Mikio Naruse

[BB]

I find Naruse's use of music almost always interesting. Whether it's the wonderful score that introduces Repast or the gorgeous, yet slightly out of place spanish guitar playing in Late Chrysanthemums, his music choice is as idiosyncratic and sophisticated as the films themselves. In many of his films a character will quite naturally just throw a record on the phonograph to play over the scene. Out of all the Japanese directors I've yet seen, he strikes me as something of a genuine record collector.

[Michael Kerpan]

I find Naruse's use of music almost always interesting. Whether it's the wonderful score that introduces Repast or the gorgeous, yet slightly out of place spanish guitar playing in Late Chrysanthemums, his music choice is as idiosyncratic and sophisticated as the films themselves. In many of his films a character will quite naturally just throw a record on the phonograph to play over the scene. Out of all the Japanese directors I've yet seen, he strikes me as something of a genuine record collector.

The oldest surviving Naruse scene featuring playing a phonograph record occurs in a silent film -- Apart From You. And it is a remarkable scene (in a sadly under-appreciated masterpiece).

I agree that Naruse's films make very interesting use of music. I've never read anything that described his role in picking (or approving) music to be used.

[AisleSeat]

... I wouldn't rate Untamed as minor in Naruse's oeuvre -- it's superior to some of the films from around the same time that were included in the touring retrospective a couple of years ago. Takamine (and Daisuke Kato) are terrific, the balance of melodrama and humor is perfect, and I loved the ending -- totally, surprisingly liberating and yet not really an ending at all. Takamine's character seems to be half a step away from becoming an Imamura heroine more than a Naruse heroine. I wish I knew enough about pre-war Japanese culture to have a sense of whether Takamine's pre-feminist independence is typical or unusual within the lower class.

A year or so before I had the opportunity to view Naruse's Untamed, I had the good fortune to read the Shusei Tokuda novel, Arakure, on which the film is based. In scene after scene, the film consistently adheres to the novel faithfully, with the exception of the very beginning and the ending, which was truncated to some extent. The story, serialized daily in a popular Japanese newspaper in 1915, takes as its setting the late Meiji period of turn of the century Japan, from about 1890 to 1910. That this is a prewar picture is indeed correct, but pre-WWI. Moreover, the war that serves as backdrop in the novel and film is the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–05.

While utilizing the extraordinary talents of his muse, Hideko Takemine, Naruse appears to have struggled to realize the full potential of Shusei's novel. By being so faithful to the novel, which details the life of Oshima, a seamstress, the film gets bogged down recording the minutiae of her many and varied travails, but neglects to settle down to examine what is happening to Oshima herself as a human being. To some extent Naruse attempts to do this, but he only succeeds in part. Since Arakure was a popular novel, and Shusei one of more renown writers of his time, Naruse could have expected a good portion of the audience for his movie to be familiar with the story. There are minor scenes which seem slightly out of place or superfluous unless one has read the novel. For example, in one scene Oshima is shown talking to a friend about visiting a doctor because of a certain weakness. Naruse hints at it, but the real reason why Oshima saw a doctor was because she was having trouble accommodating her husband (er, his size), and was wondering if something was physically wrong with her. (Yes, to be sure, that "trouble" was more than a bit intimated in the novel, and I imagine had newspaper readers eagerly awaiting the next edition.) But if one hadn't read the book, the scene adds little to Oshima's story or to an understanding of her character.

Naruse also fails to satisfactorily portray how daring and bold Oshima's challenges were to the mores and societal patterns of Meiji Japan. She regularly wears western clothes, which was almost never done in Meiji, particularly for women. She would have been stared at constantly and considered odd by most everyone. But the film doesn't really reflect this. Remember this is turn-of-the-century Japan. She's also learns to ride a bicycle, and that action too had to be extremely rare for a woman. Japanese citizens in Meiji would have stopped dead in their tracks if they had been witnessed this, and on screen one does, but only one. In the film, a woman riding a bicycle in western clothes only comes across as an unusual activity, a humorous quirk, but in actuality was probably nothing less than truly shocking. The most salient statement, however, evident in both novel and film, is that a woman begins to take control of her life and to look down and even dominate the men who manifest themselves in the expanding horizons of her life. Unusual, to say the least, in a society as paternal as Japan's, even today. It cannot be helped but to think if Naruse had trimmed a scene here or there and focused more on the blossoming of Oshima who, as in the novel, comes into her own, valuing to the fullest her new found sexuality and her live-life-to-the fullest mentality, Untamed might be more appreciated today. As it is, Untamed is a good film, but could have been better. The film's ending is awkwardly truncated, as mentioned above, and only weakly portrays Oshima's triumph over society and the men in her life. In the novel she's revealed as financially independent, confident, finally a success in Tokyo, and has acquired a boy-toy to whom she's heading off to see at a hot spring onsen. It could be the shortened ending was forced upon Naruse by Toho, as the movie clocks in at just over two hours.

The turn-of-the-century time setting of Untamed has piqued my curiosity about other Japanese films that may have been set during the same time period. Although I'm an avid viewer of Japanese cinema, I'm unable to name even one film that does so. Are there any? Perhaps the more knowledgeable Japanese film cinéastes on this forum can provide some enlightenment.

[esl]

I could be mistaken but I think Kozaburo Yoshimura's Chijo made in 1957 was set in that same period.

[KeystoneCop]

Anyone aware of any impending or planned Naruse releases in Japan? Since I doubt we'll see anything other than his most famous films released in R1 and R2 in the forseeable future, it'd be nice if the Japanese studios had more of a comprehensive release schedule planned for his lesser known works. Maybe just wishful thinking though...

[Michael Kerpan]

Not a hint as to any further Japanese releases. Shochiku clearly decided to pass on releasing any of the silents for the Naruse Centennial. But it took several years past the 100 year birthday mark for it to release its lovely Shimizu sets -- so maybe in a couple of years it will also release its Naruse films on DVD. Toho seems to have felt it did its duty by releasing two box sets and letting (almost) everything be shown on satellite television.

[KeystoneCop]

Disappointing, but I figured there wasn't anything planned. I'm part of an online community where myself and a few other people are working mostly with the television broadcasts in an attempt to make English subtitles for all of his films. Most of the broadcasts are of pretty good quality, but it'd certainly be nice to pair the timed subs with DVD releases. Of his films not yet on DVD anywhere, here's what we've done so far:

Every Night Dreams (1933)
Five Men in the Circus (1935)
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts (1935)
The Girl in the Rumor (1935)
The Whole Family Works (1939)
Hideko the Bus Conductress (1941)
The Song Lantern (1943)
Okuni and Gohei (1952)
Husband and Wife (1953)
Wife (1953)
Untamed (1957)
Evening Stream (1960)

[esl]

Nice start. I am not seeing any word here in Japan of forthcoming releases. I am trying to work with my land lord so I can get satellite and get the Nihon Eiga channel. BTW. I am going to see The Whole Family Works tomorrow at the Jinbocho Theater in Tokyo. (see my post for Jinbocho Theater under Old Films).

[esl]

One of the revival theaters in Tokyo (Jinbocho) will devote their upcoming series to Naruse. In all, they will show 42 of his films over six weeks starting on July 4. July 2 will be the 40th anniversary of his death. Below is a list of what they will be screening. I have put it in chronological order. Sadly, there will be none of the silent films. They will be mostly focusing on the post-war films and showing all but two of his films from Ginza Cosmetics on ( Lightning and Older Brother, Younger Sister were shown as part of another series a few months ago). The ones in bold are films that I have seen in the past.

Three Sisters With Maiden Hearts (Otome-gokoro Sannin Shimai) (1935)
Wife, Be Like a Rose (Tsuma yo Bara no Yo ni) (1935)
The Girl in the Rumour (Uwasa no Musume) (1935)
A Woman's Sorrows (Nyonin Aishu) (1937)
Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro (Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro) (1938)
The Whole Family Works (Hataraku Ikka) (1939)
Sincerity (Magokoro) (1939)
Travelling Actors (Tabi Yakusha) (1940)
Miss Hideko the Bus Conductress (Hideko no Shasho-san) (1941)
The Song Lantern (Uta Andon) (1943)
The Way of Drama (Shibaido) (1944)
Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka (Ishinaka Sensei Gyojoki) (1950)
Ginza Cosmetics (Ginza Gesho) (1950)
Dancing Girl (Maihime) (1950)
Repast (Meshi) (1951)
Okuni and Gohei (Okuni to Gohei) (1952)
Mother (Okasan) (1952)
Husband and Wife (Fufu) (1953)
Wife (Tsuma) (1953)
Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) (1954)
Late Chrysanthemums (Bangiku) (1954)
Floating Clouds (Ukigumo) (1955)
The Kiss (Kuchizuke) (1955)
Sudden Rain (Shu-u) (1956)
A Wife's Heart (Tsuma no Kokoro) (1956)
Flowing (Nagareru) (1956)
Untamed (Arakure) (1957)
Anzukko (1958)
Summer Clouds (Iwashigumo) (1958)
Whistling in Kotan (Kotan no Kuchibue) (1959)
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna ga Kaidan o Agaru Toki) (1960)
Daughters, Wives and a Mother (Musume Tsuma Haha) (1960)
Evening Stream (Yoru no Nagare) (1960)
The Approach of Autumn (Aki Tachinu) (1960)
As a Wife, As a Woman(Tsuma toshite Onna toshite) (1961)
Woman's Status (Onna no Za) (1962)
Her Lonely Lane (Horoki) (1962)
A Woman's Story (Onna no Rekishi) (1963)
Yearning (Midareru) (1964)
Stranger Within a Woman (Onna no Naka ni Iru Tanin) (1966)
Hit and Run (Hikinige) (1966)
Scattered Clouds (Midaregumo) (1967)

I wish I had the money and time to see all of them, even the ones I have already seen or have on DVD, but I can't afford it. High on my list are the pre-war and war-time films as I have seen so few of them. Based upon what I have read here and elsewhere, I am also interested in seeing The Approach of Autumn, Husband and Wife, and A Wife's Heart. However, I also have a desire to see films like Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka, Whistling in Kotan and A Woman's Story only because they are, among Naruse's output, more obscure and this may be the only chance I get to see them.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[reno dakota]

I would certainly recommend Meshi (1951), which is one of the best I've seen.

[Michael Kerpan]

One of my very favorite post-war films (Haru no mezame / Spring's Awakening -- Yoshiko Kuga's first starring role) is being skipped!

All the films being shown are well worth seeing, but I especially recommend (of those you have not yet seen):

Three Sisters With Maiden Hearts (Otome-gokoro Sannin Shimai) (1935)
Wife, Be Like a Rose (Tsuma yo Bara no Yo ni) (1935)
Travelling Actors (Tabi Yakusha) (1940)
The Song Lantern (Uta Andon) (1943)
Repast (Meshi) (1951) (my Naruse favorite -- and my honorary no. 2 of all time)
Sudden Rain (Shu-u) (1956)
Untamed (Arakure) (1957)
As a Wife, As a Woman(Tsuma toshite Onna toshite) (1961)
Yearning (Midareru) (1964)

If one is a big Mariko Okada fan, Dancing Girl (Maihime) (1950) is (I believe) her debut film.

If one wants to see Naruse's (pretty distinctive) take on jidai-geki, Okuni and Gohei (Okuni to Gohei) (1952) is very interesting (an adaptation of a neo-kabuki play by Tanizaki).

If one is a Mifune fan, one should not miss A Wife's Heart (Tsuma no Kokoro) (1956) (playing an atypically gentle character).

I have yet to see Conduct Report on Prof. Ishinaka (which features Mifune in one segment of the film) and Anzukko (reportedly good but very bleak).

[BB]

Another vote for Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts. It has long sequences of documentry/neo realist style footage shot on city streets. A rare glimpse of 1930's Japan.

Meshi (Repast) is also one of my favorite films of all time. Although the first time I saw it was in a theatre in Berkeley and it did almost nothing for me.

[sidehacker]

Finally got around to seeing Anzukko and if I remember correctly, it got a lot of hype here. I'm not sure why, as I think it's probably one of Naruse's weaker efforts.

It felt good to sit down and watch a Naruse film, especially since I hadn’t done so in a couple months. While this does remind me why I love him in the first place, it is ultimately one of his weaker efforts. It would actually be a very good starting point for those new to the director if only because it is slightly exaggerated example of what he does best. Once again we have a marriage that isn’t the greatest in the world. In fact, I’d argue its the worst, but unlike the mutual compassion present in a film like Repast, we get a complex in which more attention is devoted to a completely unlikable husband and far too little is spent with his wife, who puts up with far too much of his bullshit. The female figure and titular character is played by Kyoko Kagawa, a strong character actress who worked with the very best in the industry. Unfortunately, she doesn’t quite live up to the standards that the main female protagonist of a Naruse film. She’s just a little too nice and obedient, which I suppose is kind of the point. Her husband, played by Isao Kimura — also a strong supporting performer, devotes all his resources and time to his career as a writer. He sees his novelist father-in-law (played by the always excellent So Yamamura) as a rival. In fact, towards the end he refers to him as his greatest enemy. A childish characterization on the part of Kimura’s character, but a perfect representation of the competitive nature with which he sees everything. I have no problems with a film centered on unsympathetic characters, but there’s a difference between a lack of morals and pure stupidity, the husband falls into the latter. To make matters worse, the overarching “message” of the entire story is that Kyoko should stay with her husband because, while she’s lost her chance at happiness, leaving her husband would only take away his happiness as well. Apparently, that would be selfish? This is much different than the central relationship in Repast, in which the passive couple stays together on the basis of mutual respect. Here, it’s just Mizoguchi-type martyrdom tragedy and unlike Mizoguchi, Naruse doesn’t make Kyoko a female Jesus, but instead someone who is doing the right thing. Having said all that, this is still a pretty good movie. Kimura overacts a little bit, especially when he’s intoxicated, but other than that, the performances are pretty much perfect. All the interactions, the dialogue, the little gestures (such an important part of Naruse’s cinema) are all present and they’re all things I’ve come to expect from the man. While this isn’t one of his best efforts, it’s not a problem. I’ll take his mediocre efforts over the masterpieces of most directors.

[Michael Kerpan]

I don't have any final thoughts on Anzukko yet -- and won't until I revisit it. But I think that there is a certain degree of perversity in Kagawa's character that goes beyond stereotypical dutifulness -- it is just that I am not yet able to pin things down.

[HerrSchreck]

I'm anxiously awaiting the time to sit through this one-- I watched the first 10 minutes or so and found it exquisite in parts, to be honest. The simple bike rides through the town registered as pure Naurse at his best... seemingly so simple, yet so delicately effective and prompting beautiful interior responses in me as I watched.

[Michael Kerpan]

I don't _think_ Anzukko will ever make into my Naruse top 10. I'm also sure it won't make it into my tiny pile of Naruse (semi-)rejects (only Avalanche and Battle of the Roses -- though 2-3 more hover on the edge).

[Sanjuro]

One silent Naruse film (Koshiben Ganbare - 1931 - apparently his oldest remaining work) is showing at Tokyo Filmex this year (with English subs) as part of their 'Nippon Moden' selection. Lots of interesting films from the 30s showing.

[Michael Kerpan]

One silent Naruse film (Koshiben Ganbare - 1931 - apparently his oldest remaining work) is showing at Tokyo Filmex this year (with English subs) as part of their 'Nippon Moden' selection. Lots of interesting films from the 30s showing.

I've seen about half of the films showing as part of the Nippon Modern presentation. I'd love to see the other half.

I like Flunky work Hard -- but think there are better choices for a Nippon Modern themed series.

[velazquez]

I watched a number of Naruse films at a retrospective in London a few years ago. I have a memory of a Naruse film with a lot of location shooting in a postwar urban wasteland - kids playing and other action taking place in this urban no mans land. This is a little vague but if anyone has any ideas on which film I am thinking of I would be grateful. That aside any other thoughts on Naruse titles that illustrate the director's affinities with filming actual city locations would also be interesting.

[Michael Kerpan]

I have a memory of a Naruse film with a lot of location shooting in a postwar urban wasteland - kids playing and other action taking place in this urban no mans land. This is a little vague but if anyone has any ideas on which film I am thinking of I would be grateful. That aside any other thoughts on Naruse titles that illustrate the director's affinities with filming actual city locations would also be interesting.

I suspect you saw "Woman Ascending the Stairs".

Lots of Naruse films from the ealy 50s feature plenty of urban local color (also the Heir of Urashima Taro from the late 40s -- and many films from the 30s). Repast and Sound of the Mountain and Lightning and Late Chrysanthemums and Mother are all useful in this respect (among many others).

[velazquez]

I suspect you saw "Woman Ascending the Stairs".

Lots of Naruse films from the ealy 50s feature plenty of urban local color (also the Heir of Urashima Taro from the late 40s -- and many films from the 30s). Repast and Sound of the Mountain and Lightning and Late Chrysanthemums and Mother are all useful in this respect (among many others).[/quote]

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?

[Michael Kerpan]

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).

[dcdrew]

I watched a number of Naruse films at a retrospective in London a few years ago. I have a memory of a Naruse film with a lot of location shooting in a postwar urban wasteland - kids playing and other action taking place in this urban no mans land. This is a little vague but if anyone has any ideas on which film I am thinking of I would be grateful. That aside any other thoughts on Naruse titles that illustrate the director's affinities with filming actual city locations would also be interesting.

Reading your post, the film that springs to my mind is "The Approach of Autumn" ["Aki tachinu"], released in 1960, the same year as "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs." It's one of the few Naruse films whose central characters are children. Here's the blurb on the film from the 2005 NYC Film Forum retro:

Recently widowed Nobuko Otowa (Onibaba) re-locates for a job at Tokyo’s Mishima Hotel, but her shy sixth-grader has trouble adjusting, preferring the company of his pet beetle — until he befriends the hotel manager’s daughter. A rare and masterful focus on children for Naruse.

As I recall, the story follows the life of a boy coping with a move to his new home in an urban neighborhood. His mother is rarely present because of her job, so he is often left to fend for himself. After some humiliating experiences trying to fit in with the street kids, he meets a girl who is more sympathetic to his plight. I don't remember quite how the film progresses from there, but it strikes a typically Narusean note of resilience in the face of misfortune. And I distinctly remember scenes of the children playing in an industrial waterfront area that would qualify as "postwar urban wasteland" in my mind.

I would also add "Yearning" ["Midareru"] (1964) to the films Michael mentioned as an example of Naruse's depictions of city life. In this film a small grocery run by Hideko Takamine is faced with competition from a supermarket that opens nearby, reflecting the tensions of modernization.

As for books and articles, Michael has already mentioned the two books devoted to Naruse that I know of. There are essays on Naruse in the booklets included with the DVD sets by BFI and MoC, as well as the Criterion DVD of "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs." For other perspectives on Naruse, you have to do some extra work by researching journal articles and book excerpts, many of which are over 20 years old and represent a somewhat dated view. Here are a few:

• An excellent introductory article is Phillip Lopate's "A Taste for Naruse," published in the Summer 1986 issue of Film Quarterly, which should be accessible through most academic libraries. It is also included in the book Totally, Tenderly, Tragically (Anchor Books, 1998), a collection of Lopate's film criticism. The article covers most of Naruse's oeuvre and holds up well despite its age.
• Audie Bock surveyed Naruse's career in detail in a chapter in her book Japanese Film Directors (Kodansha, 1978). She also helped author an Art Institute of Chicago monograph on Naruse in 1985, available as scanned images on the CineFiles site. A far briefer, but more recent, treatment of Naruse by Bock can be found in her article "A Gesture and a Pose: The Cinema of Mikio Naruse," published in Artforum in November 2005.
• Another detailed overview of Naruse and his work is the unsigned entry on him in the reference book World Film Directors Vol. 1 (Wakeman, John, ed.; published by H.W. Wilson, 1987).
• Donald Richie, the dean of English-language scholarship on Japanese film, has touched on Naruse in many of his books, beginning with The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Grove, 1960) and continuing on up to A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (Kodansha, 2001), the latter of which which is still in print.

Those are some starting points. If you want to dig even deeper, there are other sources mentioned in this forum (e.g., books by Burch, Mellen, and Sato) and elsewhere.

[tajmahal]

Another good resource is Slant, with reviews of many of the films.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/featu ... naruse.asp

[Michael Kerpan]

It _could_ be Approach of Autumn_ BUT -- the meeting between Takamine and the beleaguered wife of Daisuke Kato -- where Kato's young children are playing (one riding a trike or something) in a bleak and blighted urban open space sticks most strongly in MY memory.

But Approach of Autumn is mostly about kids -- so if the movie in question focused on kids, it would have (almost) had to have been AoA.