In Translation | The Solar Thread (dir. Kazuo Kuroki, 1963)
Artificial silkworms and a legion of machine.
If you recognize Kazuo Kuroki’s name, it is doubtless thanks to his contributions to the ATG, or Art Theatre Guild, a radical and vital production company that kind of defined the Japanese new wave and art house cinema from the mid '60s through the '80s.
But before he defined himself as a major name on the vanguard of Japan’s evolving art scene, he was a prolific director in an area of film rarely discussed: the PR movie.
I don’t think anyone needs to explain why PR movies get a bad rap. They’re, as the name suggests, works funded and produced by companies to raise themselves up; a sort of vaguely higher class form of advertisement. They are entirely commercial products, artistry replaced by sales.
Or so you’d think.
Made for synthetic materials production monolith Toyo Rayon to highlight both their status as scientific and manufacturing leaders in the industry as well as the global real the company has, The Solar Thread feels impossible. While a narrator solemnly intones grand platitudes o scientific advancement and the future of humankind, hypnotic and alien shots of factories operating void of humans play out, a discordant score provided by legend Toshi Ishiyanagi plinking, plonking, and screeching underneath. It’s a movie that only the surface of surface reads as entirely uncritical of its subject, instead using the company as a lens to explore modern industrialization and capitalist globalization where scientific and technological progress exists purely for the sake of money. In the year of our hyper-capital lord 2026, it‘s almost beyond belief that someone at Toyo Rayon okay’d this thing instead of, I don’t know, sending a group of hitmen to Kuroki’s door. But then, that might just be a sign of the times in Japan, as the new wave infested cinema and gekiga began ruling manga and challenging, when provocative rebellion was as mainstream as it’ll ever be.
It’s a strange, evocative film, daring in its presentation even today and as perfectly relevant as ever to boot.
So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn about nylon production with…The Solar Thread!
also available on the archive:
Music of the Week | Out There by Hiromi's Sonicwonder
jetasakura
The latest from jazz piano prodigy extraordinaire Hiromi Uehara continues the trajectory she's held for basically her entire career--that is, she just keeps getting better. Here we've got some of the most joyous and infectious jazz fusion crafted out of twists and turns into morphing ear-worm grooves and melodies ("Yes! Ramen!!" lives forever in my brain) sandwiching the stupendous Out There quartet of tracks at the center of the album. Music to get people into jazz.
Book of the Week | Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai by Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada
You wouldn’t have any reason to expect it, but The Adventure of Dai, a Dragon Quest licensed manga from Shounen Jump, is unquestionably one of the great battle shounen series. With incredibly clean art, incredibly charming characters, and incredibly strong pacing, it’s all just…incredible, a constant well of joy and excitement that perfectly highlights how good something can be when you just do the basics as well as they’ve ever been done. That it does all that while also being a compelling examination of the classic hero story and the pitfalls of narratives as purely struggles between good and evil only sweetens what is already one of the sweetest deals in comics.
Movie of the Week | Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (dir. Kenji Nakamura, 2024)
The new movie trilogy from the aesthetically extreme series about spirit mysteries just concluded this year (2026) with a bang, and really solidified this collection of flicks as essential entertainment. The first here sets the tone for the rest: blends modern anime pop art with 70s psychedelia for a maximalist mad dash exploration of the value, meaning, and life we imbue onto inanimate objects, and how this idea is used and perverted by the cult-like pressures of traditional conservative systems. Breathlessly directed with the very Japanese new wave influenced style you might find in something like a Shaft production, combining Akio Jissoji's rapid "never use the same shot twice unless it's to rhyme" cutting with Shuji Terayama-esque surreal symbolist metaphors (just replace people with white faces with spiral heads). An essential sensory experience.
Have thoughts about anything covered this week? Got a recommendation you’re dying to share? Want to tell me how handsome and cool I am? Leave a comment below!