Clark Parker

Clark Parker

Salaryman & biographer of Tokyo: history, art & architecture, Japanese film, cartography, Tokyo urban design & mass transit

Favorite films

  • Crazed Fruit
  • Tokyo Drifter
  • Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
  • A Legend, or Was It?

Recent activity

All
  • Thus Another Day

    ★★★★

  • A Legend, or Was It?

    ★★★★★

  • I Am Waiting

    ★★★½

Recent reviews

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  • Thus Another Day

    Thus Another Day

    ★★★★

    As a Tokyo and Japan history fanatic, I often enjoy Kinoshita's films for the on-location scenery as much as for the plots and acting.

    For scenery, "Thus Another Day" does not disappoint. Early on we get Enoshima, and a morning commute to central Tokyo, capped off by an exceptional view of the Tokyo Station area, which you can see here:

    thetokyofiles.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/thus-another-day-in-1959-tokyo/

    Broadly speaking, the film is about a woman and her son who escape the summer heat to the cool…

  • A Legend, or Was It?

    A Legend, or Was It?

    ★★★★★

    Wonderful film set in the far reaches of Japan during the final days of World War 2. It’s about small people, scared people, common people who are afraid of war, afraid of starvation, afraid of the end of empire. It paints a convincing picture of what life may have been like in Japan in the last days of the war. For pictures from the film, see:

    thetokyofiles.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/a-legend-or-was-it-kinoshitas-film-of-war/

  • I Am Waiting

    I Am Waiting

    ★★★½

    Perhaps a little light for a noir, but I really enjoyed this one for its Yokohama waterfront scenes and for the chemistry between Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, who also paired memorably in "Crazed Fruit" (1956).

    For pictures from "I am Waiting", see: thetokyofiles.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/i-am-waiting-for-scenes-from-yokohamas-waterfront/