Fifth Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival: Day #2: Black Test Car (1962; Japan; Yasuzo Masumura)

by Sachin Gandhi That car’s dirty. It’s dirty..black as pitch Yasuzô Masumura’s Black Test Car is a brilliant industrial espionage film about two rival car manufacturers who are racing to get their sports car first to the market. The film shows that the car manufacturers will spy, lie, cheat and go to any extreme lengths to get […]

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Blind Beast – 1969, Yasuzo Masumura

by Allan Fish (Japan 1969 84m) DVD1/2 Aka. Môjuu In the Realm of the Senses p  Masaichi Nagata, Kazumasa Nakano  d  Yasuzo Masumura  w  Yoshio Shirasaka  story  Rampo Edagawa  ph  Setsuo Kobayashi  ed  Tatsuji Nakashizu  m  Hikaru Hayashi  art  Shigeo Mano Eiji Funakoshi (Michio), Mako Midori (Akki), Noriko Sengoku (mother), And what a realm it […]

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Manji – 1964, Yasuzo Masumura

  by Allan Fish (Japan 1964 96m) DVD1/2 Aka. Passion Would you die with me? p  Yonejiro Saito  d  Yasuzo Masumura  w  Kaneto Shindo  novel  Jin’ichiro Tanizaki  ph  Setsuo Kobayashi  ed  Tatsuji Kokashizu  m  Tadashi Yamauchi  art  Tomoo Shimogawara Ayako Wakao (Mitsuko Tokumitsu), Kyoko Kishida (Sonoko Kakiuchi), Yusuko Kawazu (Eijiro Watanuki), Eiji Funakoshi (Kotaro Kakiuchi), […]

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Giants and Toys – 1958, Yasuzo Masumura

by Allan Fish (Japan 1958 95m) DVD1 Aka. Kyojin to Gangu You can’t link caramels to space! p  Hidemasa Nagata  d  Yasuzo Masumura  w  Ishio Shirasaka  ph  Hiroshi Murai  ed  Tatsuji Chujo  m  Tetsuo Tsukahara  art  Tomoo Shimogawara  Hiroshi Kawaguchi (Yousuke Nishi), Hitomi Nozoe (Kyoko Shima), Hideo Takamatsu (Ryuji), Michiko Ono (Masami Kurahashi), Yonosuke Ito […]

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The East (De Oost) and Top 100 Japanese poll results on Monday Morning Diary (August 23)

by Sam Juliano This past week our great friend and stupendous film writer Jim Clark published another brilliant essay in his Tarkovsky series on the director’s late career Nostalgia. I just resumed with my second novel An Irish Jesus in Fairview, though I am anticipating it won’t wrap until mid-to late September, because of the […]

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Endless Tears for Our Beloved Icon on Thursday Morning Diary (September 15)

by Sam Juliano The funeral service on Monday in Kendal (U.K.) for Allan Fish included an exceedingly beautiful celebration of his life at the Cathedral-like Kendal Parish Church. It was lovingly moderated by the Rev. Jo Hurst, I was beyond deeply honored to deliver a eulogy for my dear friend, -along with Allan’s uncle Dave […]

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5,000 Best Screen Works

by Allan Fish   Titles followed by an asterisk (*) are those I don’t possess copies of, though some I have seen.  Those followed by an x (x) are foreign films I have copies of, but wthout English subtitles.     1878 The Horse in Motion (US…Eadweard Muybridge)   1888 Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (UK…Louis […]

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The Most Important 5,000 Screen Works of All Time – A Chronology

by Allan Fish A few years ago, in response to requests from various people I caved in an did a top 3,000 films list.  Despite the success of countdowns on this site, I’m not really one for ordering film or any art for that matter.  Having set levels – ratings, whatever you want to call […]

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Black Snow 1965, Tetsuji Takechi

by Allan Fish (Japan 1965 88m) DVD2 (Japan only, no English subs) Aka. Kuroi yuki She was like a pack of marshmellows d/w  Tetsuji Takechi  ph  Takeo Kurata  ed  Hanzaburo Kaneko  m  Joji Yuasa Kotobuki Hananomoto (Jiro), Yōichiro Mikawa, Chitose Kurenai, Yasuko Matsui, Takako Uchida, Mariko Taki, Akira Ishiyama, Chojiro Hanagawa, Chieko Murata, The name […]

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Bakumatsu Taiyoden – 1957, Yuzo Kawashima

by Allan Fish (Japan 1957 110m) DVD2 Aka. The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era I’d kill all the crows in the world p  Takeshi Yamamoto  d  Yuzo Kawashima  w  Keiichi Tanaka, Shohei Imamura, Yuzo Kawashima  ph  Kurataro Takamura  m  Toshiro Mayuzumi  art  Shohei Imamura Frankie Sakai (Inokori Sahaiji), Sachiko Hidari (Osome), […]

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