Underplayed Gems

Ri Kōran (2000)

Ri Kōran poster
Genre
drama television series
Country
Japan
Length
2 episodes
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More series like this

How it feels

This is a two-part film about the life of a famous Chinese-born Japanese singer and actress. It shows how her career was shaped by the wars and political conflicts of the 20th century.

historicalmelancholicbiographicaltragicpoignantdramaticwar-tornreflective

What happens

Ri Kōran (Japanese: 李香蘭, Hepburn: Ri Kōran) is a 2007 Japanese two-part historical and biographical film portraying the turbulent life and times of legendary singer and actress Yoshiko Yamaguchi, known as Ri Kōran in her prime. A tragic figure pitted into the limelight of fame by the unpredictable forces of history, she was caught between competing nationalisms and political conflicts, her life and career sculpted by the turbulence of war and global power shifts. Loosely based on Yamaguchi's memoir Ri Kōran wo Ikite: Watashi no Rirekisho, the two-episode film production was directed by Tonko Horikawa and starred Aya Ueto as Yamaguchi, first broadcasting in Japan by TV Tokyo on February 11 and 12, 2007. Subtitled versions were subsequently made available online to pan-Asian audiences on major Asian video sharing platforms. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.