Japanese Film Mother

If Japanese animation is gaining an ever-increasing legion of overseas admirers, the work of those active outside of the nation's major studios still appears to be bewilderingly overlooked. One such character is Kihachiro Kawamoto, a pioneer in the neglected field of stop motion puppet animation. Born in 1925, Kawamoto has been working in the medium since the 50s, but it was not until a fortuitous meeting with the Czech maestro Jiri Trnka that his puppets truly began to take on a life of their own.

Based on a centuries old tale with roots in real events, Chikamatsu Monogatari [A Tale From Chikamatsu, aka The Crucified Lovers] tells the hauntingly tragic story of a forbidden love affair between a merchant’s wife, Osan (Kyoko Kagawa), and her husband’s employee, Mohei (Kazuo Hasegawa), in an era when the punishment for adultery was crucifixion. When a series of innocent events lead to the false accusation of an affair between Osan and Mohei, the accused pair are forced to flee an almost certain death sentence. On the run, the outlaw couple grow closer together, drawn inexorably towards the romantic crime of which they are accused. In the hands of Mizoguchi, Chikamatsu Monogatari depicts two people caught up in a constricted world where true love and social obligation are at odds. His portrayal of the lovers’ dilemma lead famed director Akira Kurosawa to describe the film as “a great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi.”
The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Mizoguchi’s films for the first time on home video in the UK - Chikamatsu Monogatari is only available as a twinpack with Uwasa no Onna.

Collection includes: Back To The Light (1992); Resurrection - Japanese Tour Mini Album (1993) with Cozy Powell; Live At The Brixton Academy (1994) as The Brian May Band; Red Special - Japanese Tour Mini Album (1998); Furia: Soundtrack (2000).

A stellar cast in a saga of a comfortable suburban family's unraveling after the family home is mortgaged.

The Ring is based on Koji Suzuki's novel Ring is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film of the same name, and focus on a mysterious cursed videotape which contains a seemingly random series of disturbing images. After watching the tape, the viewer receives a phone call in which a girl's voice announces that the viewer will die in seven days. The Ring Two is a sequel to the 2002 film The Ring. This sequel is not based on any of the previous Japanese sequels to Ring, and is an original storyline, continuing from The Ring.

~ The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn; A Saucerful Of Secrets; Soundtrack From The Film 'More'; Ummagumma; Atom Heart Mother; Meddle; Relics; Obscured By Clouds; The Dark Side Of The Moon; Wish You Were Here; Animals; The Wall; The Final Cut; A Momentary Lapse of Reason; Delicate Sound of Thunder; The Division Bell ~