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Experience

A “Friends”-themed exhibition and experience is setting up home permanently in London. Inspired by the iconic sitcom, The Friends Experience is set to open in a purpose-built location at London’s ExCel center this summer ahead of the show’s 30th anniversary this year.

The experience features full-scale recreations of the show’s sets, from Monica and Rachel’s apartment to the infamous “Pivot!” scene complete with couch, as well as costumes, backdrops, props and memorabilia. Guests can recreate some of their favorite on-screen moments and enjoy themed food and drinks as well as exclusive merch.

It has been created by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment, Original X Productions and Warner Bros. Television Group and is operated by U.K.-based The Luna Entertainment Group. Tickets can be purchased at www.FriendsTheExperience.com/London.

Homecoming

Philippines-born filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (Venice title “Lingua Franca”) has wrapped principal photography on her new film “Moonglow.

“The Love and Adventures of Kuroki Taro” is a weird film, even by Atg standards. It begins by showing Kuroki Taro and two other stuntmen in their line of work, even stating that “in this film, the stuntman is the star”. However, apart from these introductory scenes, the movie does not show any more behind the scenes footage in a film-about-film fashion, instead focusing on three different stories involving the titular character, and a side one, all of which are narrated by one of the initial characters, Juichi Ito. This last one is a rather personal one for Morisaki since he drew extensively from the war diary of his older brother Minato, who killed himself by harakiri the day after Japan's surrender.

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The first story involves Kuroki playing games with the police, essentially making them chase him by acting...

After years of countless propaganda productions orchestrated by an aggressive government with ultra-nationalistic desires, Japanese cinema started to see more of a pacifistic approach to the sensitive topic of World War II following its conclusion. Yet, plenty of filmmakers in Japan were not proud of the country's war activity and their leaders at the time. Directors like Akira Kurosawa would go on to shamefully disown the jingoistic projects that were assigned to them to make during the Second World War. Fast forward to 1952; once the American occupation was lifted, bold directors like Masaki Kobayashi, Ishiro Honda, and Kihachi Okamoto were free to make anti-war features presented on a more honest and grander scale. For filmmaker Kon Ichikawa, “The Burmese Harp” was his opportunity to express his distaste for the concept of war and his admiration for humanistic values.

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The...

The samurai special police force known as the Shinsengumi has been solidified as a significant part of Japanese history. The army of passionate warriors organized by the bakufu did everything in their power to try and protect the Tokugawa shogunate, as political conflict, bloodshed and war spread across Japan. Despite their controversial reputation, they remain popular in pop culture and entertainment. Various media would depict them, from anime to J-dramas to movies. One of the most popular feature films to adapt the true story of these violent warriors is Tadashi Sawashima’s “Shinsengumi: Assassins of Honor.”

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Director Tadashi Sawashima is primarily known for directing yakuza features. Still, he was no stranger to period pieces, so he is a fitting filmmaker to tell the story of the controversial bakufu swordsmen. Writing the screenplay is Kenro Matsuura and producing the...

Arrow Video floors us with yet another well-curated Japanese masterpiece. For practical purposes, this disc might represent the Western premiere of Tomu Uchida’s three-hour ‘crime and punishment’ saga. Unfolding like a novel and filmed with an unusually gritty visual scheme called ‘the Toei W106 method,’ the story’s timeline is split between 1947 and 1957. It has a strong postwar social statement to make, but the overriding theme is one of spiritual Karma, and the function of guilt in imperfect humans. Several of the actors are just unforgettable, especially Rentarô Mikuni, Junzaburô Ban, and Ken Takakura.

A Fugitive from the Past

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95

Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.

Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa

Special Effects: Sadao Uemura

Art Director: Mikio Mori...

The 79th Venice International Film Festival has just announced the line-up for the next edition. The 79th Venice International Film Festival is organised by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera. It will take place at Venice Lido from 31 August to 10 September 2022. The Festival is officially recognised by the Fiapf (International Federation of Film Producers Association).

The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.

Here are all the Asian Titles on the Programme:

Competition:

Love Life

Director Koji Fukada

Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’

Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)

Director Vahid Jalilvand

Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi,...

Hiroshi Inagaki’s “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” was a critical and box office success. It was time to continue the narrative in the second entry of “The Samurai Trilogy.” Inagaki would raise more stakes, and much of Musashi’s history would be covered, albeit in a more theatrically romanticized way. Also, a major player in the narrative would be introduced, one that would participate in a significant event in the life of Musashi Miyamoto. So much content would be covered in the entertaining follow-up “Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple.”

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A majority of the cast from the previous returned, but some were recast here. Rentaro Mikuni was replaced in the part of Matahachi Honiden by Sachio Sakai. This change was likely due to Mikuni’s demanding schedule as he became more and more of a popular star in Japan. The renowned talent would work with...

The famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto has been depicted in entertainment countless times with various interpretations. Some depictions of him are grounded and closer to his known history, while other versions are more romanticized in nature with elements of truth. Eiji Yoshikawa would detail the samurai’s life in his grand novel “Musashi,” which loosely details the life of the skilled warrior but with a fictional spin. Yoshikawa’s version of events would be the template for countless cinematic adaptations. One of the most popular adaptations is “The Samurai Trilogy,” directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, a three-part epic chronicle of the life of Musashi. The trilogy would be off to a terrific start in the first entry, “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto.”

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As typical with the work of Hiroshi Inagaki, high production values would be on full display and this time in luscious Eastmancolor. With Toho being the production company,...

★★★★★ Sadly overlooked by western audiences, Hiroshi Inagaki's superlative Samurai Trilogy is the definitive on screen depiction of legendary 17th-century swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. 1954's Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto begins with Takezo (Toshiro Mifune) losing the battle of Sekigahara with his friend Matahachi (Rentarô Mikuni) and on the run as a fugitive. Both men are brash and inexperienced, but where Matahachi is cowardly and lecherous, Takezo is full of inner turmoil, horribly aware of his inadequacies and lashing out at Matahachi and the women who shelter them after Sekigahara.

Harakiri

Written by Shinobu Hashimoto and Yasuhiko Takiguchi

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Japan, 1962

In the early 17th century, the Iyi clan abides by the bushido code to the letter in all its facets, sepukku, the traditional samurai suicide ceremony by which a warrior disembowels himself before being decapitated, being no exception. It is on a bright sunny day that one Tsugumo Hanshirô (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the Iyi estate, currently run by Saitô Kageyu (Rentarô Mikuni), to plead for space in order to perform a honourable act of seppuku. He claims that the regional peace has led to unemployment, and rather live like a dog, suicide as ordained by bushido seems preferable. Knowledgeable of the occurrences of bluff requests made by other ronin samurai that were merely looking for pittance, Saitô is suspicious of Hanshirô’s motives and begins to relate a recent story of another, younger former warrior (Akira Ishihama...

TOKYO -- Japanese film fans will like Yogi Yamada's ''My Sons, '' the non-competing opening night presentation at the Tokyo International Film Festival, for its unabashed tip of the hat to a venerable national tradition: the theme of the family nucleus.

In fact, Yamada's film can be viewed as a remake of Yasujiro Ozu's classic ''The Only Son'' (1936) and echoes sentiments treated in Mikio Naruse's remarkable films about poor but proud people living in the provinces: ''Mother'' (1952) and ''Older Brother, Younger Sister'' (1953) -- to say nothing of Yamada's own ''Family'' series that has continued uninterrupted on the screen since 1969.

''My Sons'' may be a natural for international festivals and Japanese film weeks, but it would take enlightened handling to boost its commercial chances beyond a modest score on the art-house circuit.

''My Sons'' is too burdened by its lengthy exposition of a single sentiment -- an aging peasant father getting to know his sons better -- without bringing us a step further psychologically along the way. What's missing is insight as to why the protagonists act the way they do, other than that we are dealing here with how the faster pace of modern life shakes the foundations of immutable family traditions.

The father, Akio -- played with finesse by Rentaro Mikuni -- summons his three children back to a provincial village to observe mourning rites on the first anniversary of their mother's death. Since he now lives alone, the children discuss with whom he could, and should, move in.

But the daughter is expecting a baby, the older son Tadashi (the father's favorite) lives in a crowded Tokyo apartment, and the younger son Tetsuo holds a menial job in a Tokyo fast food restaurant. The father, for his part, wants to stay put in the family house.

The story is told in three parts -- ''The First Anniversary of Mother's Death, '' ''Son in Love, '' and ''The Father Coming to Tokyo.'' But it's the last episode that gets the story off the ground when Akio uses the excuse of a war reunion to visit his two sons in Tokyo.

There he surprises Tetsuo in his modest living quarters, and discovers through the night that it's his younger son who best upholds the moral traditions of the family. Tetsuo -- Masatoshi Nagase of Jim Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train'' -- has fallen in love with a deaf mute, has now changed his job for one of hard manual labor, and shyly requests his father's permission to marry.

A film of finely observed details with even acting performances, ''My Sons'' was an appropriate choice to get the Tokyo festival off to a strong start.

MY SONS

Shochiku Co. Ltd., Tokyo

Writer-director Yogi Yamada

Director of photography Tetuo Takaba

Music Teizou Matsumura

Art director Mituo Degawa

Editor Ran Ishii

Color/Dolby

Starring: Rentaro Mikuni, Masatoshi Nagase, Emi Wakui

Running time -- 121 minutes

No MPAA rating

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...