inclusive vow, then? Got it. Join your faithful Grue Crew – Doc Rotten, Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, and Jeff Mohr – as they check out the major influence for Tarantino’s Kill Bill Duology, Lady Snowblood(1973).

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 172 – Lady Snowblood (1973)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

Synopsis: A young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family

Director: Toshiya Fujita

Writers: Norio Osada (screenplay); Kazuo Kamimura (manga illustrator) & Kazuo Koike (manga writer)

Cinematographer: Masaki Tamura

Selected cast:

Meiko Kaji as Yuki Kashima (“Lady Snowblood”)

Mayumi Maemura as young Yuki

Kō Nishimura as Dōkai the priest

Toshio Kurosawa as Ryūrei Ashio

Masaaki Daimon as Gō Kashima

Miyoko Akaza as Sayo Kashima

Eiji Okada as Gishirō Tsukamoto

Sanae Nakahara as Okono Kitahama

Noboru Nakaya as Banzō Takemura

Takeo Chii as Shokei Tokuichi

Hitoshi Takagi as Matsuemon

Akemi Negishi as Tajire no Okiku

Yoshiko Nakada as Kobue Takemura

Rinichi Yamamoto as Maruyama

Lady Snowblood, the horror-adjacent inspiration for Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) & Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), is Jeff’s pick and he loves this movie, describing it as a visual feast with a non-traditional story structure incorporating Japanese culture and history. It is so much fun!

Seeing Lady Snowblood for the first time with excellent visual quality, Bill is completely absorbed in the film. He was already familiar with the lead actress, Meiko Kaji, from Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972), which he also loved, and he loves her performance. It’s the kind of performance the viewer can read a lot into. He describes the character and Kaji’s performance as a female version of Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name.”

This is Doc’s first time watching Lady Snowblood and he falls in love with the movie. The simple story with an interesting structure, amazing sound effects, plenty of gore for the gorehounds out there, and the great screen presence of the lead actress all contribute to him cherishing every moment of Lady Snowblood.

You’ve probably guessed by now that the Decades of Horror 70s Grue Crew heartily recommend Lady Snowblood. At the time of this writing, it is available to stream from HBOmax, the Criterion Channel, and various PPV sources. In terms of physical media, it is available in The Complete Lady Snowblood (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray], which also includes Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974). And if you are as infatuated with the acting of Meiko Kaji, you might want to check out her Female Prisoner series  – Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972), Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972), Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973), and Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song (1973) – all of which are currently available to stream from Shudder.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror two-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In two weeks, the next episode in their very flexible schedule, chosen by Bill, will be The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973. Ray Harryhausen, Caroline Munro, John Phillip Law, Takis Emmanuel, Tom Baker, Robert Shaw, and the usual assortment of stop-motion animation creatures? Oh yeah!

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com. 

Check out this episode!

[moviemosaics]

Lady Snowblood

directed by Toshiya Fujita, 1973

[classichorror]

Kwaidan (1964)

[365days365movies]

March 13, 2021: Kwaidan: In A Cup of Tea (1965)

This is it! Story 4 of 4, and it’s been a great ride so far!

This is genuinely a great movie, so I can’t wait for the final bit here! OK, I’ve somehow found a way to tie a Pokemon to all of these so far, like a goddamn nerd, so...I mean, I guess this one’s obvious, right?

Sinistea and Polteageist are genuinely one of my favorite new Pokémon. Hey, say what you like about Pokémon Sword and Shield (and, yeah, you definitely can), but most of the new Pokémon were pretty goddamn solid. 

But, OK, let’s see, what’re Sinistea and Polteageist based on? According to Bulbapedia, they’re based on...ghosts and tea. Um...I mean...OK? Well, that went nowhere, I guess. So, uh, let’s see what happens with this short! Let’s get into it!

This is the last of four tales presented in the film Kwaidan, all of which are linked here:

The Black Hair (黒髪, Kurokami)

The Woman of the Snow (雪女, Yukionna)

Hoichi the Earless (耳無し芳一の話, Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi)

In A Cup of Tea (茶碗の中, Chawan no Naka)

One more time! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (4/4): In A Cup of Tea

Briefly, we jump forward to the year 1900, 32 years post-Meiji Restoration, around the time that the original stories were collected and written. The collector, author, and narrator of all of these stories (Osamu Takizawa) is awaiting a visit from his publisher. He notes that these stories were incomplete in many instances, and the author questions why that is. However, he decides to present an example in the form of the last story, which takes place on New Year’s Day, 220 years in the past.

Lord Nakagawa Sadano is making a round of visits with his entourage. One of his attendants, Kannai (Nakamura Kan'emon), takes a cup of tea. In the cup, he sees the face of a man, where none is behind or above him. He empties the cup, and grabs another one. When you have to hydrate, you have to hydrate. And the face in the cup agrees. Kannai empties the cup again, and smashes it this time. He grabs another cup and fills it with tea, but NOPE. THERE HE IS AGAIN! But again...when a guy’s gotta hydrate...

So, yeah, Kannai drinks the tea with the face in it, which I’m sure can only lead to good things. He goes inside the temple, and is directed to assume night watch duties, guarding Sadano. He mutters some prayers to himself, and then spies a cup. Still shaken by the previous incident, he knocks over the cup.

Ah. Well, fuck. The guy’s name is Heinai Shibuku (Noboru Nakaya), and he questions why Kannai doesn’t recognize him. Eventually, he realizes that they’re one and the same, but he doesn’t admit it. Instead, the attendant asks how Shibuku got into the estate, which he doesn’t say. Instead, he claims that the attendant caused him great harm that morning, which I assume was by drinking him. Fair enough, really.

Kannai tries to attack him, but each attack phases through the mysterious stranger, as if he were a ghost or something. Weird, right? Kannai agrees, and he rouses all of the other guards to help find him. However, they all basically call him crazy and take off, leaving him alone.

The next night, Kannai’s alone in his chambers, and a young woman comes to visit him. He stares at the cup she’s brought suspiciously (understandably), when he’s also interrupted by news that he has three visitors. He goes to greet them, and they tell him the news that Shibuku was hurt by his sword slashes, and has gone to heal himself. Kannai apologizes for this, but isn’t happy to hear that Shibuku will return on the 16th of EVERY MONTH to avenge himself.

Kannai slashes at the visitors, but they appear to be like Shibuku, and disappear at his every hit and slash, only to reappear elsewhere. Kannai, clearly a little stressed out at this point, continues his assault. And there’s a BRILLIANTLY shot scene, where you see their shadows, and not the samurai themselves. Holy shit, that looks cool. 

But then, Kannai appears to get the upper hand, and appears to kill the trio. However, of course, they come back. And Kannai...Kannai’s not doing great at this point. Mentally, I mean. He starts laughing like a maniac, clearly not OK. And then...

That’s it. The story ends. We come back to the modern day, where a woman is trying to find the author, who’s suddenly gone missing after writing all day. His publisher (Nakamura Ganjirō II) comes to visit, and the two search for him. The publisher stumbles upon the story he was writing, which finishes with the idea that, since there’s no ending...why don’t you come up with the best one. How would end a story about a man who swallows another man’s soul?

Maybe...like this.

Holy shit, that’s the author! Now THAT is how you end a fuckin’ ghost story! That was Kwaidan! AND HOT DAMN, that was a good movie! Seriously, I have goosebumps. Review should be interesting. See you there!

[ozu-teapot]

Kwaidan | Masaki Kobayashi | 1964

In A Cup of Tea

[jailhouse41]

Press photo for Whirlpool Of Women (Onna No Uzu To Fuchi To Nagare, おんなの渦と淵と流れ), 1967, directed by Ko Nakahira (中平康) and starring Noboru Nakaya (仲谷昇) and Kazuko Inano (稲野和子).

[twilightronin]

Lady Snowblood (1973)

[justfilms]

Lady Snowblood - Toshiya Fujita 1973

[fuckyeahmeikokaji]

Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子) and Noboru Nakaya (仲谷昇) in Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫), 1973, directed by Toshiya Fujita (藤田敏八).

Released on this day 49 years ago!

[docrotten]

KWAIDAN (1964) – Episode 118 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

"You promised that night you'd never tell anybody. You finally broke the promise. It was a pledge for life for both of us. I told you if you broke it, I would kill you. You betrayed me!" Isn’t that always the way it goes? Join this episode’s Grue-Crew - Whitney Collazo, Chad Hunt, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, and Jeff Mohr - as they are mesmerized by the legendary Kwaidan (1968)!

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 118 – Kwaidan (1964)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with PlayNow Media's THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL, which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/

This film contains four distinct, separate stories: 1) "Black Hair": A poor samurai who divorces his true love to marry for money, but finds the marriage disastrous and returns to his old wife, only to discover something eerie about her; 2) "The Woman in the Snow": Stranded in a snowstorm, a woodcutter meets an icy spirit in the form of a woman who spares his life on the condition that he never tells anyone about her. A decade later he forgets his promise; 3) "Hoichi the Earless": Hoichi is a blind musician, living in a monastery who sings so well that a ghostly imperial court commands him to perform the epic ballad of their death battle for them. But the ghosts are draining away his life, and the monks set out to protect him by writing a holy mantra over his body to make him invisible to the ghosts. But they've forgotten something; 4) "In a Cup of Tea": a writer tells the story of a man who keeps seeing a mysterious face reflected in his cup of tea.

IMDb

  Director: Masaki Kobayashi

Writer: Yôko Mizuki (screenplay); Lafcadio Hearn (stories, as Yakumo Koizumi)

Music: Tôru Takemitsu

Cinematography: Yoshio Miyajima

Film Editing: Hisashi Sagara

Art Direction: Shigemasa Toda

Set Decoration: Dai Arakawa

Costume Design: Masahiro Katô

Musician: Kinji Tsuruta (biwa)

Cast

"Kurokami" ("Black Hair")

Michiyo Aratama as First wife

Misako Watanabe as Second Wife

Rentarō Mikuni as Husband

Kenjiro Ishiyama as Father

Ranko Akagi as Mother

"Yuki-Onna" ("The Woman of the Snow," "Snow-Woman")

Tatsuya Nakadai as Minokichi

Keiko Kishi as the Yuki-Onna

Yūko Mochizuki as Minokichi's mother

Kin Sugai as Village woman

Noriko Sengoku as Village woman

"Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi," ("Hoichi the Earless")

Katsuo Nakamura as Hoichi

Tetsurō Tanba as Warrior

Takashi Shimura as Head priest

Yoichi Hayashi as Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Kazuo Kitamura as Taira no Tomomori

Yōsuke Kondō as Benkei

"Chawan no naka" ("In a Cup of Tea")

Haruko Sugimura as Madame

Osamu Takizawa as Author / Narrator

Ganjirō Nakamura as Publisher

Noboru Nakaya as Shikibu Heinai

Seiji Miyaguchi as Old man

Kei Satō as Ghost samurai

Kwaidan is Daphne’s pick and she loves every single second of the 183-minute runtime. In fact, she watched it three times! The beauty of the film, the amazing storytelling, and both the sound and set design blew her away. Chad agrees that it is a beautiful film with wonderful sets and music and appreciates how the four segments are based on supernatural folk tales. For the record, his favorite of the four is “The Woman of the Snow.” As a big lover of world folklore and ghost stories, Whitney is also on the Kwaidan bandwagon, granting it everything anyone could want in finely detailed sets, makeup, and folklore. The middle two stories, “The Woman of the Snow” and “Hoichi the Earless,” grabbed her the most. Jeff is gobsmacked by Kwaiden, calling it a stunningly beautiful film. He loved all the stories but “Hoichi the Earless” is his favorite with its historical prologue.

If you haven’t seen Kwaidan, the Classic Era Grue-Crew strongly recommends it. Yes, three hours is a long slog, but the individual stories are completely separate, so you can digest it a piece at a time. So if you haven’t seen it, do it know. If you have seen it, watch it again! Don’t make them break their feet off in your ass! At the time of this writing, Kwaidan is available to stream on The Criterion Channel and HBOmax, and on physical media as a Blu-ray disc from Criterion.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next on their very flexible schedule is one chosen by Whitney: Dos Monjes (1934, Two Monks) directed by Juan Bustillo Oro. Dos Monjes is available to stream on YouTube and on physical media in “Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 3” (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]. And the world folklore just keeps on coming!!

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of us, “Thank you so much for listening!”

Check out this episode!

[classichorror]

Kwaidan (1964)

[justfilms]

Lady Snowblood - Toshiya Fujita 1973

[fuckyeahmeikokaji]

Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子) and Noboru Nakaya (仲谷昇) in Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫), 1973, directed by Toshiya Fujita (藤田敏八).