Directed by Kon Ichikawa • 1965 • Japan
A spectacle of magnificent proportions and remarkable intimacy, Kon Ichikawa’s TOKYO OLYMPIAD remains one of the greatest films ever made about sports. Supervising a vast team of technicians using scores of cameras, Ichikawa captured the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo in glorious widescreen images, using cutting-edge telephoto lenses and exquisite slow motion to create lyrical, idiosyncratic poetry from the athletic drama surging all around him. Drawn equally to the psychology of losers and winners—including the legendary Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, who receives the film’s most exalted tribute—Ichikawa captures the triumph, passion, and suffering of competition with a singular humanistic vision, and in doing so effected a transformative influence on the art of documentary filmmaking.
Up Next in Cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa
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Silence
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1971 • Japan
Starring David Lampson, Don Kenny, Tetsuro TanbaTwo Portuguese priests go to Japan to help Christian sects, driven underground by a ruthless magistracy, to regain a foothold. Quickly drawn into a mire of persecution, the missionaries learn the fat...
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Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril
Lone Wolf and Cub #4
Directed by Buichi Saito • 1972 • JapanIn this distinctly lowbrow entry in the LONE WOLF AND CUB series, Itto Ogami is hired by the Owari clan to assassinate a tattooed woman who is killing her enemies and cutting off their topknots. Meanwhile, Daigoro is separated from his...
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The World of Kazuo Miyagawa
Renowned cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa collaborated with a number of great Japanese filmmakers, including Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa, and Yasujiro Ozu. The following excerpts from the Japanese television documentary THE WORLD OF KAZUO MIYAGAWA explore Miyagawa and Kurosawa’s w...
