5 Lost Films by 5 Masters of Japanese Cinema

The Title Card for ISO NO GENTA, DAKINE NO NAGADOSU (1932)

Here is the list of lost films by 5 Japanese masters: Shozo Makino, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Sadao Yamanaka and Akira Kurosawa. I guess you may pick other films, but I will state my case.

Love, Be With Humanity (1931)

Love, Be With Humanity (1931)

Experience in a movie theater is not about the movie itself sometimes. It is about sharing time and space with total strangers. Most of the time, you don't know who this person is sitting in the next seat. Sometimes it's a guy munching on popcorn, sputtering the salver-coated debris whenever he finds something funny on the screen. Sometimes it's an old fat lady who wiggles in the seat uncomfortably whenever a sexually-explicit scene comes up. Of course, there is always a soul who just snores through whole 2 hours of matinée. But somehow we share the time and space, - and anticipation. We buy tickets to be captivated by something extraordinary. And if the movie is a silent film from 1931, directed by a lesser-known figure of Japanese cinema, screened with live piano accompaniment, you have the audience dedicated to the joy of cinematic experience. 

The Trio's Engagements (1937)

Ken Uehara, Shin Saburi, Shuji Sano in THE TRIO'S ENGAGEMENTS

Star system is always the central piece of movie industry. A big star muttering horrible lines in an awful script is still better than unknown actors playing the performance of the decade in an excellent indie movie. At least in box office terms. When you need a boost in numbers, you are better off with two stars instead of one. Let's make it three, then you have a sure hit.