Shining a Light on Shimizu

16Mar09

Dave Kehr heralds the rediscovery of “the oceanic depth and diversity of Japanese cinema” in recent years, “thanks in no small part to home video,” in a lovely New York Times piece on the latest example of that, Eclipse Series 15: Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu. The set includes four of the largely obscured filmmaker’s most beautiful works, including Ornamental Hairpin, the climax of which, Kehr writes, is “one of the most devastating moments in Japanese film.”