After asking a number of artists that appear in our reviews and interviews to list their favorite movies of their country, we inaugurate a new column in Asian Movie Pulse, where we are going to present their selections.
The first “guest” of the column is no other than Toshiaki Toyoda, director of “Pornostar“, “Blue Spring”, “Hanging Garden” and “9 Souls” among others.
Here are his top ten Japanese films, in random order.
1. The Man Who Stole the Sun (Kazuhiko Hasegawa, 1979)
A high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation poisoning.
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2. Knock Out (Junji Sakamoto, 1989)
A Japanese boxer stages a dramatic and dangerous comeback after suffering brain damage in the ring
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them
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4. The Yakuza Papers (Kinji Fukasaku, 1973)
During the violent chaos of post-War Japanese black market, a young gangster called Shozo Hirono has to keep up with the rapid shifts of power between unscrupulous bosses.
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5. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other…and him.
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