Kaneto Shindo, Onibaba and Kuroneko
The Gutter’s own Carol was kindly invited to discuss director Kaneto Shindo and his ghostly films, Onibaba and Kuroneko on Monster Island Resort Podcast. If you’re curious, feel free to listen here.
RIP, Kaneto Shindo
Director and screenwriter Kaneto Shindo has died. He lived past 100 and made masterpieces including Onibaba, Kuroneko, Children of Hiroshima, Lucky Dragon No. 5 and The Naked Island. He also wrote the screenplays for Seijun Suzuki’s Fighting Elegy, Yasuzo Masumura Irezumi, Kinji Fukasaku’s Under the Flag of the […]
Jiraiya the Hero
A silent fantasy/folktale film from 1921 Japan, Jiraiya the Hero / Goketsu Jiraiya. (Thanks, Keith!)
When to start laughing: Homicidal hillbillies and absurd horror-comedies
Sometimes life is uncooperative. The consequences extend from our highest functions to the lowest corners of the cultural gutter. Here, friends, is the result of my non-compliant life situation: a list of things that make me think of other things, loosely organized around the theme of absurd horror-comedies! […]
Jack Kirby’s Collage
Imprint Magazine puts Jack Kirby’s collage in an art history context.
“Battle Royale and Japanese Nationalism”
This Japanese Life provides some historical context for Kinji Fukasaku’s film, Battle Royale–including an incident from Fukasaku‘s own life as a student drafted into a munitions factory, writer Yukio Mishima and the Hagakure: “Since the film deliberately omits much of the novel’s WW2-inspired alternative reality, I look at Kitano […]
The Cultural Gutter 