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Tag Archives: Daijirô Natsukawa
Hideko, the Bus Conductor AKA Hideko no shashô-san (1941) Mikio Naruse, Hideko Takamine, Kamatari Fujiwara, Daijirô Natsukawa
Okoma, a young lady working as a conductor with a bus company in Kofu Yamanashi Read More »
The Poppy (1935) Kenji Mizoguchi, Ichirô Tsukida, Daijirô Natsukawa, Kazuyoshi Takeda
Based on Soseki Natsume’s 1908 novel of the same title, Poppy is an ornately complicated story of desire and ambition. Read More »
The Downfall of Osen (1935) Kenji Mizoguchi, Isuzu Yamada, Daijirô Natsukawa, Mitsusaburô Ramon
In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Read More »
Maria no Oyuki / Oyuki, the Virgin (1935) Kenji Mizoguchi
Oyuki, the Virgin is based on Kawaguchi Matsutaro’s adaptation of Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif” (“Lump of Fat,” also the inspiration for Ford’s Stagecoach). To this story Mizoguchi added some of his own elements. Maupassant’s original work, set during the Franco-Prussian War, is the story of a group of people who try to flee the battleground in a horsedrawn carriage. The bourgeois use the expression “lump of fat” to refer sarcastically to the prostitute who is riding along with them. When they are caught by the enemy, they offer to send her to the commander as a human sacrifice. This done, when they leave the battlefield the next day, all they do is censure her and call her vulgar.
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