Why are Japanese films so terrible?

I watched four of those Tanaka films recently and yeah they were all good. Some great cinematography and mise en scene at times... she'd clearly learned some things from working with Mizoguchi.

watched Osaka Elegy just now. it's well regarded but probably one for the heads.

anyway, in one bit they go to the theatre to see Banraku, the classic Japanese puppet plays. i can't remember seeing this in any other film. are there any others?

Takeshi Kitano's Dolls:

The first story is the one on which the film centers. The film leads into it by opening with a performance of Bunraku theatre, and closes with a shot of dolls from the same. The performance is that of "The Courier for Hell" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and it alludes to themes that reappear later in the film. Because the rest of the film itself (as Kitano himself has said) can be treated as Bunraku in film form, the film is quite symbolic.

(imdb lists 4, Dolls and Oharu and something Western. i don't remember the bit in Oharu and haven't seen Dolls)

((also puzzled by the fact 'hair-bun' is a thing people tag movies with))

I saw The Courier for Hell when I visited the Bunraku theatre in Osaka, it was heartbreaking!

Not a movie but Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles has a lot of bunraku in it iirc

I know there's some films made of bunraku performances, but I can't think of any that are part of the plot. a lot more with Noh plays etc
feel like I should mention Thunderbolt Fantasy here, a Japan/Taiwan wuxia puppet TV show created by Gen Urobuchi of Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, Psychopass etc. fame. it's as daft as it sounds!

Shinoda’s Double Suicide uses bunraku as a narrative element iirc

a lot of the bunraku plays themselves seen to involve double suicides (based on the list of 10 or so top chikamatsu whatsisname plays i found online)

the bookseller in the film i watched last week had a bunch of double suicide titles too, i wonder if they were the same ones?

I watched A Colt Is My Passport the other day: a superb noir with a lot of western (the genre) touches including a very good Morricone-esque soundtrack

xp yeah the film is a bunraku adaptation

Colt Is My Passport very good yeah, def the highlight of that criterion Nikkatsu set