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Poll

What's your favorite film by Mikio Naruse?

Kimi to wakarete (After Our Separation)
0 (0%)
Yogoto no yume (Each Night I Dream)
0 (0%)
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
0 (0%)
Tsuma yo bara no yo ni (Kimiko)
0 (0%)
Hideko, the Bus Conductress
0 (0%)
Uta-andon (The Song Lantern)
0 (0%)
Ginza keshô (Ginza Cosmetics)
0 (0%)
Meshi (Repast)
1 (5.3%)
Okaasan (Mother)
1 (5.3%)
Inazuma (Lightning)
0 (0%)
Fûfu (Husband and Wife)
0 (0%)
Ani imôto (Older Brother, Younger Sister)
0 (0%)
Yama no oto (The Thunder of the Mountain)
1 (5.3%)
Bangiku (Late Chrysanthemums)
0 (0%)
Ukigumo (Floating Clouds)
0 (0%)
Shû u (Sudden Rain)
0 (0%)
Nagareru (Flowing)
1 (5.3%)
Iwashigumo (Summer Clouds)
0 (0%)
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
3 (15.8%)
Daughters, Wives and a Mother
0 (0%)
Hourou-ki (A Wanderer's Notebook)
0 (0%)
Midareru (Yearning)
0 (0%)
The Stranger Within a Woman
0 (0%)
Midaregumo (Scattered Clouds)
0 (0%)
other (specify)
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
11 (57.9%)
don't like any
1 (5.3%)

Total Members Voted: 19

Author Topic: Naruse, Mikio  (Read 10795 times)

worm@work

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #40 on: January 07, 2013, 12:52:50 PM »
Wife! Be Like a Rose! | Naruse | 1935

Whoa! This is quite a huge leap from the silents and my favorite of the Naruse films I've seen so far. It starts off so breezy and light.. almost like a Hollywood or Bollywood rom-com from the 50s or something. The first surprise is the totally modern protagonist. Kimiko is such a departure from the other Naruse heroines I've seen with her modern attire  and her office job. Then there's  the cute banter between her and her boyfriend where they each pretend to be not as interested in the other as they really are. And Naruse devotes several moments to a straight up comedy sequence with the much-revered uncle's terrible singing upsetting it seems, even the caged birds in his home.

The film eventually kind of breaks into a city vs. country two-part structure but it's nowhere as simple as one simply being glorified over the other. In fact, on a moment by moment, scene by scene basis, the film constantly has us shifting our perceptions about these characters. In fact, even by contemporary standards, the ending feels rather radical. The film also works as a great portrait of the changes occurring in Japanese society. Despite the ending shot of Kimiko crying at her mother being left alone and her inability to reconcile her parents, to me the ending is ultimately hopeful. It symbolises Kimiko's growth and a break from the tragedies of the past.

Couple of scenes stand out in particular in a film that's pretty much perfect. One is the scene where Kimiko's step-sister overhears Kimiko talking to her mom. The sister can't hold back her tears but rather than dwell on her face, Naruse moves the camera outside the house allowing us to grapple with the hopelessness of the situation. And then there's the little tour Kimiko and her parents take in of the city. It's a gorgeous bittersweet scene. On the one hand, it shows Kimiko bonding with her father and has that lovely scene of Kimiko hailing a cab a la Clark Gable in It Happened One Night. But in 10 minutes or less, it also depicts everything that was wrong with her parents' marriage. Great film.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2020, 12:56:36 PM by 1SO »

Sandy

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #41 on: January 07, 2013, 01:45:46 PM »
Loving your reviews worm@work. My library has the following titles:

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Mother
Street Without End
Flunky, Work Hard
Apart From You



Which of these would you recommend as a good introduction?

worm@work

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #42 on: January 07, 2013, 01:59:50 PM »
Loving your reviews worm@work. My library has the following titles:

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Mother
Street Without End
Flunky, Work Hard
Apart From You



Which of these would you recommend as a good introduction?

Thanks so much, Sandy :)! I'll go with When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. It's a lot more polished than his early silents and if I had to pick only one of those, that'd be the one. It's really lovely.

Verite

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #43 on: January 07, 2013, 02:04:27 PM »
Really Great:
1. Flowing
2. Yearning
3. Late Chrysanthemums

Great:
4. Floating Clouds
5. Repast
6. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
7. Street Without End
« Last Edit: January 07, 2013, 02:15:37 PM by Verite »
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Sandy

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #44 on: January 07, 2013, 02:18:24 PM »
Thanks!

Verite, who is your avatar?

worm@work

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #45 on: January 08, 2013, 04:34:07 PM »
Morning's Tree-Lined Street | Naruse | 1936

This one was alright but I've forgotten it almost as soon as I watched it :|. Chiba Sachiko is in this one as well and here she leaves her family in the countryside and comes to the city to work as a bar hostess in a relatively unhip/poor part of Tokyo, The portrait of the hostesses and their struggles with money and alcohol is pretty great but then the film turns really dramatic and we see Chiyo escaping with Ogawa dreaming of a better life and the film turns into some kind of crime drama where he's embezzled funds and asks her to commit suicide with him? And then that whole plot line is ruptured as well and while I get that the whole thing is meant to convey the precarious situation these women are placed in wherein they rely on weak men for their security, it all felt a bit silly to me. And Chiyo's naiveté regarding her profession struck me as rather odd as well. God, maybe I'm just in a bad mood today or something :|.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2020, 12:56:49 PM by 1SO »

MartinTeller

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #46 on: January 08, 2013, 04:43:09 PM »
It's okay to not like things :)  It helps us define what we do like.

I haven't seen that one yet.  I've got a ton of Naruse on my watchlist, I'll certainly get to at least of couple of them this year.

1SO

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #47 on: January 08, 2013, 04:59:50 PM »
It's okay to not like things :)  It helps us define what we do like.

Bookmarking this. I'm sure I'll be needing it.

MartinTeller

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #48 on: January 08, 2013, 05:05:04 PM »
You didn't read the fine print


*it's not okay for 1SO to not like things

sdedalus

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Re: Naruse Mikio - Director's Best
« Reply #49 on: January 16, 2013, 06:46:27 PM »
The End of Cinema

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