The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of the University of Tokyo, and the high life of jazzy dance halls. Read More »
Tag Archives: Mikio Naruse
Hikinige / Hit and Run (1966) Mikio Naruse, Hideko Takamine, Yôko Tsukasa, Eitarô Ozawa, Crime, Drama
A working-class woman becomes bent on revenge after her little boy is killed in a hit and run; she discovers that the man who took the rap was simply a corporate lackey covering up for his boss’s wife. Read More »
Tsuma to shite onna to shite / As a Wife, As a Woman (1961) Mikio Naruse, Hideko Takamine, Chikage Awashima, Masayuki Mori, Drama
The children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to regard as their racy and slightly disreputable Ginza aunt is really their mother. Read More »
Midareru / Yearning (1964) Mikio Naruse, Hideko Takamine, Yûzô Kayama, Mitsuko Kusabue, Drama
19yo girl loses husband in war. Bombing destroys his family’s shop and the widow stays to rebuild it as the rest of the family flee and runs it for 18 years out of love for her dead husband and his mother… Read More »
Maihime / Dancing Girl (1951) Mikio Naruse, Sô Yamamura, Mieko Takamine, Mariko Okada, Drama
Shûu / Sudden Rain (1956) Mikio Naruse, Setsuko Hara, Shûji Sano, Kyôko Kagawa, Comedy, Drama
Setsuko Hara plays Fumiko, whose unsuccessful marriage has made her become more and more cynical. When her niece, Ayako visits and complains about her own marriage, she is unsurprised. Read More »
Sanjûsangen-dô, tôshiya monogatari / A Tale of Archery at the Sanjusangendo (1945) Mikio Naruse, Kazuo Hasegawa, Kinuyo Tanaka, Sensho Ichikawa, War, Drama
After a renowned archer commits harakiri because he’s lost the big tournament, innkeeper Kinuyo Tanaka takes in his boy and sees to his training so he can compete in the next big contest.
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Arakure / Untamed Woman (1957) Mikio Naruse, Hideko Takamine, Ken Uehara, Masayuki Mori, Drama
Set in the Taish? period of Japan (dating from 1912 to 1926), Untamed follows the fiery Oshima (in a superbly eccentric performance by Takamine) as she passes from one suitor to another, a series of calamities befalling her along the way. Characteristic of Naruse’s work, urban and rural settings are juxtaposed: the moody Tokyo streets against a majestic mountain village. At each point, the various situations Oshima is caught in seem uncannily bound up with her surroundings. It’s worth noting that the film, while not widely known, is singled out for praise by critic Chris Fujiwara.
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