Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji

by Tom Mes, Nathanael Marsh (illustrator), Meiko Kaji

Meiko Kaji - Queen of the Japanese Action Film! With such iconic roles as Lady Snowblood and Female Prisoner Scorpion she defined a decade of cult cinema, creating an archetype of female strength that was equal parts ferocious and mysterious. Devoting plenty of space to her star-making turns as Scorpion and Lady Snowblood, Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji goes beyond the movies that made her name. This book traces her career from its earliest beginnings as a teen model and tomboyish basketball fanatic to Kaji's critically-lauded and versatile performances for master directors including Kinji Fukasaku and Kon Ichikawa. Author Tom Mes also investigates Kaji's acting work in television and the singing career that would eventually introduce her to a whole new, international audience as the musical cornerstone to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Tom Mes is the author of books on cult Japanese filmmakers Takashi Miike and Shinya Tsukamoto and was one of the founders of the Midnighteye website, the world's go-to website for information on Japanese cinema. Cover illustration: Nathanael Marsh

Genres: Film, Japan

155 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2017

About the author

As a film critic he has contributed to publications that include Film Comment, Sight and Sound, Rue Morgue, De Filmkrant, Kateigaho and many others. He has provided liner notes and audio commentaries for numerous DVD releases of Japanese films around the world. He also has a background in animation as a scriptwriter and storyboard artist.

Tom Mes is a writer and translator of books.

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic little retrospective of the films and career of one of Japan's most iconic (if woefully unsung) actresses. Biographies of this sort are quite difficult to come across for Western readers, so this one was a real treat, published by Arrow, who are also responsible for a whole slew of very high-quality blu-ray releases of many of her legendary films. A quick, informative (if broad) read, worth picking up for any fans of this dark-eyed, laconic queen of revenge pictures.

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uncahined Melody: The Films Of Meiko Kaji (2017) by Tom Mes is a great overview of the career of Japanese film star Meiko Kaji. She is best know for her Lady Snowblood films that were inspirational for Quentin Tarantino's wildly popular Kill Bill films. The book starts out with an overview in Chapter 1: Meiko Kaji: Defiant Anti-Star. Most Chaptesr focus on different stages of screen career and contain profiles of important directors in her career: 2: The early Nikkatsu years / Director profile: Masahiro Makino, 3. Kick Out the Jams!: The Stray Cat Rock series and the birth of an outlaw / Director profile: Yashuharu Hasebe, 4. They Call Her Scorpion: Achieving stardom with Female Prisoner Scorpion / Director Profile: Yasuzo Masumura, 5. The Crimson Kimono: The brief reign of Lady Snowblood / Director profile: Toshiya Fujita, 6. From Grudge to Passion: Kinji Fukusaku and the making of an actress / Director profile: Kinji Fukusakau, and 7. "Women are the more human": Yasuzo Masumura and death of a star / Director profile: Yasuzo Masumura. The last two focus on her non-film exploits: 8. A Serial Actress: Meiko Kaji on television and 9. Love Songs of Vengeance: Maiko Kaji, the singer. The book also contain s a useful Filmography, Album Discography, list of Blu-ray and DVDs, and Bibliography. In preparation for reading this book, I sought out the Stray cat Rock series and some earlier films of Kaji's that I had not seen and enjoyed going down the exploitation rabbit hole for a weeks. Most of these films are nothing if not entertaining and a telling look at the postwar history of Japan. Some of the films are out and out masterpieces of their genre, so worth searching out by even casual film goers

[Brian_roesler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating survey of Meiko Kaji, an incredibly prolific actress that navigated and blossomed her career among great social conflict. Tom Mes is one of the foremost experts in the world of Japanese film, and his prior works on Miike and Tsukamoto certainly felt much more comprehensive in scope. While there's some fascinating anecdotes that help bring the margins of this work to life, there's just not enough about Kaji herself, she's still presented as an absolute cipher, inaccessible, superhuman, which we all know is far from the truth. Regardless, there's no one else who's even attempted to tackle this subject, and for that alone the effort is significant.

[Malachi Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fits nicely along side your Arrow film collection.