Poll

Which one do you like best?

don't like any
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
7 (77.8%)
Undying Pearl (1929)
0 (0%)
Seven Seas: Virginity Chapter (1931)
0 (0%)
Seven Seas: Frigidity Chapter (1932)
0 (0%)
Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933)
2 (22.2%)
Mr. Thank You (1936)
0 (0%)
Forget Love For Now (1937)
0 (0%)
Children in the Wind (1937)
0 (0%)
A Star Athlete (1937)
0 (0%)
The Masseurs and a Woman (1938)
0 (0%)
Four Seasons of Children (1939)
0 (0%)
Nobuko (1940)
0 (0%)
Ornamental Hairpin (1941)
0 (0%)
Notes on an Itinerant Performer (1941)
0 (0%)
Introspection Tower (1941)
0 (0%)
Children of the Beehive (1948)
0 (0%)
Mr. Shosuke Ohara (1949)
0 (0%)
Mother's Love (1950)
0 (0%)
The Shiinomi School (1955)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Author Topic: Shimizu, Hiroshi  (Read 1157 times)

roujin

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Shimizu, Hiroshi
« on: January 01, 2012, 08:48:21 PM »


"People like me and Ozu get films made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius…" —Kenji Mizoguchi
« Last Edit: May 17, 2015, 02:53:37 PM by 1SO »

roujin

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Re: Shimizu, Hiroshi - Director's Best
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2012, 10:16:31 PM »

Japanese Girls at the Harbor Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933

Two young girls look out to the sea and wonder what will become of the rest of their lives. Soon, melodrama happens and their lives take radically different paths. One gets married to the boy they both used to like. The other becomes a bar girl (read prostitute) and leads a disreputable life. This is the most dramatic Shimizu film I've seen. Ornamental Hairpin and Mr. Thank You were both fairly relaxing jaunts with melancholy strains every once in a while. This, on the other hand, is sublime suffering, tears and wonderful framing. There's no proscenium theater silent movie nonsense going on here; Shimizu's style and composition are incredible. And often his technique is startling - those axial cuts that signify a traumatic moment of violence and link together two characters who never even knew they were so close together. But my favorite are his dissolves - characters don't often just walk off screen, they simply vanish. But all of it would be worthless if it weren't for Shimizu's hugely sympathetic portrayal of his characters and the weird way in which he manages to be both direct and oblique in his direction (we don't know how much time passes in the story, years?). Nothing but outlaws and refugees in this world. I am among them.

MartinTeller

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Re: Shimizu, Hiroshi - Director's Best
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2012, 10:54:26 PM »
1. Japanese Girls at the Harbor
2. Ornamental Hairpin
3. The Masseurs and a Woman

4. Mr. Thank You



Top 3 are all extremely close (Criticker scores 84, 83 and 83).  Would like to see more.

sdedalus

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Re: Shimizu, Hiroshi - Director's Best
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2012, 01:10:06 AM »
I love all four in the Eclipse set, but Japanese Girls is my favorite.  Hopefully, Criterion will release the other four from the Japanese set it's based on someday.
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jascook

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Re: Shimizu, Hiroshi - Director's Best
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2014, 08:25:14 AM »
Japanese Girls at the Harbor: 5/10
« Last Edit: August 06, 2014, 08:32:18 AM by jascook »
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