New York’s leading movie house for independent premieres and repertory programming
A nonprofit cinema since 1970
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New York’s leading movie house for independent premieres and repertory programming
A nonprofit cinema since 1970
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FILM FORUM AND JAPAN FOUNDATION are proud to welcome Tatsuya Nakadai to the U.S. for the opening week of the retrospective and related events (see below). Mr. Nakadai will be accompanied by his close friend Teruyo Nogami, right hand of director Akira Kurosawa for almost 50 years and a legend in her own right. RELATED EVENTS
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JUNE 20/21/22 FRI/SAT/SUN (1962, MASAKI KOBAYASHI) At an Edo clan mansion, ronin Nakadai, so penniless that ritual suicide is the only honorable
way out, asks for a haven to commit seppuku, and three
named samurai as his seconds. But as retainer Rentaro
Mikuni relates the horrific outcome of a similar recent request,
each of the seconds call in “sick” — and Nakadai begins
to tell his story, leading to a climactic battle that’s “as exciting
as any action-movie addict could wish” (Terrence
Rafferty, New York Times). Winner, Cannes Jury Prize.
“Played with something like demonic self-possession
by Nakadai... The pace is calculated to
extract every ounce of suspense.” – Vernon Young.
“Kobayashi’s rebellious sensibility found its
parallel in the actor he discovered, Nakadai . . .
He reveals a range worthy of Marlon
Brando.” – Joan Mellen. JUNE 23/24 MON/TUE (1966, HIROSHI TESHIGAHARA) As nurse Kyoko Kishida (the woman in
Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes) ministers, a businessman
facially scarred in an industrial fire gets fitted for an amazingly
lifelike mask — that leaves him looking exactly like Tatsuya
Nakadai! The only problem is, wife Machiko Kyo (Rashomon, Odd
Obsession) falls for the handsome stranger, then claims she
always knew it was him. The third
of four collaborations between
Teshigahara and novelist Kobo
Abe is an elegantly spooky, erotic,
and enigmatic examination of
identity. “Nakadai’s intense part
is an apt metaphor for his acting
career: he adopts different looks,
expressive methods, and
strategies for presenting himself
from one film to the next.” –
Howard Hampton. SPECIAL EVENT! JUNE 24 TUE (SEPARATE ADMISSION) AN EVENING WITH TATSUYA NAKADAI JUNE 25/26 WED/THU (1966, KIHACHI OKAMOTO) Against
the background of the Meiji
Restoration, Nakadai, as evil
fictional character Ryunosuke
Tsukue, carves his way to an
incredible climax, going berserk
in a burning building filled with
enemies. The ultimate in action,
boasting three of Okamoto’s
superbly staged one-against-all stage fights (one, at night as
snow softly falls amid the carnage, with guest star Toshiro
Mifune). “A manga-existential masterwork.” – Chuck
Stephens. “Ryunosuke is at once hero and villain, demon and
potential bodhisattva, and Nakadai’s stunning performance
incarnates perfectly the paradox at the heart of the character.”
– Geoffrey O’Brien. “Making De Niro’s Travis Bickle look like
Richard Simmons, the unearthly Nakadai is psychosis
crystallized.” – Jason Sanders, Pacific Film Archive. JUNE 26 THU (SEPARATE ADMISSION) ONIMASA JUNE 27 FRI (1969, HIDEO GOSHA) “Swept away by the gods,” an entire
village disappears overnight; a Shogunate gold shipment
(goyokin) sinks at sea; and feudal retainer Tetsuro Tamba,
faced with clan bankruptcy, decides he must take the ultimate
step. But when a similar horror looms again, Nakadai must
return from self-imposed exile to face both the extinction and
the salvation of his clan. With Nakadai (at his most icily
relentless) reaching new heights of derring-do, leading up to
the final duel in yard-deep snowdrifts, this was a last peak in
the genre. “A scintillating, marvelous action movie with
breath-catching pictorial beauty.” – Michael Wilmington, LA
Times. JUNE 28 SAT (1961, AKIRA KUROSAWA) Met in a seemingly deserted village by a
stray mutt sauntering past with a severed hand in its jaws,
unemployed Toshiro Mifune realizes a skilled yojimbo (bodyguard) could sure rake in the ryo in this town. And after
checking out the saké merchant’s thugs squaring off against the
silk merchant’s goon squad, twice as much, if he hires out to both sides — but then he nearly meets his match in Nakadai’s
pistol-waving killer (their confrontations are “like a face-off
between John Wayne and Elvis Presley” – Stuart Gailbraith). See
the sequel on July 17. JUNE 29/30 SUN/MON (1963, AKIRA KUROSAWA) Shoe company exec Toshiro Mifune is in
the midst of a mortgage-everything takeover battle when the
phone rings with a giant ransom demand for his son — but then
in walks... Adapted from an Ed McBain “87th Precinct” novel,
this is the ultimate kidnap movie, with Kurosawa at the peak of
his filmmaking powers: moral battles rage in a first hour almost
totally confined to a single room jammed with distraught family,
cynical advisers, and recorder-wielding cops led by super-cool
detective Tatsuya Nakadai; the
de rigueur money transfer aboard
the Shinkansen (bullet train);
sweaty police conferences shot
in deep focus; a near-invisible
drug pass in a jammed dance
hall; and the jailhouse interview
punctuated by the heaviest steel
door closing in film history. JUNE 30 MON (SEPARATE ADMISSION) (1969, SHIRÔ TOYODA) Arrogant, oppressive lord Kinnosuke
Nakamura, who wants a mural of Buddhist heaven, gives a
conditional okay to the counter offer of obsessive artist
Nakadai (who tortures apprentices to fine-tune his portrayals
of agony) to portray the hell he sees in the lord’s domain. But
there’s a surprise catch in store. Lavishly colorful and stylized
adaptation of the story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, author of Rashomon — with a truly horrific payoff. JULY 1 TUE (1967, KIHACHI OKAMOTO) Those killers, led by scrawnily creepy
“mad scientist” ex-Nazi Eisei Amamoto keep on coming after
slightly nerdy but hard-fighting Nakadai, a goofy pal, and sexy
Reiko Dan — what are they
after anyway? Why, the lost
diamond he’s unknowingly
had on him since he was . . .
eight!? Cuckoo, but bitingly
satirical contemporary chase
comedy, with Nakadai’s
sputtering, backfiring mini-car
providing farcical punctuation,
in dazzling b&w Scope from
action legend Okamoto. Aka Killer’s Age. JULY 2 WED JULY 3 THU (1960, MIKIO NARUSE) Just-turned-thirty widow Hideko
Takamine works as a bar hostess in an exclusive Ginza
nightclub, remaining high-minded while dreaming of opening
her own place, as round-heeled colleagues cash in and her
skirt-chasing manager Nakadai cheers her on while admiring
her from afar, amid suicides, her own ulcers, and marriage
proposals. “The supreme triumph of Scope filmmaking.”–
Chris Fujiwara, Film Comment. “An elegant essay in black and
white CinemaScope and tinkling cocktail jazz . . .Could give
heartbreak lessons to Fassbinder and Sirk.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice. JULY 4 FRI (1957, MASAKI KOBAYASHI) Amid the bars, brothels, pachinko
parlors, souvenir stands, and noodle shops around a U.S.
base, engineering student Fumio Watanabe plunges right into
triangle drama when his search for a cheap room leads to a
dive run by Isuzu Yamada (Throne of Blood’s “Lady Macbeth”):
waitress Ineko Arima is also pursued by aggressive, sun-glassed
gangster Nakadai, secretly on assignment from a
wheeler-dealer to drive out Yamada’s boarders. Searing
portrait of the unchecked corruption
around U.S. bases in Japan, with
memorable final sequence in the
rain, and Nakadai’s first, dynamic,
starring role. JULY 5 SAT (1967, MASAKI KOBAYASHI) In a time of peace under the
shogunate, faithful retainer Toshiro Mifune tests swords on
straw dummies and always plays it his Lordship’s way, even
when the lord decides to unload mistress Yoko Tsukasa
(Yojimbo) on Mifune’s son. But when the lord’s eldest son
dies, Tsukasa’s first child suddenly becomes heir, and the lord
wants her back. The incredibly built-up tension is orgasmically
released in Mifune’s most dramatically powerful one-against-all
fight, and in the final sequence, as Mifune squares off with
very reluctant buddy Nakadai (“As exciting as any duel ever
put on film.” – David Shipman). Winner, Kinema Jumpo Award
for Best Japanese film of 1967. JULY 6/7 SUN/MON KAGEMUSHA JULY 7 MON (SEPARATE ADMISSION) SOLAR ECLIPSE (1975, SATSUO YAMAMOTO) How to bankroll an epic 1964 battle
for the Prime Ministership? Why, hit up dentally-challenged
old school moneylender Jukichi Uno for a mammoth loan,
then pay it off with a kickback-stoked sweetheart deal to
build a gigantic river dam. No problem for cold-blooded
Cabinet Secretary Nakadai — except for the resentment of
the crafty Uno and the scandal-mongering of Rentaro Mikuni.
Based on the actual Kuzuryu Dam Case, from ace muckraker
Yamamoto (The Family, The Corporation, etc.). JULY 8 TUE TENCHU (HITOKIRI) (1969, HIDEO GOSHA) Meiji Restoration historical drama, with
anti-shogunate bigwig Nakadai playing star assassin Shintaro
(Zatoichi) Katsu for a sucker until he realizes that, if he can’t
save himself, he can take evil with him. A personal favorite
of Nakadai’s and containing perhaps Katsu’s finest serious
performance, this is Gosha’s action-packed masterpiece, with a
last scene shock effect guaranteed to straighten you in your
seat. And with the real Yukio Mishima, in a magnetic cameo, a
year before his real-life seppuku. “One of the most penetrating
and intense films Japan or any nation has produced in the last
two decades.” – Alain Silver. JULY 9 WED UNTAMED JULY 10 THU JULY 11/12 FRI/SAT (1985, AKIRA KUROSAWA) A giant battle fought solely to music,
culminating in a single gunshot; an entire castle burnt to the
ground, as Nakadai’s glassy-eyed lord staggers down steep
stone steps; an ice-cold seducer stopping in mid-embrace to
kill a bug: Kurosawa’s adaptation of King Lear proved the
master’s flair for epic sweep and stylistic innovation undimmed
at age 75. “What I asked of him [Nakadai] — and which he
accomplished successfully —
was the passage from folly to
reason. One of the most difficult
scenes was where he begins to
go mad as burning arrows fly
behind him. No other actor could
have done that. You’d need to
have great mastery of yourself to
act as he acted.” – Kurosawa. JULY 13 SUN KWAIDAN (1964, MASAKI KOBAYASHI) Rentaro Mikuni finds a skeleton at the
feast when he adds a second wife; woodcutter Nakadai meets
a strange woman in the snow, but he’s got to keep it a secret;
a blind biwa player must give a command performance for a
ghost; Kanemon Nakamura sees an apparition in a cup of tea:
four ghost stories by expatriate Lafcadio Hearn. Kobayashi’s
first, practically hand-crafted, color film (he painted the sets
himself), with eerie Toru Takemitsu electronic score and the
totally studio-created naval battle of Dannoura particular
highlights. JULY 14 MON (1959, KON ICHIKAWA) A bad case of E.D. for antiquity maven
Ganjiro Nakamura — bad enough, but then he’s married to
traditional but super-sensual Machiko Kyo (Rashomon). Maybe
if he can get his handsome doctor Nakadai (who opens the film
with a smug direct-to-the-audience lecture on the problems of
aging) to make love to her while he spectates, jealousy will get
the old fires burning. Black comic adaptation of Junichiro
Tanizaki’s scandalous classic Kagi (The Key). “Erotic
obsession presented with near-claustrophobic intensity.” –
Donald Richie. “Perverse in the best sense of the word. . . I
don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that gave such a feeling of
flesh.” – Pauline Kael. JULY 15/16 TUE/WED (1968, KIHACHI OKAMOTO) “Kill all samurai!” Corrupt officials
square off against idealistic young retainers, dropout samurai
pacifist Nakadai keeps it cool, and the ensuing mass fights,
nonstop scheming, mountain sieges, last-minute rescues,
and final showdown — here a duel with darts in a closet-sized
room — proceed at machine-gun tempo. An obstacle course
for the logically minded until a single incident near the halfway
point, where everything almost magically falls into place; but
that’s part of Okamoto’s skillful combination of violence and
hilarity — amidst all the carnage, it begins and ends with
Nakadai hungrily pursuing a chicken. Adapted from the same
novel as Sanjuro (see July 17). “Anarchically exhilarating and
archly self-skewering.” – Chuck Stephens, Village Voice. JULY 16 WED (SEPARATE ADMISSION) (1958, KON ICHIKAWA) Buddhist acolyte Raizo Ichikawa
(Japan’s James Dean in a change of pace character part),
afflicted with a stutter and obsessed with beauty, is
continually repelled by the corruption of the world —
exemplified by his cynical club-footed friend Nakadai (“a
bravura performance” – Dennis Washburn) — until he is
finally impelled to destroy the thing he loves best. Adaptation
of Yukio Mishima’s novel Temple of the Golden Pavillion,
based on a real incident. Striking b&w Scope photography by
the great Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Yojimbo) makes it a
visual feast. Aka Enjo and Flame of Torment (!). JULY 17 THU (1962, AKIRA KUROSAWA) In a secluded temple, a group of painfully
sincere young samurai meet in secret to plan how to save the
day in their clan’s power struggle — then they hear this yawn.
It’s Toshiro Mifune, repeating his role (with variations) as
Sanjuro, grudgingly proceeding to straighten out, bail out, and
shock the straight arrows. Nakadai, resurrected from Yojimbo (it’s a different character), is an even more formidable
antagonist; his showdown with Mifune comes to a conclusion
startling even to the actor: Kurosawa had a never-before-used
special effect up his sleeve. JULY 18 - AUGUST 7 THREE WEEKS! |
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HARAKIRI
THE FACE OF ANOTHER
From his reputed discovery, by director Masaki
Kobayashi, as a 20ish shop clerk, to Kobayashi’s epic 
SWORD OF DOOM
(1982, HIDEO GOSHA) In brutal undercutting of the yakuza genre,
1920s oyabun (gang boss) Nakadai’s decades-long duel with
corrupt boss of bosses Tetsuro Tamba begins with his vow to
avenge a dog (the sore owner of the loser in a mastiff duel had
killed the winner’s entry). Mostly viewed through the eyes of
his adopted daughter Masako Natsume (her tag line: “I’m the
daughter of the great Onimasa! Don’t mess with me!”), this is
as much a character portrait as an action drama, with dewy
Ozu star Shima Iwashita memorable as Nakadai’s tough
tomato wife. Nominated for ten Japanese Academy Awards
and winning for Art Direction.
GOYOKIN
YOJIMBO
HIGH AND LOW
PORTRAIT OF HELL
AGE OF ASSASSINS
I AM A CAT
WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS 
BLACK RIVER
SAMURAI REBELLION
IMMORTAL LOVE 
RAN
ODD OBSESSION
KILL!
CONFLAGRATION
SANJURO