Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us
Ten Films to Watch From Japan Society's Latest Filmmaker Retrospective
Every year in New York City the Japan Society does an amazing retrospective highlighting one of the country’s great cinema masters. Last year I had the privilege of writing about their amazing Hiroshi Shimizu retrospective for RogerEbert.com. This year due to the situation with my Dad, I’ve had to bring my coverage of their latest retrospective — Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us — here to this newsletter. The good news is I was able to screen all thirty films in the retrospective. Part I, which is held at Japan Society cinema, began on May 9th and picks back up on Thursday where it will continue for the rest of the month, while Part II will screen at the Metrograph on June 5th and continues through June 29th.
Like last year’s Shimizu retrospective, I found it a completely rewarding experience watching my way through so many of Naruse’s films, picking up on reoccurring themes through the 30+ years represented in the series1. While Shimizu’s films often focus on children and the countryside, and generally leave the viewer with a positive outlook on even the most dire situations, Naruse’s films largely focus on women, both at home and in professional settings, often making their way in the big city (although the country is often a factor in their lives as well), and, aside from a few films, almost all of Naruse’s films end on bleak notes. In fact, if you want to expand bleak week for the entire month of June, this retrospective is where you want to be.
While I think you should watch as many of these films as possible, if you can’t make every screening, here are ten can’t miss highlights.
A Wife’s Heart (1956)
In A Wife’s Heart (1956), one of Naruse’s films that focus on the perils of modern marriage, Naruse’s frequent collaborator Hideko Takamine plays a woman who desperately wants to open a coffee shop with her husband, who unfortunately keeps make bad financial decisions that delay their dream. Soon she becomes drawn to the bank clerk (an incredibly hot Toshirō Mifune) who might help her secure the loan she needs. Most of Naruse’s marriage cycle films find couples at the “for worse” part of their marriage, a hopeless state from which it seems they may never find their way out and this film is no different. The film screens on 35mm at Japan Society on May 29th.
The Approach of Autumn (1960)
One of Naruse’s least bleak films, The Approach of Autumn (1960) flirts with Shimizu territory as it mainly centers on two kids, Hideo (Kenzaburō Ōsawa) who has come with his widowed mother Shigeko (Nobuko Otowa) to Tokyo, where she has begun working at a Ryokan in Ginza, and Junko (Futaba Ichiki) the daughter of Shigeko’s employer. It is a delight to follow these two kids on their adventures across the city, including on a search for the sea, and another search for a beetle. Of course, Naruse is going to Naruse, and so eventually poisonous capitalism and bad romance creeps into the lives of their mothers, ruining what little peace these youngsters had found. The film screens on 35mm at Japan Society on May 31st.
Yearning (1964)
Naruse’s melodramatic romance Yearning is another great film about the undervalued work of women and the difficulty of making your way in the world as a war widow. Takamine stars as a widow named Reiko who has spent the last 18 years since her husband’s passing managing the grocery store owned by her in-laws. When a new supermarket threatens their business, the family sees a way to both cash in and finally get rid of Reiko. Upset by his sisters’ plan, Koji (Yuzo Kayama), Reiko’s much younger, and seemingly good-for-nothing, brother-in-law, makes a shocking confession to her, a move that allows Naruse to explore one of his other favorite subjects: repressed passion. The film screens on 35mm at Japan Society on May 31st.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
The opening film of Part II at the Metrograph is arguably Naruse’s greatest late-era film, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960). Once again set in the neon-lit Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo, Takamine gives perhaps her greatest performance as Keiko, a widowed bar hostess doing her best to make an independent life for herself in a world that increasingly relies on the generosity of terrible, power and status obsessed men. Like many of Naruse’s films, here we see him bring to life the inner workings of both the world of sex workers in general, but also Keiko’s sensitive soul in particular. The sharp script also examines the increasingly materialistic goals of the post-WWII corporate workers who are looking less for love than they are another jewel for their collections. The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 5th.
The Whole Family Works (1939)
One of Naruse’s bleakest films, The Whole Family Works (1939), based on a novel by Sunao Tokunaga, follows the impoverished eleven-person Ishimura family, who live in a tiny dwelling and are stuck in a seemingly cycle of poverty. One of my favorite moments among all of Naruse’s films comes towards the end of this film when the eldest son Kichi (Akira Ubukata) explains why he wants to quit his dead-end job and invest his time in attending college. He says to his father (Musei Tokugawa), who is insulted by the boy’s plans, “I'm not trying to insult you Father. I'm just sick of living day to day. I'm not talking about ambition or becoming a lawyer or anything like that. I just want to be able to have enough to eat.” The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 7th.
Floating Clouds (1955)
Naruse filmed six adaptations of the works of popular feminist author Fumiko Hayashi, including my favorite of his films, Floating Clouds, which is based on the final novel she published before her death in 1951. The film stars Takamine as a woman who returns from working in French Indochina with hopes of resuming her wartime relationship with a married man (Masayuki Mori). Of course things do not work out well, but boy are the flashback hot hot hot. Takamine is great, as always, but for me it is Mori’s conflicted performance (and extremely expressive face) that makes this film really sing. The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 7th.
Sound of the Mountain (1954)
Again adapting a classic novel, this time by Yasunari Kawabata, Sound of the Mountain (1954) was a personal favorite of the director, it’s also one of his most successful in terms of balancing his horrifically bleak outlook on life (rooted, I think, in a pretty honest view of just how fickle and casually cruel most people are) with a slight sense of hopefulness towards a better future. The film follows the close relationship between Kikuko (Setsuko Hara) and her father-in-law Shingo (So Yamamura) after its discovered that her husband Shuichi (Ken Uehara) is carrying on an affair, as well as many other morally dubious deeds. The film appears to be a big influence on the film A Little Prayer, which contains several similarities and the same balance of bitter and sweet. The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 7th.
The Stranger Within a Woman (1966)
Taking the mantle for perhaps Naruse’s bleakest film about marriage, his penultimate film The Stranger Within a Woman (1966), adapted from Edward Atiyah’s novel The Thin Line, stars Keiju Kobayashi as a man wracked with grief after he accidentally murders his lover, who also happens to be the wife of his best friend (Tatsuya Mihashi; a true babe whose collaborations with director Yūzō Kawashima should not be overlooked!!!). Equally shocking is the way his wife (Michiyo Aratama) reacts to the news. Truly, this film’s ending is so bleak I had to watch it twice. The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 15th.
Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
Adapted from three short stories by Fumiko Hayashi, with Late Chrysanthemums (1954) Naruse once again examines the life of women living in a material world, this time mostly focusing on a trio of retired geishas eking out a living in post-war Tokyo. The film stars the great Japanese stage actress Haruko Sugimura as Kin, a retired geisha turned moneylender and real estate speculator, whose complicated relationships with her former co-workers are both fraying and somehow also made of the strongest steel. Just before the film ended I thought this was going to be in the running for his bleakest ending, but then the ladies cheekily do a “Monroe walk” and share a laugh that somehow made life okay again for them and for me. The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 22nd.
Scattered Clouds (1967)
The final film of the series is Naruse’s swan song Scattered Clouds (1967), a deeply melancholic romantic drama about how modern life’s sorrows and traumas often outweigh its pleasures and joys. Yoko Tsukasa stars as Yumiko, a young woman preparing for a life abroad with her diplomat husband whose plans are shattered when he dies in a freak car accident just days before they were set to leave. When his family does her the favor of removing her from the family registry because she’s young and can start her life again, Yumiko is forced to eke out a living back in her hometown near Lake Towada. Moved by guilt Shiro (Yūzō Kayama), the man behind the wheel of the car that killed her husband, sends her money every month. The two soon reconnect, and a forbidden passion grows — but can they get over the shared trauma that first brought them together? This is probably the best looking use of color in Naruse’s filmography, and while not necessarily bleak, definitely one of his saddest films. The swirling cocktail of repression and passion and melancholy during the final twenty minutes feel like they were a huge influence on In The Mood For Love. The film screens on 35mm at the Metrograph on June 29th.
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Although the series is comprehensive, it focuses solely on highlighting his sound era films; if you are interested in seeing his silent roots, quite a few of those films are streaming on Criterion Channel, along with a few of the films featured in this retrospective.
Good primer, this is where you’ll find me the next few weeks!
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