Mikio Naruse

[Red Screamer]

Are you watching the Naruse retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive? I've been trying to catch pretty much everything they are showing (except I was both out of Boston and in the hospital -- in suburban Chicago while on a mini-vacation) last weekend. I have seen all of Naruse's films, but around 30 I have never seen except in unsubbed Japanese form, so seeing them some of them subbed (finally) is a treat.

Yessir, though I was lucky enough to catch some of the 30s films at Il Cinema Ritrovato. I should try watching some of them without subtitles sometime, actually, to focus better on the exchanged glances and body language. It's cool to know you've been in attendance as well. Now stay in good health and out of the hospital!

[yoloswegmaster]

For anyone in Toronto and Vancouver, the Naruse retrospective will be screening there sometime next year. I'm assuming that these are all screened on 35mm prints?

[Drucker]

Mostly. Here's the program from Japan Society in NYC with format listed.

[senseabove]

I've been attending nearly all of the BAMPFA screenings, and my affection for Naruse has grown steadily. I had somehow already seen 5 or 6 of his films before this retrospective, but if I began it thinking of him as a lightly likable director I was curious enough to check out more of, he's fast become one I'm going out of my way to catch all of. "Effortless" is apt, as so many of his plots have a frog-boiling quality, where there is no dramatic breaking point and yet the final acts become undeniably if subtly excruciating—the ending of A Wife's Heart is incredible for just how underplayed its resigned defeat is. I do think he's an underappreciated visual stylist as well; his use of foregrounds and backgrounds and planes within them to develop characters' relationships to their environment and amongst themselves is nothing short of exquisite, and it elevates even a middling narrative that loses its steam like A Wanderer's Notebook to something eminently watchable (well, his staging and, in this particular case, Jun Yasumoto's cinematography and Hideko Takamine's wonderfully varied performance—I'm grateful the PFA has clustered all of the Takemini films at the start as a kind of reference point). And that's not to mention that the hot springs sequence in Wife! Be Like a Rose! might have been the highlight of this year's Nitrate Picture Show!

Meanwhile someone like Ozu or Kurosawa had longer, more consistent stretches partly because they had more say over what they would make. That's a bit helpful to know in case you do a deeper dive into Naruse's underseen filmography - if it turns up less buried gems than other major auteurs, it doesn't become all that surprising.

Apt that the BAMPFA series takes its title from Catherine Russell's book: The Salaryman as Auteur. I've only read part of Russell's book, but e.g. I get the impression his war-period work was rote assignment (which presumably accounts for it being very under-represented in these retrospectives). That said, the two I've been most excited by were two I'd never heard mention of before, A Wife's Heart and Wife! Be Like a Rose!

For anyone in Toronto and Vancouver, the Naruse retrospective will be screening there sometime next year. I'm assuming that these are all screened on 35mm prints?

Two of the programmers, Alexander Fee and Edo Choi, were on a podcast recently (Nic Rapold's Last Thing I Saw, I think?) and mentioned that the National Film Archive of Japan requires their own archivists to inspect their prints after a certain number of screenings, meaning that prints must be shipped back to Japan for inspection. Presumably that's why the format varies between some venues (e.g. BAMPFA is showing Ginza Cosmetics in a 35mm print from the JNFA, while the NYC Japan Society screening was a 16mm print from their own archive).

[yoloswegmaster]

Mostly. Here's the program from Japan Society in NYC with format listed.

Two of the programmers, Alexander Fee and Edo Choi, were on a podcast recently (Nic Rapold's Last Thing I Saw, I think?) and mentioned that the National Film Archive of Japan requires their own archivists to inspect their prints after a certain number of screenings, meaning that prints must be shipped back to Japan for inspection. Presumably that's why the format varies between some venues (e.g. BAMPFA is showing Ginza Cosmetics in a 35mm print from the JNFA, while the NYC Japan Society screening was a 16mm print from their own archive).

Thanks for the update! Interesting to know that the prints need to be sent back to Japan after being screened a certain number of times, which is certainly very expensive to do. I recall reading an article with a programmer in Boston who said that it cost $1,000 to ship a print from LA to Boston, so one can only imagine how much it will cost to ship these prints back to Japan.

[Michael Kerpan]

Red Screamer -- Here's what I look like these days (so feel free to say hello if you see me)....

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=239 ... 3700301495

[Michael Kerpan]

While there may be a few clunkers in Naruse's wartime films (the war against China started in 1937) and in his immediate post-war films, there are also quite a few gems. I would say that there are more films that are "different" from his great early-mid 30s work and his great 1951-and-after work. But things like Traveling Actors, Hideko the Bus Conductor, and Song Lantern are gems.

I believe Naruse was famed (among his colleagues, including Kurosawa) for the way to he used light and shadow (and combinations thereof). Ozu never tried to do the sort of complex lighting that was a normal feature of Narus'es work. Also, watching how Naruse handles people walking together is always intyeresting -- he was quite adept at using such shots to convey information not covered explicitly by the dialog. (He was also famed/infamous for slashing out a huge amount of dialog crafted by his talented screenwriters)

[yoloswegmaster]

HD copies with English subs for many of Naruse's early films (Travelling Actors, A Fond Face from the Past, Sincerity, The First Kiss, The Whole Family Works, The Road I Travel with You, Five Men in a Circus, The Actress and the Poet, Okuni and Gohei, Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka, Avalanche, Man of the House, and Morning's Tree-Lined Street) are now available on the back channels.

Note that these are ripped from Amazon JP and don't look to be restored/cleaned-up.

[Michael Kerpan]

Alas, I never really managed to tap into the channels where things like these are available.

[yoloswegmaster]

In this case, the back channel that I'm referring to is a private torrent site dedicated to Asian cinema that you need an invite to. If you are interested, just shoot me a DM and I can give you an invite so that you can watch these films.

[Michael Kerpan]

At least in the olden days (as I recall) one had to upload stuff to those sites in order to earn the right to download stuff. And I have nothing to upload....

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

You can just seed the stuff you download long enough to get your share ratio to the required minimum, and/or download and seed "freeleech" stuff that earns you upload credit without counting towards your downloads.

[Michael Kerpan]

Thanks for the info, yoloswegmaster and Fanciful Norwegian

[Michael Kerpan]

Right now thee Harvard Film Archive has been showing the silent Naruse films. The new print they got National Film Archive of Japan was based (as far as I could tell) on a spectacularly successful restoration. I don't think I've ever seen a Japanese silent film look as fine as this. Not a subbed print -- so it had quite good soft subs for the title cards done by a grad student, The screening also had live piano accompaniment. The audience was quite appreciative. Glad to see MY Naruse silent good the royal treatment,

[pistolwink]

Which film are you referring to?

[Michael Kerpan]

Which film are you referring to?

Sorry I overlooked your question until now. I was talking about Apart From You.

On another matter, I found a link to the Google Group forum (started by Dan Sallit) back at the time of the previous round of Naruse retrospectives 20 or so years ago. It is sort of a time capsule. Very nostalgic for me, but maybe of at least slight interest to others. The discussions surrounding the Digitize-All-Naruse project took place elsewhere -- but not sure where. A few movies that did not make it into the current retrospectives are discussed. So -- here it is -- for what it might be worth: https://groups.google.com/g/naruseretro

[Red Screamer]

Thanks, Michael, that was fun to click through. After seeing 20 Naruse films this year, my favorites shook out to be something like:

Sound of the Mountain
Floating Clouds
Scattered Clouds (aka Two in the Shadow)
Repast
Wife! Be Like a Rose
The Stranger Within a Woman (aka The Thin Line)
Yearning
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
A Wife's Heart
Sudden Rain

With the first one being my clear favorite. Some underrated titles I'd like to read/write more about: Summer Clouds, Avalanche, A Woman's Sorrows.

Since I last checked in with this thread, I realized just how much intensity Setsuko Hara brings for me personally, while I struggle a bit with his films focused on children, with Mother and the Approach of Autumn being the two that everyone seems to love that didn't do much for me.

[Michael Kerpan]

I managed to see almost all of the 46 films screened by the HFA. It really ate up a lot of my time and energy -- especially on those weeks that Naruse (plus sometimes Hong) on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Stranger Within a Woman was more interesting and successful than its successor Hit and Run -- though both seemed very atypical (even odd) for Naruse. The former at least had at lot more visual beauty. I loved all the other films on your "favorites" list. Did you get to see Lightning (another of my top favorites).

I liked a Woman's Sorrows -- but realized I had really mostly forgotten this one since I last watched it (20 or so years ago). Avalanche I would describe as "interesting", but not really terribly successful for me. Summer Clouds strikes me as sort of a cousin to Ozu's End of Summer (Autumn of the Kohayagawa Family). Lots of the same cast members -- same sort of sprawling family epic. As to Mother and Approach of Autumn -- I was somewhat cooler (than my Naruse average) to both of these on first watches, but I like them more with each rewatching. They both have a lot more depth than it seems at first.

[senseabove]

I was able to catch all but one of the ~30 films in BAMPFA's six-month series (of those I hadn't seen on film before, at least) and I, similarly, am very relieved they're not running another expansive series I feel the need to be a completionist about (to make matters worse, their Wiseman series overlapped their Naruse series, then add in an expansive Westerns program at the Stanford, and the last three months have been pretty exhausting, movie-going-wise).

Sudden Rain is the one I had to miss, unfortunately, so I'm hoping the copy on back channels is not miserable, and I was sad to have to miss a reviewing of Repast as well (especially as my prior viewing was at the Nitrate Picture Show a few years ago, which is a bit of a marathon not well-suited to the subtleties of Naruse, and I merely enjoyed it then—while I'm so much more keyed in to what Naruse does that I'm sure I'd have gotten more out of it this time).

Of those I did see, my five favorites were:
Scattered Clouds/Two in the Shadow
Sound of the Mountain
Lightning
A Wife's Heart
Wife! Be Like a Rose

I think Hit and Run/Moment of Terror and The Stranger Within a Woman/The Thin Line are both really interesting if you've seen a lot of other Naruse, as they both seem to be him recognizing that the times, they are a-changin', and he needs to figure out how to adapt his very restrained but indulgent style to the dynamic visual language taking prominence, but I agree with Michael K, the former is the better of the two, and both are atypical and not exactly in his wheelhouse.

I went into the season a little skeptical, as I'd seen several Naruse and none of them really blew me away, but he's a director who really benefits from quantity, and from familiarity with mid-century Japanese mores (which his films, luckily, act as a crash-course in). Hard to believe I haven't even seen half of his extant work with 28 films under my belt, though! And I expect I'd watch nearly all of them many more times. May I live to see another retrospective, and may this renewed interest spark many more home video releases.

Lightning I accidentally saw twice because I forgot to log it and, much like Ozu, so many of the names blur together, and I just went back to the theater because it was whatever Naruse was playing that weekend. But I think it was my favorite repeat of all the ones I have now seen multiple times. Unexpectedly, his most well-known, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, was probably my least-rewarding revisit; having seen it twice before this series, and having seen 20+ other Naruse between the prior time and this time, it really felt like it earned its reputation as "a great Naruse" more because it's "a good first Naruse," being set in the more titillating and familiar hostess world and lacking the elaborate familial density that is the truly soul-crushing weight of most Naruse movies.

Speaking of Scattered Clouds, was there ever a "last features" counterpart to the "first features" list? Given the general obsession with "late style" in the film discourse the past decade...

[therewillbeblus]

Speaking of Scattered Clouds, was there ever a "last features" counterpart to the "first features" list? Given the general obsession with "late style" in the film discourse the past decade...

I suggested this a couple of times. I think it would be much more interesting project than a First Features list

[Michael Kerpan]

I was not even close to tired of watching Naruse films (after 40+) -- I was just plain physically exhausted.

I have MANY favorite Naruse films -- but my pick for most delightful overall is almost surely Lightning. Its balance of satire and warm humor is almost perfect. And the Takamine-noodle-eating scene late in the film consistently gets my biggest laugh of any in his work.

I have seen Woman Ascending so many time that my evaluation has shifted back and forth. At this point, however, I have no niggles with the film -- other than the fact that is still too often touted as the one of the only truly "great" Naruse films. (This seems to get more "crushing" with each re-watch -- so check it out again in a few years).

I find that both Mother and Approach of Autumn have grown on me over the years. The voice-over in Mother did initially bother me 25 years ago, but I can take it in stride now.

[yoloswegmaster]

It probably helps living close to the theaters that are screening the Naruse films. The Naruse series is currently playing Toronto, and I will only end up seeing 6-7 films out of the 19 films that they are screening since I live an hour away and it's been strenuous driving there and back for the past month. In fact, I'm probably going to return my ticket for Lightning that is screening next week since I feel exhausted just from thinking about having to commute. Which is a complete shame as that is also my favourite Naruse film and I really would love to see it on the big screen.

[Michael Kerpan]

My commute to and from Harvard via public transportation was about an hour and a quarter. Coming back after a double header (starting home around midnight got to be rather rough).

It is a CRIME that no one has put out a subbed release of Lightning!

[artfilmfan]

I was not even close to tired of watching Naruse films (after 40+) -- I was just plain physically exhausted.

When the going got tough, the tough kept going.

I really liked what you wrote about the ending of “Scattered Clouds” in the google group chats. It’s been nearly twenty years since you wrote it. Have they found their way to each other yet? Sadly, Naruse did not live to make his “a man and a woman: twenty years later”.

“Scattered Clouds” has become my top-3 favorite Naruse films. The other two, which have been #1 and #2 over the past twenty years, are still “Floating Clouds” and “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs”, respectively.

[Michael Kerpan]

I really like a lot of things I wrote 20 years ago (except for the typos). Alas, I have no energy to do that kind of writing anymore.