Latest news with #ImperialJapaneseArmy
Asahi Shimbun
a day ago
- General
- Asahi Shimbun
Imperial couple visits Okinawa for WWII's 80th anniversary
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, visit Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, on June 4 ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Koichi Ueda) Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, visited Okinawa Prefecture on June 4 ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. This is part of the imperial couple's journey to commemorate the war dead and pass on memories of the deceased 80 years after the war's end. Naruhito and Masako visited Iwoto island, formerly known as Iwojima, in April for the same purpose. The family departed on the morning from Haneda Airport in Tokyo on a dedicated plane for a two-day trip in Okinawa Prefecture. This is the couple's first visit to Okinawa since 2022, the 50th anniversary of Okinawa's return to Japan after being under U.S. rule, and the second since Naruhito's accession to the throne. Aiko is visiting the prefecture for the first time. The Battle of Okinawa, which began in late March 1945 and lasted approximately three months, claimed the lives of more than 200,000 U.S. and Imperial Japanese Army troops and civilians, including 120,000 Okinawans. The southern part of Okinawa Prefecture's main island saw the largest number of casualties that June as retreating Japanese troops and displaced residents packed into the area. The remains of Japanese soldiers and residents are housed at the national war cemetery that the three visited, offering bouquets of white flowers, including lilies, in front of the ossuary. They said a few words to each of the officials of the prefectural bereaved families association who were present. The family next visited the 'Heiwa no Ishiji' (the Cornerstone of Peace) in the Peace Memorial Park, where the names of more than 200,000 war dead are inscribed, regardless of nationality and whether they were military or civilians. They were also scheduled to meet with survivors at the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum located in the same park.
NHK
3 days ago
- General
- NHK
Memorial held for victims of 'Death Railway'
A memorial service was held Sunday in western Thailand for people who died building the Thai-Burma Railway in World War Two. It earned the name "Death Railway" due to the huge number of lives lost during its construction. The now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army began building the railroad in 1942 as a supply route to the Burmese front. Experts say the army mobilized over 200,000 people, including British and other Allied prisoners of war, to work on the railway. Tens of thousands are estimated to have perished due to harsh working conditions and disease. The railway was made famous by the Oscar-winning film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." At a temple in Kanchanaburi, where railroad workers from Asian countries are said to be buried, about 20 people attended the remembrance ceremony. An 80-year-old woman said her father was taken away to work on the railway while her mother was pregnant with her. She said that 80 years after the war "we are struggling, struggling, struggling," with victims' families unable to know where or how their forebears died. The commemoration was first held at the temple two years ago. Appanah hopes future generations will remember -- and pray for -- those who gave the Death Railway its name.
Daily Express
25-05-2025
- General
- Daily Express
Local Death March heroes
Published on: Sunday, May 25, 2025 Published on: Sun, May 25, 2025 Text Size: From left to right: Ernesto, Jemadar Ojager, Stookes and Alex Funk I wish to share in the commemoration service in honour of the Australian and British POWs of WWII who fought, suffered and died for freedom at the death camp of Sandakan, North Borneo (now Sabah, Malaysia) and the death marches from the coastal town of Sandakan to the hill town of Ranau. This was a distance of 260 km through varied and difficult terrain, whilst they were already sick and greatly weakened, yet still made to carry items for the Japanese. Those events are well known, so I am going to tell you about the local people about whom you know less and some of whose names are probably unknown to you. I am proud and honoured to tell a little about the men, women, even children who reached out to the POWs, strangers in their midst, to try to alleviate their suffering and give them hope by smuggling food, medicine, intelligence and items to build a radio receiver so that they could have some knowledge of what was happening with the Allied effort against the Japanese, beyond their camp. All their efforts took place in a climate of fear of an all-powerful, ruthless occupying Imperial Japanese Army and they risked not only their own lives, but also those of their families. In Singapore, General Percival had 84,000 troops at his command. Yet, in late 1940 the Governor of the Chartered Company of North Borneo, the administrative body of North Borneo, was advised that the army could not defend them. Advertisement Bad news also awaited the 15,000 Australian troops sent to Singapore. Some had just landed, only to be told that they were surrendered. My husband's uncle, Ted Hurst, was one of them; when he returned from Hellfire Pass and later time in Japanese coal mines, he said that the troops were very unimpressed with the decision to so quickly surrender. Thus, the scene was set for two groups of people, the people of North Borneo and the Australian and British POWs, who probably knew very little about each other to share a destiny of suffering some of the most cruel actions that man can inflict on man and counter them with the most heroic, selfless and compassionate acts of which humanity is also capable. The locals formed an underground that passed food, medicine, money to the POWs. They also aided escapees, planned the rescue from Berhala Island and also passed on intelligence to the POWs and Allied forces at Libaran Island (north west of Sandakan) who were then able to relay that vital information to the base at Morotai Island, which is in the group of the Maluku Islands of Eastern Indonesia. Whilst on the death marches it was mainly (but not exclusively) the Dusun and Kadazan people who spontaneously aided the POWs in any and every way that they could. They were mainly responsible for saving the lives of eight escapees from the death marches : Owen Campbell, Richard Braithwaite, Keith Botterill, William Moxham, Nelson Short – Don Anderson although saved was too ill to survive; also William Sticpewich and Herman Reither, but Herman Reither did not survive. There are so many people involved, so many facets to the activities of the underground and the Dusun and Kadazan people who lived along the death march route, that it is not possible to convey them all in this speech. Thus, I have decided to concentrate on those members of the underground who on 2nd March, 1944, their common grave already dug even before their 'trial', were executed by the Japanese for their roles in the fight against them and in support of the POWs. As he stood in the livingroom of his house, watching the POWs being marched to the camp at Sandakan, Ernesto Lagan, vowed to help them in any way that he could. Ernesto was husband to Katherine and they had a young family, Christopher, Alban, Evelyn and Agatha. He was a policeman; although the Japanese knew that they could not be sure of the loyalty of the locals, they had little choice but to use them. However, Ernesto, chose to join the Japanese police force in order to gain information which he passed on. He was also involved in the planning of the rescue of the POWs from Berhala Island, in the mouth of Sandakan Bay. Ernesto and others, their faces covered in black to hide their identities, would meet at his house to share information and plan their activities, his children were not permitted anywhere near the room, as an added precaution for security. When the underground was discovered, Ernesto would have enraged the Japanese with his bold betrayal. His practice of not allowing his children anywhere near where the underground members met, proved very sensible as the Japanese tried very hard to extract information from Alban, without success as he knew nothing. With Ernesto in Japanese custody, Katherine was forced to flee into the jungle with her four young children. Katherine never recovered from the loss of her husband, became distracted and until her death, believed that Ernesto would return. Jemander Ojager Singh, was also a policeman who was involved in the planning of the rescue of the POWs from Berhala Island, he also had a wife and young family. As the Japanese took all their possessions, Ojager Singh's pregnant wife and family had to fend for themselves and made their way south through the jungle to Lahad Datu where they had relatives. As a result of torture, the Japanese broke Ojager's arm, they did nothing to alleviate the pain. Dr Valentine Stookes, a WWI flying ace of the Royal Flying Corps, had a private practice in Sandakan, because he was a doctor the Japanese did not send him to Batu Lintang camp, in Kuching, Sarawak as they did with all the other Europeans. They needed his medical skills to check on the POWs at the camp and it was during these visits that he was able to pass food, medicines and notes to and from the underground. Towards war's end, Dr Stookes and several important men were brought to Keningau, a town in the mountainous region, where eventually they were shot by the Japanese, their bodies left to rot in the open as the Japanese did not allow the locals to bury them. Sergeant Abin, was involved in smuggling items which could be used to build a radio receiver. His execution was particularly barbaric as the bullets did not kill him. Instead he was buried alive. He left behind his wife and little daughter. Matusup bin Gungau was a water carrier at the camp and I know little else about him. Felix Azcona collected information by roaming the areas of interest, near and beyond the camp at Sandakan. Standing on Trig Point, he then transmitted the information via radio telegraphic code to an American base in the Philippines. The information was vital to the Allied bombing effort and ironically, it is the accuracy of the bombing which made the Japanese suspicious that information was being relayed to the Allies. When Felix found out that the Japanese had pieced together what was happening and who was responsible, he fled. Unfortunately, there was nowhere he could hide indefinitely and eventually he was captured and executed. Felix left behind his wife and baby son. Alex Funk, made early contact with the POWs and would meet them when they were allowed to forage beyond the camp. The brutality of the torture meted out to him, was witnessed by a very young Theresa Regis, who saw him when he was brought back by the Kempetai to his father's property to reveal where he had hidden one rifle. Wong Muk Seng was a Filipino, sent to spy on the Japanese. Heng Joo Ming was an overseer at the camp when four POWs escaped, early in 1943. Three were quickly recaptured, but Sergeant Major Wallace was assisted by Heng Joo Ming who hid him in the jungle. Eventually, Heng Joo Ming was able to make contact with other members of the underground who were involved in the planning of the escape from Berhala Island. Heng Joo Ming brought Sergeant Major Wallace to Berhala Island where he joined the others and made his escape. Although he was not captured, Alberto Quadra, a member of the Filipino guerrillas operating in the south of the Philippines, deserves mention because he organized the rescue of the POWs from Berhala Island. Permission was granted by Guy Strattan, my maternal grandfather, an American who joined the Filipino guerrillas, to carry out the rescue. Alberto posed as a trader and made three visits to Sandakan to finalise the rescue. When the Japanese discovered what had happened, they ordered his brother, Bernard, to find him and bring him back for punishment. Although, Bernard went to the Philippines, he returned saying that he could not find his brother, Alberto. Along the death march route the Dusun and Kadazan people and others were greatly moved by the suffering inflicted upon the POWs. Surreptitiously, they smuggled food, water, buried the dead; rescued those who had escaped, hid them from the Japanese, tended to them and brought them to safety. Always, knowing what the penalty would be, not only if they were discovered, but also for the others who lived in their village. Apart from helping the POWs, the locals formed their own guerrilla bands to fight the Japanese. It has been well known that when the Japanese went to surrender to Allied leaders in North Borneo at the end of the war, they suffered their own death march as the Murut people (which means Hill people) picked them off with poisoned darts from their blowpipes. I used to wonder why they did this and in 2012 when I went to Sabah, Ricky Azcona (Felix' son) explained: the Japanese used the Murut people as carriers and on one occasion, they and the Muruts on their way to Sandakan, met some POWs with their guards, who were on their way to Ranau. The Muruts were surprised to see white men, some in rags, some almost naked and all in a bad state. Filled with compassion, the Muruts rushed to help them; all the Muruts were massacred by the Japanese. This took place along the Tampias River where today a monument to the Kadazan-Dusun people (known as Nunuk Ragan) stands, to the right, in the distance, Mt Kinabalu rears dominating the landscape. Thus, at war's end, when the opportunity arose, the Muruts obtained justice for their slain brothers. Doreen Hurst The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
Japan Forward
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Forward
Nomonhan: The 1939 Defeat That Foreshadowed Japan's Military Tragedies
このページを 日本語 で読む In 1939, roughly 2,000 kilometers from Japan, a border clash between Japanese-backed Manchukuo and Soviet-supported Outer Mongolia escalated into the Nomonhan Incident. Spanning four months, the conflict became the Japanese military's first true confrontation with modern, large-scale warfare since the Sino-Japanese War. It also laid bare deep flaws within the Imperial Japanese Army. Among them were poor communication, ambiguous chains of command, and a breakdown in operational control. These cemented Nomonhan as a textbook example of strategic and institutional failure. But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 upended the long-accepted narrative. Newly declassified documents revealed several critical facts that challenged everything previously believed about the battle. The conflict erupted on May 11, 1939, along the Khalkhin Gol. A river demarcating the disputed border between northeastern China and eastern Mongolia, it marked the heart of the territorial dispute. What began as a minor border skirmish soon escalated into a full-scale military confrontation between Japan and the Soviet Union. Each side mobilized the equivalent of at least two divisions. An estimated 90,000 troops clashed in what later came to be known as a war without a declaration. Border tensions between Manchukuo and Soviet-backed Mongolia were not unusual. However, Japan was already embroiled in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and Army Headquarters in Tokyo had officially adopted a non-expansion policy. Yet the Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchukuo, defied that stance. Citing its own "Border Defense Guide" issued on April 25, 1939, it unilaterally escalated the fighting in areas with vague territorial boundaries. For decades, the Nomonhan Incident was remembered as a crushing Japanese defeat, with an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 casualties. "Strategically, the Soviets emerged victorious," says Tomoyuki Hanada, senior research fellow at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies. "But the ferocity of the fighting was undeniable. Technically, it was a localized conflict in the Far East. However, the scale of casualties must have left a deep impression on both sides." Another postwar revelation was the disconnect between the Soviet General Staff and frontline commanders, who initially differed on strategic direction. Over time, Moscow enforced top-down control. By August 1939, as the Red Army prepared its decisive offensive, it had already transformed Mongolia into a de facto satellite state and stockpiled overwhelming reserves of manpower and logistics. Soviet commander Georgy Zhukov famously assessed his adversaries: "The soldiers were brave, but the senior officers were incompetent." Japanese soldiers battling the Soviet Army in the Nomonhan Incident, 1939 (Wikimedia Commons) Since their victory in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, Japan had chronically underestimated the evolving strength of Russian and later Soviet forces. A central figure behind the Nomonhan escalation was Masanobu Tsuji, an operations staff officer in the Kwantung Army. Though only a major, Tsuji was seen as the de facto commander, known for his aggressive, uncompromising stance. He authored the "Border Defense Guide" and played a key role in pushing forward the army's unilateral military actions. Meanwhile, senior officers at Army Headquarters in Tokyo lacked real combat experience and had little understanding of conditions on the ground. Hanada observes, "In reality, the Kwantung Army's leadership approved Tsuji's proposals. Although the central command had adopted a non-expansion policy, it effectively turned a blind eye to the Kwantung Army's unilateral actions." In November 1939, just two months after the ceasefire, Army Headquarters formed a study committee to investigate the failures at Nomonhan. By January 1940, the committee submitted a report emphasizing the critical importance of firepower and logistics, but its recommendations were largely disregarded. Confronted with Soviet tanks and heavy artillery, Japan's under-equipped forces resorted to close-quarters infantry assaults. Soldiers were even reported to have attacked tanks at point-blank range with gasoline-filled cider bottles, crude improvised Molotov cocktails. "Even when we made point-blank attacks with cider bottles, they were ineffective, and our troops were left in despair," wrote Lieutenant General Michitaro Komatsubara, commander of the 23rd Division, in his diary dated August 22, 1939. Komatsubara's division suffered catastrophic losses, with a casualty rate of 70 to 80 percent. Despite this, operations officer Masanobu Tsuji persisted in preparing for a now-fantastical "September offensive." A formal post-incident report once again stressed the urgent need to expand Japan's artillery capabilities and logistics infrastructure. (National Institute for Defense Studies) Tsuji and several senior officers were eventually removed from their posts. However, it was the frontline commanders, some of whom had run out of ammunition and food and were forced to retreat or surrender, who bore the harshest consequences. Many were pressured by superiors to commit suicide in the wake of the defeat. "This illustrates just how coercive the military culture had become," Hanada explains. "It laid the groundwork for the extreme spirit-first ideology that would later consume the Japanese Army." Despite having partial intelligence on the Soviet Union's August offensive, Japan took no concrete steps to prepare. The findings of the Army's own study committee were ignored, and the country continued its march toward war with the United States and other Allied powers. In July 1941, Tsuji was reinstated and transferred to Army Headquarters, where he once again promoted aggressive operations, including the disastrous Guadalcanal campaign. Ironically, Lt Col Haruo Onuma, who had helped compile the Nomonhan study report, was sent to Guadalcanal as a senior staff officer that September. There, he was forced to wage a brutal campaign without the very firepower and logistics he had identified as essential. "I saw everyone get crushed by tanks like rice crackers — it was hell." That's what this writer's great-uncle, a Nomonhan veteran, tearfully recalled to me when I was a child. He told me they couldn't even raise their heads from the trenches under the weight of the Soviet assault. Japan's military doctrine at the time placed unwavering faith in offensive operations and hand-to-hand combat, while severely neglecting the importance of intelligence, logistics, and realism. The glorification of willpower over strategy, and the tragic waste of life that followed, would go on to define many of Japan's later campaigns in the Pacific, echoing Nomonhan with chilling familiarity. Yet even the Soviet Union failed to immediately apply the hard-won lessons of Nomonhan. During the Winter War with Finland (November 1939-March 1940), the Red Army, despite its overwhelming numerical and material superiority, struggled against Finnish resistance. While Finland lost 10% of its territory, it continues to frame the conflict as a successful defense of the remaining 90% — a point of national pride to this day. In the aftermath, however, the Soviet Union began a comprehensive modernization of its military. Hanada concludes: "The Nomonhan Incident and the Winter War were turning points for the Soviet military. They came to understand that defeating Japan in 1945 would require robust operations and logistics." For Japan, too, Nomonhan marked a strategic turning point. In its wake, Tokyo signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact and shifted its focus southward. Yet Japan failed to recognize that the Soviet Union was already positioning itself for a future war with Nazi Germany — a critical oversight that would shape the fate of the region in the years to come. Author: Shoko Ikeda, The Sankei Shimbun このページを 日本語 で読む
Geek Vibes Nation
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
Criterion Collection Announces August Titles Including Works From Edward Yang, Alice Wu, Kon Ichikawa & More
The Criterion Collection has announced seven new titles to join the collection on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray in August: Fires on the Plain (1959), The Burmese Harp (1956), Cairo Station (1958), Shoeshine (1946), A Confucian Confusion/Mahjong: Two Films by Edward Yang (1994/1996), Compensation (1999), and Saving Face (2004). These represent two powerful works from Kon Ichikawa, a noir-melodrama set on the streets of Cairo, an Italian neorealist fable of innocence lost, a pair of sharp satires from one of Taiwan's most celebrated directors, a portrait of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of love, and a queer romantic comedy set in multicultural New York City. Details on these films can be found below: Street Date: August 5, 2025 Synopsis: An agonizing portrait of desperate Japanese soldiers stranded in a strange land during World War II, Kon Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain is a compelling descent into psychological and physical oblivion. Denied hospital treatment for tuberculosis and cast off into the unknown, Private Tamura treks across an unfamiliar Philippine landscape, encountering an increasingly debased cross section of Imperial Army soldiers, who eventually give in to the most terrifying craving of all. Grisly yet poetic, Fires on the Plain is one of the most powerful works from one of Japanese cinema's most versatile filmmakers. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Introduction by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie Program featuring interviews with director Kon Ichikawa and actor Mickey Curtis New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by critic Chuck Stephens Street Date: August 5, 2025 Synopsis: An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. Magnificently shot in hushed black and white, Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp is an eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death and remains one of Japanese cinema's most overwhelming antiwar sentiments, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan's wartime legacy. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Interviews with director Kon Ichikawa and actor Rentaro Mikuni Trailer New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns Street Date: August 12, 2025 Synopsis: Youssef Chahine established his international reputation with this masterpiece, which, though initially a commercial failure in Egypt, would become one of the most influential and celebrated works in all of Arab cinema. The director himself stars as Kenawi, a disabled newspaper hawker whose obsession with a sultry drink seller (Hind Rostom, known as the 'Marilyn Monroe of Arabia') leads to tragedy of operatic proportions on the streets of Cairo. Blending elements of neorealism with provocative noir-melodrama, Cairo Station is a work of raw populist poetry that explores the individual's search for a place in Egypt's new postrevolutionary political order. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack New 2K digital restoration of Cairo as Seen by Chahine (1991), a short documentary by Youssef Chahine, with an introduction by film scholar Joseph Fahim New interview with Fahim Chahine . . . Why? (2009), a documentary on the director and Cairo Station Excerpt from Chahine's appearance at the 1998 Midnight Sun Film Festival New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by Fahim Street Date: August 19, 2025 Synopsis: An international breakthrough for neorealism, Vittorio De Sica's Academy Award–winning film is an indelible fable of innocence lost amid the hardscrabble reality of 1940s Italy. On the streets of Rome, two boys—best friends Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi)—set out to raise the money to buy a horse by shining shoes. When they are inadvertently caught up in a robbery and sent to a brutal juvenile detention center, their loyalty to each other is severely tested. A devastating portrait of economic struggle made all the more haunting by its child's-eye perspective, Shoeshine stands as one of the defining achievements of postwar Italian filmmaking. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, undertaken by The Film Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Sciuscià 70 (2016), a documentary by Mimmo Verdesca, made to mark the film's seventieth anniversary New program on Shoeshine and children in Italian neorealism featuring film scholars Paola Bonifazio and Catherine O'Rawe Radio broadcast from 1946 featuring director Vittorio De Sica Trailer New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Forgacs and 'Shoeshine, Joe?,' a 1945 photo-documentary by De Sica Street Date: August 19, 2025 Synopsis: In this pair of sharp, sprawling satires, one of Taiwan's most celebrated filmmakers, Edward Yang, captures the anything-can-happen mood of Taipei at the end of the twentieth century. Made in between his epic dramas A Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi, A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong find Yang applying a lighter but no less masterly touch to his explorations of human relationships in an increasingly globalized, hypercapitalistic world. These intricately constructed ensemble comedies—one set in a cutthroat corporate milieu, the other in a shady criminal underworld—reveal the absurdity and cynicism at the heart of modern urban life. A Confucian Confusion Edward Yang's first foray into comedy may have been a surprising stylistic departure, but in its richly novelistic vision of urban discontent, it is quintessential Yang. This relationship roundelay centers on a coterie of young Taipei professionals whose paths converge at an entertainment company where the boundaries between art and commerce, love and business, have become hopelessly blurred. Evoking the chaos of a city infiltrated by Western chains, logos, and attitudes, A Confucian Confusion is an incisive reflection on the role of traditional values in a materialistic, amoral society. Mahjong Edward Yang's follow-up to A Confucian Confusion is another dizzying comedy set in a globalized Taipei, but with a darker, more caustic edge. Amid a rapidly changing cityscape, the lives of a disparate group of swindlers, hustlers, gangsters, and expats collide, with a naive French teenager (Virginie Ledoyen) and a sensitive young local (Lawrence Ko) who tries to protect her caught dangerously in the middle. By turns brutal, shocking, tender, and bitingly funny, Mahjong is a dazzling vision of a multicultural Taipei where nearly every relationship has a price and newfound prosperity comes at the expense of the human soul. TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restorations, with 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks Excerpts of director Edward Yang speaking after a 1994 screening of A Confucian Confusion New interview with editor Chen Po-wen New conversation between Chinese-cultural-studies scholar Michael Berry and film critic Justin Chang Performance of Yang's 1992 play Likely Consequence PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim and a 1994 director's note on A Confucian Confusion Street Date: August 26, 2025 Synopsis: A poignant portrait of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of love at both ends of the twentieth century, Zeinabu Irene Davis's film is a groundbreaking story of inclusion and visibility. In dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play an educated dressmaker and an illiterate migrant in 1910s Chicago, and a resilient graphic artist and an endearing librarian living in the same city eight decades later. Employing archival photography, an original score blending ragtime and African percussion, and lyrical editing, Davis deftly intertwines the two couple's stories, in ways both tender and tragic. Compensation is a landmark of American independent cinema that confronts the social forces and prejudices that hinder love. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Zeinabu irene Davis, in collaboration with the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Wimmin with a Mission Productions, and in conjunction with the Sundance Institute, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack Audio commentary featuring Davis, screenwriter Marc Arthur Chéry, and director of photography Pierre H. L. Désir Jr. Q&As with members of the cast and crew Two short films by Davis, Crocodile Conspiracy (1986) and Pandemic Bread (2023), the latter with audio commentary featuring Davis and cast and crew members and descriptive audio Interview with Davis from 2021 New program about select archival photographs and adinkra and vèvè symbols in the film Trailer English subtitles and intertitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, and English descriptive audio PLUS: An essay by film scholar Racquel Gates, a director's note, and a conversation between Davis and artist Alison O'Daniel about the process of captioning the film Street Date: August 26, 2025 Synopsis: A queer romantic comedy set in vibrant, multicultural New York City, Alice Wu's irresistible feature debut breathed fresh life into the genre by combining snappy dialogue and a swooning love story with a poignant narrative about a mother and daughter coming to terms with each other. Just as Wil (Michelle Krusiec), a harried young surgical resident, begins a promising romance with the flirtatious dancer Vivian (Lynn Chen), her life is turned upside down when her more traditional Chinese mother (Joan Chen)—unwed and unexpectedly pregnant—moves in with her, forcing both women to confront the generational and cultural barriers that have long troubled their relationship. Both embracing and cleverly subverting rom-com conventions, Wu delivers a bighearted ode to the Chinese American diaspora, and the liberating joy of living one's truth. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
