• Kurosawa’s fifth film, a 20th century contemporary story starring Ozu’s go-to actress Setuko Hara (Late Spring, Early Summer,Tokyo Story)- I wasn’t aware she had worked with Kurosawa and this predates the Ozu collaborations
  • A film about social injustice, wartime politics – combating anti-intellectualism
  • A great sequence at 36 minutes- Hara hears the news her love interest is leaving and there’s a series of dissolves
  • At 47-49 minutes there are three separate shots of her contemplating going into a building- she’s tracking back and forth, without speaking, through glass- really well done
  • At 79 minutes a shot of Hara with her ex-husbands parents on the ground arranged in the frame by Kurosawa- sublime shot—lantern in the foreground
  • It is preachy, lots of speeches by their characters shouting their motives and the movies themes—she literally says “I’m the shining light of the rural cultural movement” and “I’m going to try to make a difference in women’s lives because they are so hard” to which someone says “you were meant to suffer”—
  • It’s in the archives- a recommend though—it seems a little crazy that Kurosawa is only four years from making Rashoman– It doesn’t seem like he’s capable here
  • Recommend