Cupola, Where the Furnaces Glow (Urayama, 1962)

[esl]

Watched this last week, finally go around to posting about it.

Cupola, Where the Furnaces Glow aka Foundry Town (Kyupora No Aru Machi) 1962
Dir. Kirio Urayama
Running Time: 100mins.
Region Code: 2 - NTSC Format
Layers: single-sided/single-layered
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 LB Cinemascope (B/W)
Audio Track: Japanese - Dolby Digital Monaural
Subtitles: None
Extras: Trailer, biographies

This 1962 Nikkatsu studios black and white scope film is one of the early films of actress Sayuri Yoshinaga, who would have been about 17 years old at that time. It is also the first film by director Urayama. Shohei Imamura was one of the script writers. From what little information I can find, it was a very popular film when it was released. It is set in Kawaguchi, nicknamed "City of Cupolas" for all the cupola topped chimneys from the iron foundries, most of which have been now replaced by high-rise apartments. It is located on the southern edge of Saitama Prefecture, separated from Tokyo to the south only by the Arakawa River.

This film is a classic representative of the shomin-geki genre, which focused on the daily lives of the lower middle class of Japan. As is not uncommon for that genre there is little plot to this film, instead giving us a snapshot of their daily lives. It focuses on Jun (Yoshinaga), a cheerful high school aged girl, who dreams of a better life by going on to higher education. She lives with her family (mother, father, and two younger brothers) in a two-room apartment. In short order the family is added to, as at the beginning of the film Jun arrives home from school just as her mother is giving birth to another child. Jun’s father (Eijiro Tono) works in one of the many local foundries and spends most of his free time drinking and gambling away what little money the family has.

This is a straight forward transfer; Nikkatsu did not do any restoration. I noticed a few artifacts which were rarely distracting. Overall, this is a beautiful black and white image. The cinematographer did a wonderful job with his use of the scope format in framing many of the shots and capturing daily domestic life of this portion of Japanese society at that time. I wish I had a way to take screen shots.

On a side note, Nikkatsu’s marketing seems clearly aimed at a younger crowd rather than those who want to watch a classic shomin-geki from the Showa era. The only Japanese on the front cover and DVD itself is the title of the film in very small font. Everything else is in English. The still photos used on the cover and on the back of the DVD case give the impression that this is some type of teen romance between Jun and Katsumi (Mitsuo Hamada), a young man who works as a local union organizer, which it is definitely not.

[Perkins Cobb]

English all over the box art and no English subtitles: High-five, Nikkatsu!

(Sounds like a fascinating film, though.)