Posts Tagged ‘japanese-culture’

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Drama | History | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Ohgo, Suzuka | Igawa, Togo | Mako | Futerman, Samantha | Sung, Elizabeth | Ikeda, Thomas | Gong, Li | Chin, Tsai | Momoi, Kaori | Weizenbaum, Zoe | Okihiro, David | Tachibana, Miyako | Kawamura, Kotoko | Yune, Karl | Yuan, Eugenia
Directors: Marshall, Rob
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto’s Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo’s bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha’s mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha’s world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.

Last Samurai, The (2003)

Thursday, February 1st, 2007
Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama | War
Countries: Japan | New Zealand | USA
Actors: Shin Koyamada | Watanabe, Ken | Cruise, Tom | Atherton, William | Lindberg, Chad | Godshall Sr., Ray | Connolly, Billy | Goldwyn, Tony | Harada, Masato | Odate, Masashi | Koyama, John | Spall, Timothy | Nakamura, Shichinosuke | Igawa, Togo | Nikaido, Satoshi | Wada, Shintaro
Directors: Zwick, Edward
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

In the 1870s, Captain Nathan Algren, a cynical veteran of the American Civil war who will work for anyone, is hired by Americans who want lucrative contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train the peasant conscripts for the first standing imperial army in modern warfare using firearms. The imperial Omura cabinet’s first priority is to repress a rebellion of traditionalist Samurai -hereditary warriors- who remain devoted to the sacred dynasty but reject the Westernizing policy and even refuse firearms. Yet when his ill-prepared superior force sets out too soon, their panic allows the sword-wielding samurai to crush them. Badly wounded Algren’s courageous stand makes the samurai leader Katsumoto spare his life; once nursed to health he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way, and participates as advisor in Katsumoto’s failed attempt to save the Bushido tradition, but Omura gets repressive laws enacted- he must now choose to honor his loyalty to one of the embittered sides when the conflict returns to the battlefield…