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Based on a story by Leonard Schrader, who also wrote “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” and “The Man Who Stole the Sun”, “P.P. Rider” shares many similarities with “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun” particularly in the way it combines school students with yakuza. It is also worth mentioning that Somai's initial cut was four hours long, but he had to cut it in half in order to be presented as a double feature with “Urusei Yatsura: Only You”.

P. P Rider is screening on Metrograph

The film starts with a rather impressive long sequence which introduces us to the main characters and the event that the story centers on, with the chaos that ensues from the beginning essentially setting the tone for the whole movie. Nobunaga Deguchi seems to be the most obese kid in his classroom in highschool, but he also happens to be its bully, as...

Actor turned director turned actor again Kazuhiko Hasegawa had a very brief spur with his second capacity, but both of his works were rather successful. “The Man Who Stole the Sun” was considered on of the best titles of 1979 and has gathered a kind of a cult following, while Shohei Imamura-produced “Youth Killer”, shot four years before that, netted him and protagonist Mieko Harada a number of awards throughout Japan, particularly from Kinema Junpo.

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All the relationships Jun, a young man has, are rather extreme. His parents love him, but they have very specific purposes for him, having forced him to not go ahead with his schooling but instead run the family's snack bar, since the tire business the family is currently dealing with, has been declining for years. Jun has a girlfriend, Keiko, who seems quite hung up on him,...

Jia Zhangke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Holland will serve on the first jury for the Toronto International Film Festival's new competitive program, Platform. Laura Poitras, director of the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, is suing the U.S. government for having been subjected to "Kafkaesque harassment." Kristin Scott Thomas has been named an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in France. Someone's stolen F.W. Murnau's skull. Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Leos Carax, Robert Greene on Joshua Oppenheimer and Adam Curtisç, Grady Hendrix on Kazuhiko Hasegawa's The Man Who Stole the Sun—and more. » - David Hudson...

Jia Zhangke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Holland will serve on the first jury for the Toronto International Film Festival's new competitive program, Platform. Laura Poitras, director of the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, is suing the U.S. government for having been subjected to "Kafkaesque harassment." Kristin Scott Thomas has been named an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in France. Someone's stolen F.W. Murnau's skull. Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Leos Carax, Robert Greene on Joshua Oppenheimer and Adam Curtisç, Grady Hendrix on Kazuhiko Hasegawa's The Man Who Stole the Sun—and more. » - David Hudson...

In November 2014 Japanese Cinema lost two of its greatest: Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara. Since both legendary actors have had a great impact on the world of Japanese film and have starred in countless classic productions, I felt the need to write a short article about the matter and salute these two great actors.

On the 10th of November 2014, Ken Takakura passed away at the age of 83. He was known as the “Japanese Clint Eastwood”. Starting his career in 1955, Takakura became mostly known for his portrayal of tough but disciplined gangsters in the 1960s and 1970s. Most famous of these films is his performance as gangster Shinichi Tachibana in the Abashiri Prison series (1965-1972). This lead to him eventually working together with Sydney Pollack for the film The Yakuza (1974), his first international production.

But it wasn’t until 1989 before Takakura became internationally known by playing alongside Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia...

Kiss of the Spider Woman scribe Leonard Schrader has been named head of the AFI Conservatory's graduate screenwriting program. In his new post as senior filmmaker-in-residence: screenwriting, Schrader will oversee all screenwriting faculty at the Conservatory and teach both first- and second-year fellows. "We are thrilled to have such an outstanding member of the filmmaking and higher-education community as a member of the Conservatory's core faculty," Conservatory dean Sam Grogg said. "Len is a master of his art form, and screenwriting fellows will learn much under his tutelage." Schrader's professional career spans four decades and includes several projects on which he collaborated with his younger brother and AFI alumnus, writer-director Paul Schrader. The brothers collaborated on such films as The Yakuza, Blue Collar and Old Boyfriends. Leonard Schrader went on to write several successful Japanese films, including The Man Who Stole the Sun, before earning an Oscar nomination for Spider Woman in 1986. He made his directorial debut in 1991 with Naked Tango. As an educator, Schrader taught the screenwriting Master's thesis class at USC from 1996-99 and was an associate professor of film at Chapman University from 1999-2003.