Obscure Japanese Film #231 Setsuko Hara Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) lives with her widowed father (Ko Mihashi) and younger sister Asako (Akira Kurosawa’s future wife, Yoko Yaguchi, in her film debut). She’s being courted by Atsushi (Heihachiro Okawa), but feels that she cannot get married until her father finds a new wife to look after him and Asako. A suitable woman is found in the person of Tsuneko (Sadako Sawamura), but Asako is still very attached to the memory of her late mother, so will she accept another woman filling this role? Yoko Yaguchi This domestic drama from Toho Eiga seems to prefigure the post-war films of Ozu, even down to the choice of Setsuko Hara as star. It’s well-made and features very natural performances from an impressive cast that also includes Haruko Sugimura as a piano teacher, but it’s arguably a little too low-key for its own good. It also features a couple of rather awkward ellipses and I must say that I found the ending completely unsatisfactory, perhaps largely because writer-director-producer Yasujiro Shimazu chose not to set it up in any way, so that when it comes it’s so out of the blue it feels almost random. Ko Mihashi Shimazu, who died aged 48 of stomach cancer just after the war ended, was one of Japan’s most acclaimed directors of the 1930s. Credited with pioneering a new emphasis on realism and the lives of everyday people, it’s likely that he would have been much better known today had he survived and been able to continue directing for another decade or two. Keisuke Kinoshita, one of several fine directors who apprenticed under Shimazu, considered him a tyrant yet admitted he had learnt a great deal from him. Heihachiro Okawa Intriguingly, there is a scene in which Asako’s school friends discuss going to see the 1938 French film about a reformatory school for teenage girls, Prison sans barreaux, which had recently been released in Japan, although it was unclear to me whether this was intended to say anything Asako's rebellion, mild as it is. Sadako Sawamura Watch on my YouTube channel with English subtitleshttps://BUYMEACOFFEE.com/martindowsing
Nov 23, 2025 • Subscribe
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