Honda only saw a train for the first time when, in the third grade, he moved with the rest of his family to Tokyo - where he was introduced to movies. Born in 1911 in a small town to a father whoвЂ™d become a monk, Honda learned about the wider world from science magazines his brother sent to him from Tokyo. If Kurosawa was noted for being argumentative and dictatorial, Honda was reserved but friendly. He started by noting that Honda was great friends with Akira Kurosawa, dating back to the 1930s while KurosawaвЂ™s films presented Japanese art cinema to the world, HondaвЂ™s work received the first international release of a nonвЂ“art-house Japanese film.

Godziszewski talked about HondaвЂ™s life with a slideshow accompaniment. Godziszewski talked about the experience of seeing 25 films heвЂ™d known nothing about, and how they demonstrated that Honda was a versatile, wide-ranging filmmaker. Honda had done a lot of realist movies, especially in the 50s, that had been lost to the public for a long time and were only now beginning to show up again. Godziszewski began by recalling how his book came about, with the assistance of HondaвЂ™s family, and how he and Ryfle were able to see HondaвЂ™s entire body of work, including films never seen outside of Japan and rarely inside. Without wanting to replicate HondaвЂ™s Wikipedia entry (which is relatively sparse, anyway), I want to mention some of the more interesting points Godziszewski raised. Nevertheless, what he had to say was fascinating. It was clear that Godziszewski knew his stuff, though he had so much material he ran out of time before the film had to start. The book comes out on October 3, with a foreword by Honda fan Martin Scorsese. It was preceded by a talk about HondaвЂ™s life given by Ed Godziszewski, who had co-written (with Steve Ryfle) Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. I liked the variety the films seemed to represent, and I was especially curious about The H-Man, which had been directed by Ishiro Honda, director of Godzilla. Finally, IвЂ™d wrap up the day with a contemporary movie, the manga adaptation Gintama, which promised a mix of action and comedy. I intended to follow that up with another vintage movie, the Shaw BrothersвЂ“produced 1983 film Bastard Swordsman ( Tian can bian). Sunday, July 23, I was down at FantasiaвЂ™s De SГЁve Theatre before noon to see a screening of the 1958 film The H-Man ( Bijo To Ekatai-Ningen).

Gintama duck