Movies: Sumiko Haneda

This film depicts the life of the 19th-century Portuguese writer Wenceslau De Moraes by means of nine ancient ballads from China. The writer married a Chinese woman after he left his wife and family to go live in Macao. Later, he moved to Japan where...

Set in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, the tragic theme of the film is the destruction of millions of lives in the 13 years before Manchukuo collapsed with Japan’s World War II surrender in August 1945, and the years of suffering it brought i...

A short documentary about the behaviour of Japanese primary school students....

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Iwate Prefecture, Ohasamacho. In the foothills of Mt. Hayachine, the kagura (devotional dance) offered to the mountain goddess by the mountain priests is still performed today nearly unchanged from mediaeval times. This dance, which has been handed d...

The care facilities for the elderly in a small town in Gifu prefecture, and the comparison with the welfare in Denmark, Sweden and Australia....

Documentary on end-of-life care in Japan...

Devotion investigates the extremely complex and heirarchical relationships among a committed group of Japanese filmmakers who dedicated up to 30 years of their lives making films for one man-Ogawa Shinsuke. Members of Ogawa Pro filmed the student mo...

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This extraordinary film presents Japanese classical scroll painting as never before. The Yamanaka Tokiwa comprises twelve scrolls painted by Matabei Iwasa some 400 years ago. Haneda redefines the art documentary and demonstrated that a film about a m...

Documentary film from Japan....

Haneda Sumiko, documentary filmmaker who was born in Dalian, Manchuria in 1926 and was there to experience the conclusion of the Pacific War. Following her previous work , she revisits Dalian and Lushun, places where she spent her formative years. Lu...

Sumiko Haneda returns to film what will be the final bits of Akiko Kanda's life, documenting Kanda's will to dance as she struggles with terminal cancer....

The poignant focal point for this film is a cherry tree that is over 1400 years old. Beginning with the tree, the director then explores the families and environment around the tree. The editing and music contribute to the sense of a haunting past co...

Short documentary made for the communities at the foot of Mount Hayachine. Not satisfied with it, Haneda expanded it into what eventually became Ode to Mt. Hayachine (Hayachine no fu)...

Toru Iwakawa is elected mayor of Takanosu on the platform of improving welfare. With the support of a group formed by residents, he aims to develop a "care town" to stop the isolation of the elderly. However, the town council refuses to support his p...

Documentary on pioneer Japanese feminist Hiratsuka Raicho...

Mayor Iwakawa was voted into office in 1991, promising better welfare for senior citizens. As a result of his efforts to create a town with resident participation, while battling against anti-reform forces of the town council, Takanosu-machi becomes ...

In 1982, the socialist researcher Ishidō Kiyotomo organized a round table with women activists who had participated in the rise of the labor movement, from the Taishō era (1912-1925) to the Shōwa era (1926-1989). At his request, Haneda records this m...

Commissioned by the Tokyo National Museum, this film, regarded in some quarters as the masterpiece of Haneda’s Iwanami period, is one of several in which she documented Japan’s ancient and classical artistic treasures. Here she focuses on the Tokyo N...