Mikio Naruse

[Quot]

I just wanted to poke my nose in and offer a belated thanks to all the contributors of this thread for sharing a wealth of information (esp. Mr. Kerpan). Never had the opportunity to catch any of the touring retrospectives, but I have recently been catching these features whenever I can, through whatever means.

Of the few that I've had the pleasure to view, I think Okaasan and Spring Awakens are probably my favorites, if for no other reason than how they illustrate Naruse's strength as a pure storyteller, particularly when filming narratives that are fairly light on plot.

[stephenp]

Thanks Michael. I know there isn't a great deal written on Naruse. Are there any books/articles that you would recommend on Naruse's oeuvre and the context of his filmmaking?

Catherine Russell has a good book in English -- and Jean Narboni has a good book in French (published by Cahiers).

Russell's book is useful inasmuch as it provides an exhaustive (and, in truth, rather exhausting) plot summary of all the extant films, but I felt that her attempts to read Naruse's oeuvre as providing some sort of narrative of "women and Japanese modernity" (as the book's subtitle has it) were rather strained and ultimately unconvincing.

(Actually, the book has given me the distinct impression that Naruse's films in general circulation outside Japan are his best films, with the rest probably deserving to languish in melodramatic obscurity...)

[Michael Kerpan]

Of the few that I've had the pleasure to view, I think Okaasan and Spring Awakens are probably my favorites, if for no other reason than how they illustrate Naruse's strength as a pure storyteller, particularly when filming narratives that are fairly light on plot.

Okaasan (in its very early Sony US VHS release) was one of the first Naruse films I saw -- and I really loved it. Alas, the video store which owned that tape went out of business sonn after -- and I didn't amange to snag that video (assuming it got sold off at a pittance). A wonderful mixture of comedy and pathos.

Spring Awakens is one of my favorite "obscure" Naruse films -- a beautiful teen-centric look at beginning to become an adult.

Actually, {Catherine Russell's} book has given me the distinct impression that Naruse's films in general circulation outside Japan are his best films, with the rest probably deserving to languish in melodramatic obscurity

It's unfortunate if you got that impression, because it certainly is NOT the case. There are many gems amongst Naruse's lesser known (and virtually unknown) films. Not all are diamonds, but top-quality garnets and amethysts (and the like) are treasurable too.

[puxzkkx]

I've seen Flowing and Floating Clouds - I loved the former, the examinations of time's literal 'flow' through this collection of women from successive generations. Tanaka and Sugimura give two of my favourite supporting performances, the former bewitching, suggesting hidden depths with the slightest movements, the latter funny as always but shockingly emotional and touching in her big drunk/firing scene.

I was a bit cool on Flouting Clouds, though. I don't love Takamine as an actress so that might have been it, but it kept me at an arm's length. I found it a lot hard to focus on this very particular, insular story whereas it was easy for me to get attached to each character in Flowing's gallery.

[sidehacker]

I guess Floating Clouds is a more unique Naruse, it's sort of more poetic, lyrical, and romantic than anything else he ever did. I can't help you on not liking Hideko Takamine, though. You're definitely in the minority there.

[Michael Kerpan]

puxzkkx:

I fell in love with Sound of the Mountain and Repast instantly -- but it took longer for me to warm up to Floating Clouds. Eventually, however, I grew to love this (almost) as much.

What else have you seen Takamine in? I can't imagine why one would ever reject her (in general -- as opposed in some specific role).

[puxzkkx]

Well, she rubbed me the wrong way in both those Naruse films, Twenty-Four Eyes and Immortal Love. I guess I've never really warmed up to her.

Another thing that sort of clouds my vision of her work has completely nothing to do with her as an actress, so it is kind of silly, but I do find it a bit depressing that the archetype of ideal beauty in Japan had swung so far towards a Westernized ideal by this point in their history. I think it says something about their culture that the likes of Hara, Kyo, Okada and Takamine were the biggest stars in Japan in the 1950s, all actresses that could pass as Eurasian.

[Michael Kerpan]

I wouldn't judge any performer based on work for Kinoshita -- he rarely brings out the best in his cast members (even Hara is pretty routine in Cheers for the Young Ladies).

Takamine would never have been viewed as "Eurasian" looking by contemporary audiences. Perhaps you have some misperception as to what Japanese actresses ought to look like.

FWI2 -- In Floating Clouds, Takamine plays a character whol is no easier to like (at first glance) than Imamura's "heroine" in Insect Woman.

[ambrose]

An interesting overview of naruse's career with a particular focus on Late Chrysanthemums from Jonathan Rosenbaum! (In a somewhat counterfactual sense Mr.Rosenbaum praises the films "energy" as well as its obviously "vivid portraiture".)

[Michael Kerpan]

An interesting overview of naruse's career with a particular focus on Late Chrysanthemums from Jonathan Rosenbaum! (In a somewhat counterfactual sense Mr.Rosenbaum praises the films "energy" as well as its obviously "vivid portraiture".)

What is "counterfactual" about JR's description? I agree totally with everything he wrote. Energy and vivid portraiture are indeed key characteristics of Late Chrysanthemums.

[ambrose]

An interesting overview of naruse's career with a particular focus on Late Chrysanthemums from Jonathan Rosenbaum! (In a somewhat counterfactual sense Mr.Rosenbaum praises the films "energy" as well as its obviously "vivid portraiture".)

What is "counterfactual" about JR's description? I agree totally with everything he wrote. Energy and vivid portraiture are indeed key characteristics of Late Chrysanthemums.

I agree with the latter assertion of Mr. Rosenbaum that the film contains vivid characterization's which is why i preceded my quotation of that remark with "obviously" it just seems to me that most of the positive energy in Late Chrysanthemums generated by Sugimura Haruko's character is offset by the nihilism and manic depression of most of the other lead actresses!.(Manic depression is pretty expressive and even energetic but i think Mr. Rosenbaum means energy in its more positive sense.)

[Michael Kerpan]

You need to re-watch the final scene involving Sugimura's two former colleagues -- and also think about the offspring of these two ladies. I also think you are missing just who it is that we are ultimately being prompted to admire (and just who ultimately it is that is "nihilistic").

[knives]

I'd go a step further and say that while many of the characters in their introduction are angry or in a misanthropic mood as Naruse hacks at their facades to show their real selves we get to see some very strong women who despite some misgivings are ultimately maybe not happy, I suppose energetic is the best word for it. Naruse does his hardest to make sure none of the characters are ultimately off in a bad way. Even the apparent villain gets something of a positive sendoff.

[ambrose]

Wonders in The Dark on The Wanderers notebook! An interesting analogy is made between the cynicism expressed by Miss Takamine as Fumiko Hayashi towards her career and real-life sentiments that the actress would have similarly expressed.

[stephenp]

Catherine Russell's book is useful inasmuch as it provides an exhaustive (and, in truth, rather exhausting) plot summary of all the extant films, but I felt that her attempts to read Naruse's oeuvre as providing some sort of narrative of "women and Japanese modernity" (as the book's subtitle has it) were rather strained and ultimately unconvincing.

For what it's worth, my review for Scope of Russell's book on Naruse is now online.

[Michael Kerpan]

I actually tend to agree (pretty much) with Russell's central thesis (not that it captures the totality of Naruse's work) -- but do have a lot of problems with her details. I do wish the French book on Naruse (published by DdC) was available in English. It provides a less ideological look at aspects of Naruse's career (and also has plot summaries -- which are _usually_ reliable).

I think that the availability (at least covertly) of almost all of Naruse's work blows the "prolonged slump" approach to parts of Naruse's career out of the water -- he simply did not have long periods where he failed to make very good to excellent films.

[stephenp]

I actually tend to agree (pretty much) with Russell's central thesis (not that it captures the totality of Naruse's work) -- but do have a lot of problems with her details.

Leaving aside what exactly is Russell's central thesis - it's a bit confused, something along the lines that Naruse's oeuvre uniquely documents the development of Japanese modernity, especially as experienced by women - my main difficulty with her book is that her methodology seems rather arbitrary, with her readings of the films often being subjective, partial and contentious (but always in agreement with her thesis, unsurprisingly).

I think that the availability (at least covertly) of almost all of Naruse's work blows the "prolonged slump" approach to parts of Naruse's career out of the water -- he simply did not have long periods where he failed to make very good to excellent films.

That may be true (and I've only been able to see around 15-20 of his films, mainly from the post-war period), but to judge by Russell's descriptions, he retained the ability to make mediocre pictures throughout his career too!

[Michael Kerpan]

Not that many "mediocre" Naruse films -- most of those that are not good or better fall into the category of interesting failures (e.g. Hit and Run). (I've seen all of the extant films except the two incomplete wartime films not in the possession of Toho).

[lubitsch]

Flipping through Russell's book on Google books I finally decided to order it and got it today. I could do without the bits of theoretical stuff (vernacular modernism, anyone?) but it looked not too bad to me, understandable prosa, sufficiently engaging analysis, that's more than you can say of most academic babble being published.
I'm waiting for the Eclipse set before I plunge into the 19 features of the 30s and I've never seen a Naruse film, but assuming of the surviving ones 10 are very good, 10 good and 47 are crap, where is the problem? This still means he has a considerable batch of first class films under his belt and is a first class director. I never understood how directors become somehow impure and less worthy when they direct a string of bad films. Who cares about them? The good ones count and define the artist. Not to mention that it can't have been a pleasure to work under Japanese militarism from 1937-45 and the first years of occupation had their traps, too. There are many one shot wonders who showed their brillance and were muted often due to factors beyond their control.

[stephenp]

Flipping through Russell's book on Google books I finally decided to order it and got it today. I could do without the bits of theoretical stuff (vernacular modernism, anyone?) but it looked not too bad to me, understandable prosa, sufficiently engaging analysis, that's more than you can say of most academic babble being published.

Yes, if you can skip lightly over the theory, there's much of interest in Russell's book. However, don't expect much in the way of a biography of Naruse the man; however, nobody, as far as I can see, has been able to write much about him beyond the bare facts of his life. In addition to being a rather taciturn man, he doesn't seem to have had, say, the rich working relationships of Ozu or the "complex" family background of Mizoguchi. That said, he did marry his lead in Wife, Be Like a Rose!, so he must have had something about him (although even on this point, Russell is curiously quiet; in fact, after having read her book, I'm still not quite sure how many times he was married, nor to whom).

...but assuming of the surviving ones 10 are very good, 10 good and 47 are crap, where is the problem? This still means he has a considerable batch of first class films under his belt and is a first class director. I never understood how directors become somehow impure and less worthy when they direct a string of bad films. Who cares about them?

Sorry, the point I was trying to make above was not clear. I've seen roughly a quarter of Naruse's extant films, and I would say they were all either very good or excellent. As for the rest, based on his knowledgeable replies here and elsewhere on the forum, I'm more than happy to accept Michael K.'s assessment. No, my point was that in her book I could sense Russell's enthusiasm waning at a number of points as she worked through the films, providing synopses and analyses for each. Whether that was because she was struggling to say anything that added to her argument, because the narrative contained in the film in question seemed to cast women in conventional roles, or, more simply, because she wasn't too interested in the "lesser" films, I can't say. The result, however, was that I didn't feel particularly enthused to see these films either.

Going off on a tangent somewhat, I guess the existence of "boring" or "conventional" films might be problematical if your thesis is that as a whole the films somehow document (feminine) modernity, since most theory seems to equate modernism with increased speed with increased excitement. I doubt, however, that few who live in a modern city and work at a desk to scrape together a living will tell you that life is a non-stop roller-coaster ride of fun - frequent boredom is just as much a feature of modernity. Partly for this reason, it seems to me that the men in Naruse's films are just as interesting, precisely because they're often marginalized, listless, passive and, well, bored. I can almost imagine a mirror book to that of Russell's which treats Naruse's oeuvre as documenting the effects of modernity on the Japanese male....

Not to mention that it can't have been a pleasure to work under Japanese militarism from 1937-45 and the first years of occupation had their traps, too.

Not wishing to open a can of worms, I'm sure that some in the Japanese film industry in those years had fewer difficulties with the prevailing powers than did others. (Can anyone recommend a good book(s) that addresses this particular time in Japan, and not just how it relates to the film world? The often contradictory impulses of the American authorities seem particularly fascinating....)

[Michael Kerpan]

Two indispensable books --

Peter High's The Imperial Screen (war years)
Kyoko Hirao's Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo (Occupation era)

Both may be out of print -- maybe your library will have them (or can get them via interlibrary loan).

Naruse married twice. His second marriage (unlike his first) was kept out of the public eye. This one lasted until his death.

His first wife attributed their break-up to meddling by her family. After her movie career, she became the proprietor of a successful restaurant. She had only good things to say about Naruse -- and considered the divorce one of the biggest mistakes she ever made.

[stephenp]

Two indispensable books --

Peter High's The Imperial Screen (war years)
Kyoko Hirao's Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo (Occupation era)

Thanks, Michael, I'll try to get hold of copies of these one way or another. (I'm intrigued by the idea that the American authorities in the immediate post-war period might represent the unique instance of a censor actively encouraging greater liberalism and the use of more explicit imagery, so as to try to counter the perceived conformity and emotional repression of Japanese society and the role these played in facilitating the militarism of 1931-45.)

[Michael Kerpan]

The censors initial approved Kamei's attack on the Emperor (and his court) for primary responsibility for the war (Tragedy of Japan)-- but MacArthur overruled the approval and had the film banned -- and occupation liberalism began waning quickly afterwards. Much more worry about labor unions (initially encouraged) and communists.

Showing scenes of war devastation was always forbidden -- but some things got through (Shimizu's independent production Children of the Beehive actually had a scene set in the rubble of rubble of Hiroshima -- no one knows how this got past the censors).

[dad1153]

I'm watching my first Naruse movies ever ("Repast" and "Yearning") back-to-back at Film Forum's 5 Japanese Divas Film Festival in NYC later today. Been wanting to check out "When A Woman Ascends the Stais" (Naruse's only R1 DVD title) since forever, but it wasn't meant to be. Like TV's "Dexter" says though, tonight's the night... and it's going to happen again and again...