Meshi（めし） - FJMEX€¦ · HATSUNOSUKE comes to Tokyo and MICHIYO returns home with him. They resume their ordinary but familiar life in Osaka NOTES: The film is based on the

Retrospectiva de Mikio Naruse

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Del 25 de julio al 6 de agosto 2017 en Cineteca Nacional

El almuerzo

Meshi（めし）

Martes 25 de julio 19:30

Jueves 27 de julio 17:30

B & W / Standard / 1951 / 97 min. / Toho

Directed by: Naruse Mikio

Screenplay by: Ide Toshiro, Tanaka Sumie

Photography by: Tamai Masao

Art Direction by: Chuko Satoru

Music by: Hayasaka Fumio

Producer: Fujimoto Sanezumi

Based on a novel by: Hayashi Fumiko

SETTING: Osaka, Tokyo, present-days

SYNOPSIS:

OKAMOTO HATSUNOSUKE and his wife, MICHIYO, have moved from Tokyo to a small house in a modest

neighborhood in Osaka. They married for love, but their romance has faded and they are approaching middle age.

MICHIYO has grown increasingly dissatisfied with her life since she has no children to care for. HATSUNOSUKE works

for a securities firm, but the company is so small that he has no real chance for promotion. As a result of these frustrations,

MICHIYO nags HATSUNOSUKE while he remains aloof in an effort to avoid a serious confrontation.

When HATSUNOSUKE's niece, SATOKO, runs away from her home in Tokyo and arrives at their doorstep, real

problems arise. HATSUNOSUKE is in seventh heaven as he shows his beautiful young niece around Osaka. MICHIYO

CAST:

Okamoto Hatsunosuke: Uehara Ken

Michiyo, his wife: Hara Setsuko

Satoko, his niece: Shimazaki Yukiko

Murata Mitsuko: Sugi Yoko

Matsu, her mother: Sugimura Haruko

Tomiyasu Seiko: Kazami Akiko

Taniguchi Shige: Urabe Kumeko

Yoshitaro, her son: Ooizumi Akira

Takenaka Kazuo, Michiyo's cousin:

Nihon'yanagi Hiroshi


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stays home and irons the laundry while her husband and SATOKO frequent the local taverns.

One day, a new pair of shoes is stolen from the entrance to their house while MICHIYO is at a class reunion.

HATSUNOSUKE and SATOKO were both home at the time, and MICHIYO's imagination begins to run wild when she

sees a blanket spread out upstairs. MICHIYO reaches the breaking point when she finds out that SATOKO has been

running around with a boy in the neighborhood. She reprimands SATOKO severely and decides it is time to take her back

to Tokyo.

MICHIYO makes up her mind to stay in Tokyo and look for a job rather than return home to HATSUNOSUKE and the

unbearable atmosphere she left behind. However, when her cousin, TAKENAKA KAZUO, suggests they take a trip

together, her thoughts turn to HATSUNOSUKE and she refuses KAZUO's advances. She finally realizes that she belongs

with HATSUNOSUKE when she learns that KAZUO has started seeing SATOKO.

HATSUNOSUKE comes to Tokyo and MICHIYO returns home with him. They resume their ordinary but familiar life in

Osaka

NOTES:

The film is based on the unfinished last work of the popular writer, HAYASHI FUMIKO. The producer, FUJIMOTO

SANEZUMI, appointed IDE TOSHIRO and TANAKA SUMIE to complete the story as a screenplay.

IDE's refined dramatic composition and TANAKA's precise description of a woman's inner feelings blend well with the

director, NARUSE MIKIO's powerful psychological delineation. "A Married Life" is an excellent example of NARUSE's

ability to reveal the poignancy which lies beneath the surface of everyday life.

NARUSE emerged from a 16 year slump with the success of this film and went on to become Japan's most popular director

of films for women.

(Kinema Jumpo #2)

Meshi © 1951 Toho. Co., Ltd


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La madre

Okaasan（おかあさん）

Martes 26 de julio 19:30

Viernes 28 de julio 17:30

Mother / Okaasan おかあさん

B&W / Standard/ 1952 / 98min / Shin Toho

Director: Naruse Mikio

Script: Mizuki Yoko

Photography: Suzuki Hiroshi

Art Director: Kato Masatoshi

Music: Saito Ichiro

Producer: Nagashima Ichiro

Setting: Tokyo in the immediate post-

war period.

Synopsis:

The Fukuhara family is working hard to recover after the destruction of WW II. Trying to rebuild their old dry cleaning

business, the father, Ryosaku, works as a factory guard, the mother, Masako, sells candies at an outdoor stall, and even the

eldest daughter, Toshiko, joins in, vending candies and ice cream on the street. But life is just as difficult even after they

reopen their cleaning business. The eldest son, Susumu, suffering from tuberculosis, flees his treatment clinic to see his

mother and dies soon afterwards. Ryosaku collapses from overwork and has to hire an old associate, Kimura, to help out.

Cast:

Fukuhara Masako: Tanaka Kinuyo

Ryosaku, her husband: Mishima Masao

Toshiko, their first daughter: Kagawa Kyoko

Hisako, their second daughter: Enami Keiko

Susumu, their son: Katayama Akihiko

Kurihara Noriko, Masako's sister: Nakakita Chieko

Tetsuo, her son: Ito Takashi

Kimura Shokichi: Kato Daisuke

Hirai Shinjiro: Okada Eiji


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Ryosaku remains in bed while his daughters Toshiko and Hisako go to the local festival with their cousin Tetsuo, who is in

the Fukuhara's care while his mother Noriko trains to be a hairdresser. Refusing to go to the hospital for lack of funds,

however, Ryosake soon dies and Masako finds herself now in charge of both the famliy and the business. Her relatives,

themselves childless, offer to help by adopting Hisako. Feeling that it might be one of their last chances together, Toshiko

takes Hisako and Tetsuo on a picnic with her boyfriend Shinjiro, but is disturbed when he tells her of rumors making

insinuations about her mother and Kimura. The rumors are false, but Masako often does rely on Kimura for his cleaning

skills and tact in dealing with customers.

After a final family outing, Hisako leaves the Fukuhara family. Kimura, with plans for his own business, also bids his

farewell. With Tetsuo's mother passing her licensing exam and talk of Toshiko marrying Shinjiro already in the air, Masako

may soon find herself alone. She soon hires an apprentice, but Toshiko, concerned for her mother who worked so hard for

her children, wonders if she is really happy.

Notes:

Loosely based on a collection of essays by grade school students about their mothers, Mother focuses on the image of one

mother and her family attempting to recover from the destruction of WW II. While verging on the sentimental, Naruse's

direction is remarkably restrained compared to the tear-jerker "mother pictures" made at the time. Working from the script

by Mizuki Yoko, Japan's top woman screenwriter, he elides the potentially more dramatic events - such as the death scenes -

so as to draw out a more episodic, slice-of-life portrait of an average Japanese mother and the struggles she must face in the

postwar era.

okaasan© Toho. Co., Lt


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El relámpago

Inazuma（稲妻）

Jueves 27 de julio 20:00

Martes 1 de agosto 17:30

Lightning / INAZUMA 稲妻

B& W / Standard / 1952 / 87 min / Daiei (Tokyo)


Screenplay by: Tanaka Sumie

Photography: Mine Shigeyoshi

Art Director: Naka Mikio

Music: Saito Ichiro


SETTING: Present days

LOCATION: Down town, Tokyo

SYNOPSIS:

KIYOKO, a sightseeing bus tour guide, has two elder sisters NUIKO and MITSUKO, both married, and one elder brother

KASUKE. They are half brother and sisters one another from the same mother. One day, NUIKO and her husband

introduce a baker TSUNAKICHI to KIYOKO as her prospective husband, but their real intention is to take advantage of

CAST:

Kiyoko (3rd daughter): Takamine Hideko

Osei (mother): Urabe Kumeko

Mitsuko (2nd daughter): Miura Mitsuko

Nuiko (3rd daughter): Murata Chieko

Kasuke (son): Maruyama Osamu

Tsunakichi: Ozawa Sakae

Tagami Ritsu (mistress of Mitsuko's husband): Nakakita Chieko

Ryuzo (Nuiko's husband): Uemura Kenjiro

Kunimune Shuzo: Negami Jun

Tsubomi (Shuzo's younger sister): Kagawa Kyoko


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TSUNAKICHI who is good at money-making. KIYOKO knows that and cannot stand the idea. MITSUKO's husband dies

suddenly. Upon his death, it is revealed that he has kept a mistress and even had a child. Learning about it, MITSUKO starts

working at a love hotel TSUNAKICHI manages, to where NUIKO invites herself to move in with TSUNAKICHI,

behaving as if she were his wife. On the other hand, RYUZO, NUIKO's shiftless husband, comes to stay with KIYOKO

and Mother. TSUNAKICHI makes a pass at KIYOKO, but is refused. Out of frustration, he messes up a possible job

opportunity for brother KASUKE. KIYOKO, no longer bearable, leaves home and lives alone in a boarding house, where

she tastes the human life as it should be as she comes in contact with KUNIMUNE and his sister who live next door to her.

MITSUKO opens a coffee shop with the insurance money she received upon her husband's death, and TSUNAKICHI

frequents there and acts as if he were her husband. OSEI, Mother, visits with KIYOKO one night and tells her that

MITSUKO has vanished due to the eternal triangle among MITSUKO, NUIKO and TSUNAKICHI. KIYOKO comforts

her and hands her the precious hoard of money she has saved.

NOTES:

Authoress HAYASHI FUMIKO fondly wrote about the life of people living in the downtown area of Tokyo, and director

NARUSE MIKIO made many of her stories into motion pictures and established his own fixed style. This particular film is

one of his such films. The mother is sluttish as the fathers of her son and three daughters are all different men, but she herself

does not think it slatternly. Instead, she remembers each man who fathered her children with fond memories. Living with

such optimistic and good-natured mother are the dull and energyless son, the self-centered and loose eldest daughter, the

dependant second daughter and the third daughter who, by contract, makes efforts willingly to be independent and considers

about her future seriously. The helplessness of the helpless family seen through the eyes of the third daughter is depicted so

skillfully and realistically in their everyday life that the film gives familiar feelings instead of dumb-founded astonishment.

Dirt-stained life of those people and their manners and customs are brilliantly depicted by director NARUSE.

(Kinema-Junpo: #2)

Inazuma © 1952 kadokawa Pictures


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Hermano mayor, hermana menor

Ani imoto（兄妹）

Viernes 28 de julio 20:00

Miércoles 2 de agosto 17:30

Ino and Mon / Older Brother, Younger Sister / Ani imoto あにいもうと

B & W/ Standard/ 1953 / 93 min / Daiei (Tokyo)


Script: Mizuki Yoko

Based on the novel by: Muroo Saisei

Photography: Mine Shigeyoshi

Art Director: Naka Mikio

Music: Saito Ichiro

Planning: Miura Nobuo

Setting: Outskirts of Tokyo in the 1950s.

Synopsis:

Akaza, who used to head the construction of dikes along the river, has fallen on hard times since the government took

over the operation. His family lives off the meager earnings his wife makes selling soda and flavored ice. To make matters

worse, his eldest daughter Mon has returned from working in the city pregnant after an affair with a college student. It is

Cast:

Mon: Kyo Machiko

Inokichi: Mori Masayuki

San: Kuga Yoshiko

Akaza, their father: Yamamoto Reizaburo

Riki, his wife: Urabe Kumeko

Taiichi: Hori Yuji

Obata: Funakoshi Eiji


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only the eldest brother, Inokichi, however, a skilled stonemason who loves to drink and fight, who attacks her for her actions,

abusing her to the same degree he used to be kind to her. After a big fight, Mon packs up and leaves. Mon's pregnancy also

creates problems for the youngest daughter San, who is now rejected as a prospective bride by the parents of the man she

loves, Taiichi. Taiichi begs her to elope with him, but San refuses, telling Taiichi he should have the courage to face up to

his parents. But as an adopted son, he gives in to his parents wishes and marries the woman they select for him.

The next summer, Obata, the college student who got Mon pregnant, arrives at the house to apologize. Akaza's wife

treats him reverentially, as per his social status, so again it is only Inokichi who attacks him, beating him up on the way back

to the station for sullying his prized younger sister. Soon thereafter, Mon, reduced to working in a questionable profession,

returns having lost the child. She settles in as if nothing had happned but soon gets into an argument with Inokichi when he

reveals he beat up her former lover. The next day Mon and San leave home.

Notes:

The Muroo Saisei novel Older Brother, Younger Sister (Ani imoto) has been made into a film three times, Naruse

Mikio's version being the second one after Kimura Sotoji's 1936 version. Naruse and his scriptwriter, Mizuki Yoko, update

the story to the 1950s and build up San's character to emphasize the oppositions between the old and the new, the country

and the city. Yet while the modern, liberated San differs significantly from her more old fashioned sister, both reveal the

independent determination in the face of social restriction of a Naruse heroine. As with many of Naruse's films, the acting

takes center stage with spledid performances by Kyo Machiko, Mori Masayuki, and Yamamoto Reizaburo as the father.

Ani imoto © 1953 Kadokawa Picture


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Crisantemos tardíos

Bangiku（晩菊）

Sábado 29 de julio 17:30

Domingo 30 de julio 20:00

The Fading Grace / BANGIKU 晩菊

B & W / Standard / 1954 / 101 min. / Toho



Photography by: Tamai Masao


Music by: Saito Ichiro

Producer: Fujimoto Sanezumi


SETTING: Tokyo, present-days

SYNOPSIS:

KIN, a former GEISHA, lives in a small tidy house with her mute maid, SHIZUKO. For KIN, moneymaking has become

more important than love affairs, and she is investing very profitably in real estate with the help of ITAYA, a real estate

broker. KIN often goes out to visit her former GEISHA friends, NOBU, TAMAE, and TOMI, who live in the

neighborhood. She has been loaning them money, and often visits them in order to collect the interest without delay.

NOBU runs a tiny bar with her husband. TAMAE is a maid at a third-rate hotel, and TOMI works as a cleaning lady and

rents a room in TAMAE's house. Both TAMAE and TOMI are having problems with their children. TAMAE's son,

CAST:

Kurahashi Kin: Sugimura Haruko

Nakada Nobu: Sawamura Sadako

Koike Tamae: Hosokawa Chikako

Suzuki Tomi: Mochizuki Yuko

Tabe (Kin's old lover): Uehara Ken

Koike Kiyoshi (Tamae's son): Koizumi Hiroshi

Suzuki Sachiko (Tom's daughter): Arima Ineko

Seki (Kin's double suicide partner): Miake Bontaro

Nakada Sentaro (Nobu's husband): Sawamura Sotaro

Itaya(realtor): Kato Daisuke


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KIYOSHI, receives spending money from EIKO, the mistress of another man. TAMAE feels she is out of touch with her

son and is saddened by this. TOMI's daughter, SACHIKO, decides to marry a middle-aged man who frequents the

mah-jong parlor where she works. TOMI feels rejected because SACHIKO didn't consult her before making the decision.

KIN hears from NOBU that her old lover, SEKI, wants to see her. When she was young, she loved him so much that she

could have committed suicide with him, but now she feels no affection for him at all. However, when she receives a letter

from TABE with whom she had had a passionate love affair, saying he wants to see her, she dresses up and waits

expectantly for him, but it turns out that he only wants to borrow money from her. She suddenly changes her attitude, and

even burns the picture of TABE which she had kept for years.

KIYOSHI gets a job in HOKKAIDO. SACHIKO packs her belongings while TOMI is away, and leaves on her

honeymoon.

That same night, TAMAE and TOMI while drinking to the health of their children, fall asleep together in bed. Beaming

with pride, they see KIYOSHI off at UENO Station the next morning.

ITAYA is sitting in front of KIN, while he makes calculations on an abacus. NOBU drops by with the news that SEKI has

been arrested because of financial problems, but KIN does not feel any compassion for him. Instead, she goes out with

ITAYA to look at some real estate.

NOTES:

"The Fading Grace" is based on the writings of HAYASHI FUMIKO. NARUSE MIKIO excels at making films from

HAYASHI's novels, having previously directed "A Married Life" (MESHI), "Lightning" (INAZUMA), and "Wife"

(TSUMA), all based on HAYASHI's works. The script was co-written by TANAKA SUMIE and IDE TOSHIRO by

combining three of HAYASHI's short stories.

The difficulty in combining the three short stories can be detected in the storyline. It is difficult to understand why the four

major characters have remained friends even after they stopped working together.

Contrary to other films directed by NARUSE, each episode in this film has a wealth of humor which contributes to making

the whole story interesting.

The four major roles are played by talented and experienced actresses, but NARUSE's skillful direction is ultimately

responsible for delineating the subtle differences between the four personalities. (Kinema Jumpo #7

Bangiku © 1954 Toho. Co., Ltd


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La voz de la montaña

Yamano oto (山の音)

Sábado 29 de julio 20：00

Jueves 3 de agosto 17:30

The Echo /YAMA NO OTO 山の音

B & W / Standard/ 1954 / 95 min / Toho


Screenplay by: Mizuki Yoko

Photography: Tamai Masao

Art Director: Chuko Satoru

Music: Saito Ichiro

Based on a novel by: Kawabata Yasunari

Produced by: Fujimoto Sanezumi


LOCATION: Kamakura (a suburban city located about 50km from Tokyo) and Tokyo

SYNOPSIS:

OGATA SHINGO, 62-year-old company executive, commutes to his office in Tokyo from Kamakura. His son SHUICHI

also works at the same place. SHUICHI has been married for only a few years, but he is seeing another woman and often

spends the night outside. SHINGO feels sorry for KIKUKO, SHUICHI's wife, who is patient of her husband's love affair.

CAST:

Ogata Kikuko: Hara Setsuko

Shuichi (her husband): Uehara Ken

Shingo (Shuichi's father): Yamamura So

Yasuko (Shingo's wife): Nagaoka Teruko

Tanizaki Eiko: Sugi Yoko

Ikeda: Tanami Yatsuko

Aihara Fusako (Shingo's daughter): Nakakita Chieko

Kinuko: Sumi Rieko


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She reminds SHINGO of his secret old love, the deceased elder sister of his wife. His daughter FUSAKO comes home with

her two children after a quarrel with her husband. When she sees SHINGO thoughtfully caring for daughter-in-law

KIKUKO, she gets jealous and leaves home for Shinshu. While SHUICHI is gone there to bring her back, SHINGO asks

TANIZAKI, a girl at the office, to take him to SHUICHI's girl friend KINUKO's place, but when TANIZAKI tells him that

KINUKO is a war widow and shares a house with IKEDA, also a war widow in her thirties, and SHUKICHI lays violent

hands on these women when he gets drunk, SHINGO decides not to visit KINUKO and passed by her house. FUSAKO,

who returned from Shinshu, is ever jealous and nagging as before. KIKUKO gets pregnant with SHUICHI's child, but has

an abortion as she is firmly determined not to give birth as long as her husband continues his love affair. Her abortion is her

utmost protest to him. Upon learning of KIKUKO's abortion, SHINGO goes to see KINUKO, who has already ended

relationship with SHUICHI although she is carrying his child. KIKUKO is now gone to her home. A little while later,

SHINGO is called out by KIKUKO to meet her at the Shijuku Gyoen Park, where he is told her decision to divorce

SHUICHI.

NOTES:

In a family of a little over middle class, an elderly man sees in his daughter-in-law the resemblance of his one-sided lover of

early days. Out of anger to his son's love affair, he intently sympathizes with her, and she too depends on her father-in-law.

The film effectively depicts delicate psychology in such situation. While a cold war is going on between the young couple,

warm happiness can never be attained. The film hints something like "a draft" passing through a crevice in an economically

comfortable family. Such subject is the favorite and competent area of KAWABATA YASUNARI, the original writer who

later received the Nobel Literary Prize, as well as of director NARUSE MIKIO. MIZUKI YOKO, the woman screenplay

writer whom NARUSE often appoints preferably, adds delicate and womanly fine touch to the film. YAMAMURA SO,

who portrays the father, delivers a superb performance. He received the Best Leading Actor's Award at the Mainichi Film

concours. (Kinema-Junpo: #6)

Yamano oto ©1954 Toho. Co., Ltd


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A la deriva

Nagereru（流れる）

Domingo 30 de julio 15：00

Jueves 3 de agosto 20:00

.

A House of geisha (Flowing) /NAGARERU 流れる

B & W / Standard / 1956 / 117 min / Toho


Screenplay by: Tanaka Sumie, Ide Toshiro



Music: Saito Ichiro

Based on a novel by: Koda Aya



LOCATION: Tokyo

SYNOPSIS:

Through the introduction of an employment placement office, RIKA finds a job of a live-in maid at the Tsutanoya geisha

house in the gay quarters. On the very first day of her work, she is sent for an errand to a dry-goods dealer, who complains to

her about the Tsutanoya's delay in paying bills and does not welcome her. Upon returning to the house, she sees Madam

TSUTAYAKKO being dunned by her step sister OTOYO for debts. Geisha SOMEYAKKO, who tells RIKA the house is

CAST:

Rika: Tanaka Kinuyo

Tsutayakko: Yamada Isuzu

Katsuyo (Tsutayakko's daughter): Takamine Hideko

Nanako: Okada Mariko

Someka: Sugimura Haruko

Ohama: Kurishima Sumiko

Yoneko (Tsutayakko's younger sister): Nakakita Chieko

Otoyo (Tsutayakko's elder sister): Kahara Natsuko

Namie: Izumi Chiyo

Nokogiriyama (Namie's uncle): Miyaguchi Seiji


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on a mortgage, is also in debt to OTOYO. OTOYO tries to find TSUTAYAKKO a patron who would pay her debts.

However, TSUTAYAKKO does not like the idea. Several days later, NOKOGIRIYAMA, the uncle of Geisha NAMIE

who left the house after having a quarrel, comes to the house, yelling a demand of explanation. At that time,

TSUTAYAKKO is gone to a Kabuki theatre at the invitation of OTOYO. The reason for her invitation is in fact to have

TSUTAYAKKO meet with a steel company owner as her prospective patron. Finding out OTOYO's intention,

TSUTAYAKKO leaves the theatre alone before and makes OTOYO mad. Being helpless, TSUTAYAKKO asks Madam

OHAMA, her former fellow geisha and now the proprietor of the Mizunoya, to act as an intermediary in order to make an

apology to her ex-patron and beseech him to accomodate her with money. Although ¥100,000 is provided her, half of the

sum is taken away by NOKOGIRIYAMA. Now, TSUTAYAKKO, her daughter KATSUYO and RIKA are the only

remainders at the Tsutanoya. OHAMA suggests TSUTAYAKKO that the geisha house be changed to a snack restaurant.

However, TSUTAYAKKO declines it.

NOTES:

The original story which the film is based on is the very first novel written by KODA AYA (1904- ), the daughter of

KODA ROHAN who was a great novelist of the Meiji period. She is known more as an essayist, but won the Japan Art

Academy award for this novel. NARUSE MIKIO, acclaimed director in depicting female characters, fully displays his skills

and talent in this picture treating the unusual inside of the geisha house seen through the eyes of a live-in maid.

KURISHIMA SUMIKO, one of the most popular stars of the silent movie days, comes back to the screen after 18 years.

The top stars of each era such as TANAKA KINUYO, YAMADA ISUZU, TAKAMINE HIDEO, SUGIMURA

HARUKO and OKADA MARIKO make superb appearances as well. With All these top stars in the cast, the film itself

becomes a segment of the history of Japanese female stars. (Kinema-Junpo: #8)

Nagereru © 1956 Toho. Co., Ltd


15


Nubes flotantes

Ukigumo（浮雲）

Domingo 30 de julio 17:30

Martes 1 de agosto 20:00

Floating Cloud / UKIGUMO 浮雲



Screenplay by: Mizuki Yoko



Music: Saito Ichiro



SETTING: Latter 1940s - immediate postwar era

LOCATION: French Indochina (presently Vietnam), Tokyo, Ikaho Hot Spring and Yakushima (an island off Kyushu)

SYNOPSIS:

In 1943, in the middle of World War II, KODA YUKIKO goes to French Indochina under Japanese occupation (presently

Vietnam) to work as a typist, where she meets an engineer TOMIOKA, a married man. They fall in love. When the war

ends, he returns to Japan. She, believing his promise to divorce his wife in living in Tokyo and marry her, returns home a

little later and visits him immediately. Nevertheless, he is vacillating. Bewildered at his such attitudes, she becomes a

CAST:

Koda Yukiko: Takamine Hideko

Tomioka Kenkichi: Mori Masayuki

Osei: Okada Mariko

Kuniko (Kenkichi's wife): Nakakita Chieko

Iba Sugio: Yamagata Isao

Mukai Seikichi (Osei's husband): Kato Daisuke


16


mistress of a foreigner. However, when TOMIOKA comes to see her, they reconcile and take a trip together to Ikaho Hot

Spring. At a bar there, he takes a fancy for OSEI, wife of the bar owner SEIKICHI. As a result, YUKIKO and TOMIOKA

get in awkward situation and separate. Later, she realizes that she is pregnant with his child, and visits him at his new

address, where he is living with OSEI. YUKIKO, disappointed and hopeless, goes to IBA with whom she had sexual

relations before and borrows money, with which she has abortion. Once again, they start having relations. OSEI's husband,

in a jealous rage, comes to Tokyo. Upon finding her at her nest with TOMIOKA, he kills her. TOMIOKA, down-and-out,

appears before YUKIKO and tells her of his wife's death. YUKIKO reconciles with him again and follows him to the

Yakushima Island in furthermost south where he has found a new job. In a humble company house, YUKIKO gets sick and

dies after vomiting blood. Out side, the rain falls continuously.

NOTES:

Since winning wide acclaim on "Repast", his first filmization of HAYASHI FUMIKO's novel, NARUSE MIKIO had

consecutively made pictures from her novels, and this is his fifth of such films. Two months after the novel was published in

1951, HAYASHI FUMIKO passed away. Thus, this became the last full-length novel. Worthy of her last long work, it is

highly refined. Equivalently, NARUSE's filmization is superb.

A man and a woman, absorbed in sweet dreams at the occupying area during the war, returns to chaotic Tokyo after the war.

While facing harsh life, they repeat parting and reuniting, and at last they share life together on the southernmost island until

the woman's death of illness. Among Japanese pictures, the film unprecedentedly goes into depth about psychological

depiction of fatal man-woman relationship after their roaming love affairs.

The film also shows a side view of harsh life during the immediate post-war era when no one could imagine Japan's such

economic growth. Additionally, it is a monumental and glorifying picture to director NARUSE, screenplay writer MIZUKI

YOKO and leading actress TAKAMINE HIDEKO. TAKAMINE HIDEKO deservedly won the Best Leading Actress

Award of the Mainichi Film Concours. ( Kinema-Junpo: #1)

Ukigumo © 1955 Toho. Co., Ltd


17


Diario de vagabunda

Horoki（放浪記）

Miércoles 2 de agosto 20:00

Viernes 4 de agosto 17:00

Drifting / HOROKI 放浪記

B &W / Wide / 1962 / 123 min. / Takarazuka Eiga



Photography by: Yasumoto Jun


Music by: Koseki Yuji

Based on a novel by: Hayashi Fumiko and a play by: Kikuta Kazuo

Producers: Fujimoto Sanezumi, Naruse Mikio, Teramoto Tadahiro

SETTING: Tokyo in the late 1920s

SYNOPSIS:

In the early SHOWA Period, HAYASHI FUMIKO and her mother support themselves as peddlers. Each day is a

struggle for food and survival. Many nights they lay their bodies, on dirty tatami mats, exhausted from their work. A faithful

printer who lives next door to them, YASUOKA NOBUO, feels sympathy for the unhappy girl, FUMIKO. She, however,

CAST:

Hayashi Fumiko: Takamine Hideko

Kishi, her mother: Tanaka Kinuyo

Fukuchi Mitsugu, a poet: Takarada Akira

Date Haruhiko, a playwright: Nakaya Noboru

Yasuoka Nobuo, a printer: Kato Daisuke

Shirasaka Goro, a poet: Ito Yunosuke

Uenoyama, a poet: Kato Takeshi

Kensaku, Fumiko's father: Oda Masao

Fujiyama Takeshi, a painter: Kobayashi Keiju

Hinatsu Kyoko, a poet: Kusabue Mitsuko

Murano Yasuko, a novelist: Fumino Tomoko


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refuses NOBUO's kindness, for she still loves a man who has forsaken her.

Having let her mother go back to her father's in KYUSHU, FUMIKO becomes a waitress in a cafe, "KIRIN." Even

under these circumstances, she continues to put her heart enthusiastically into literature. Soon, she is discovered to have a

talent for literature by a playwright, DATE HARUHIKO, who has happened to read her poem. He advises her to join in a

group of a literary magazine. Then, FUMIKO decides to move into his apartment.

One day, HARUHIKO's wife, HINATSU KYOKO, who was an actress and is now a poet, calls at his apartment

without any warning. HARUHIKO, treats FUMIKO as if she were just a housemaid, and attempts to make an excuse to his

wife. FUMIKO, enraged with his attitude, leaves HARUHIKO's and returns to work as a waitress.

Eventually one of her poems gets published in a newspaper, and receives literary praises by writers such as

FUKUCHI MITSUGU, SHIRASAKA GORO and UENOYAMA. Discovering a congenial spirit in FUKUCHI,

FUMIKO marries him. Poverty has been always with her life even after the marriage, but she feels happy in living and

writing with FUKUCHI on an orange box as a desk. A juvenile story written by FUMIKO is accepted by a publishing

company. FUKUCHI's work gets turned down by every publisher to whom he submits them. Frustrated, FUKUCHI vents

his anger on FUMIKO.

One day, worrying about money, FUMIKO goes to YASUOKA's and ask for his help. FUKUCHI, however,

misunderstands her friendship with YASUOKA as a love affair and becomes violent. FUMIKO leaves FUKUCHI,

determined not to return, and begins to write again.

Soon, her work, "Journal of a Vagabond" (HOROKI) is accepted in a women's magazine "JOSEI GEIJUTSU."

Taking a giant step forward in the literary world, FUMIKO keeps on writing enthusiastically still under a dim-lit candle in

her cheap apartment. It is at this time that she meets a painter, FUJIYAMA TAKESHI, and they become friends. Her

writings becomes very popular, and she finally begins to enjoy her success and her life.

NOTES:

This film is based on an autobiographical novel, "Journal of a Vagabond" (HOROKI), written by HAYASHI FUMIKO

(1904-1951). The author's life, from her childhood, had been comprised of poverty, tragedy and hard work. It was after her

novel "HOROKI" was accepted in the literary world that she gained notoriety, and became a popular woman writer. This

film is about her life and her poverty until "HOROKI" is published and she becomes known to the rest of the literary world.

The original novel was made into film first by KIMURA SOTOJI in 1935, and then remade by HISAMATSU SEIJI

in 1954. This film by NARUSE MIKIO is the third version of the same novel. NARUSE is the director who has made

masterpieces based on HAYASHI's novels such as "A Married Life" (MESHI) in 1951 and "Floating Cloud"

(UKIGUMO) in 1955.

The heroine, FUMIKO, is portrayed by TAKAMINE HIDEKO who has starred in other NARUSE films, "A

Married Life" and "Floating Cloud." Having seized the characteristics of the author of this autobiography, TAKAMINE

plays the heroine with the spirit of HAYASHI FUMIKO.

Ukigumo © 1962 Toho. Co., Ltd


19


Cuando una mujer sube la escalera

Onnaga kaidanwo agarutoki（女が階段を上がる時）

Viernes 4 de agosto 20:00

Domingo 6 de agosto 17:30

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs / Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki 女が階段を上がる時

B&W/ Scope / 1960 / 86 min / Toho


Script: Kikushima Ryuzo


Art Director: Chuko Satoshi

Music: Mayuzumi Toshiro

Producer: Kikushima Ryuzo

Setting: Tokyo around 1960.

Synopsis:

Keiko, widowed when her husband died in an accident, is the hired madam of a bar in Ginza's posh nightclub district.

The bar owner, complaining of declining sales, urges her to sell her body to keep the big spending customers coming, but

Keiko refuses, even if it means losing a client like Minobe, who has set up Yuri, one of Keiko's former hostesses, in her own

bar. Feeling pressured, Keiko moves to another bar where she skillfully juggles men, becoming a lover to all, but a real lover

Cast:

Keiko: Takamine Hideko

Fujisaki: Mori Masayuki

Junko, Keiko's hostess: Dan Reiko

Komatsu, the bar manager: Nakadai Tatsuya

Sekine: Kato Daisuke

Goda: Nakamura Ganjiro

Minobe: Ozawa Eitaro

Yuri, a bar madame: Awaji Keiko

Keiko's brother: Oda Masao

Keiko's mother: Kahara Natsuko


20


to none. One of her older customer's, Goda, offers to help her open her own bar, hinting that he expects certain favors in

return. Keiko fends off his advances, but consults with the bar manager, Komatsu, about trying to open her own place

through subscription.

Just at that time, Yuri, hounded by her creditors, attempts to fake a suicide attempt in order to get them off her back but

accidentally kills herself. Keiko attends her funeral and is shocked to see Minobe's representative press Yuri's mother for

money on the day of the funeral. Infuriated by the callousness of men, Keiko insults Minobe when he makes a play for her

and, in her rage, coughs up blood. She recuperates at her brother's house, but there only finds herself subject to more

demands for money.

Keiko's life seems to turn for the better when Sekine, an apparently kind businessman, asks her to marry him. Even

though she does not love him, she consents only to find out he has a wife and kids and a history of fraudulent marriage

proposals. Suffering a shock, Keiko gets drunk and throws herself in the arms of Fujisaki, the only man she really loves, and

sleeps with him for the first time. Fujisaki, however, is moving to Osaka the very next day. After he says goodbye, leaving

her some stock, Komatsu bursts into her apartment and scolds her for breaking her resolution never to sleep with a customer.

He slaps her one moment, then asks her to marry him the next, but she refuses. She returns the stock to Fujisaki and,

climbing the stairs to the bar once again, continues the charade that constitutes the life of a bar madam.

Notes:

After filming several literary adaptations, Naruse Mikio returned with When a Woman Ascends the Stairs to the world

he knew best, working from an original screenplay focusing on a woman condemned to be caught in the unending flow of a

cruel, manipulative world. Yet while the modern world of the bar hostess he depicts is more dog-eat-dog than the world of

the geisha featured in earlier Japanese melodrama, Naruse does not condemn it, but rather maintains a cool, distant

perspective on the travails of women.

Onnaga kaidanwo agarutoki ©1960 Toho. Co., Ltd


21


Nubes disperas

Midaregumo（乱れ雲）

Sábado 5 de agosto 17:30


TWO IN THE SHADOW / MIDARE GUMO 乱れ雲



The couple at the table by the window look happier than anybody else in the restaurant. Hiroshi Eda,

who works at a governmental office, has got a promotion and his wife, Yumiko, has been pregnant. Their

happiness seems to last forever, but actually it ends in that afternoon with a traffic accident which kills the

husband.

Shiro Mishima, the young man who has caused the accident, is a promising salaried-man of the

Pacific Trading Company. The accident has been beyond his control, and he is proved to be not guilty. But

he is transferred to a remote branch office in Aomori because he has run over one of the government people

who are important to trading companies, though it has been totally accidental.

He is engaged to the daughter of a director of the company, but it is cancelled. Then, he happens to

meet Yumiko in the restaurant where she has last seen her husband alive. Shiro promises to give her fifteen

thousand yen every month for compensation.

The promised money is sent monthly from Shiro in Aomori. Some times he brings it to her himself.


22


And each time the money refreshes her sorrow over her late husband. Without any place to live in Tokyo,

Yumiko returns to her home town, Aomori, where Shiro lives.

The accident has robbed the two people everything from Shiro, a hope for promotion, his fiancee

and half his salary, and from Yumiko, her husband, her apartment.

In Aomori. Yumiko visits Shiro and asks him to stop sending money, for she wants to forget the past.

Shiro feels lonely. It is his only happy hours when he is seeing Yumiko.

Yumiko's home in Aomori is a hotel. And parties are held from time to time, which Yumiko has to

attend to entertain the customers. Shiro comes, too, to the hotel several times with his guests. Whenever she

meets him, she pleads him to go away.

As she wished, Shiro is going to be sent to Pakistan, where cholera and small pox prevail. The

information of his new assignment makes her treat him kindly for the first time. They spend a day together

in the rain at Towada Lake, and as a result, Shiro catches a bad cold. Yumiko is desperate to nurse him,

who sleeps with his hand in hers.

A few days before Shiro leaves for Pakistan, he visits Yumiko. Then, he confesses his love for her

and begs her to go to the foreign country with him. No matter how good he is and how strongly her heart

craves for him, he is the man who has killed her husband. She shouts almost unconsciously, "Go away!"

Suddenly on the day of his departure, however, Yumiko's heart is occupied with the desire to go to

him. She hurries to catch up with him before he leaves Towada Lake. She is going to start her life all over

again Pakistan with Shiro.

They are together now. But, on the lakeside road, they see a crushed car and a crying woman beside

an ambulance. The traffic accident of her husband suddenly revives, and the shock they have received that

day wraps them again with the same heavy grievousness.

Midaregumo © 1967 Toho. Co., Ltd


23


Tormento

Midareru（乱れる）

Sábado 5 de agosto 20:00


Yeaning / Midareru 乱れる

B&W / Scope / 1964 / 100min / Toho


Script: Matsuyama Zenzo

Photography: Yasumoto Jun

Art Director: Chuko Satoshi

Music: Saito Ichiro

Producer: Fujimoto Sanezumi, Naruse Mikio

Setting: Shimizu (in Shizuoka) and Yamagata in the early 1960s.

Synopsis:

Widowed during the war only after 6 months of marriage, Reiko almost single-handedly rebuilt her husband's family's

liquor store after it was bombed. 18 years later, however, it and the other small businesses are losing business to a new

supermarket down the street. As if that was not her only problem, Reiko must both fend off sisters-in-law who want to get

rid of her by marrying her off as well as take care of a rambunctious younger brother-in-law, Koji. A college graduate, Koji

quit his job soon after taking is and now spends his time gambling, drinking, and getting into fights. Still, he has deep respect

for Reiko, so when he suggests to the family they use their land to build their own supermarket, he insists Reiko be made

Cast:

Reiko: Takamine Hideo

Morita Koji: Kayama Yuzo

Shizu, his mother: Mimasu Aiko

Hisako, her daughter: Kusabue Mitsuko

Takako, her daughter: Shirakawa Yumi

Koji's lover: Hama Mie

Hisako's husband: Kitamura Kazuo


24


one of the directors. His sister Hisako's husband objects, however, so the plan goes nowhere.

When Reiko finds out about an affair Koji has been having with a less than exemplary woman, she confronts him

about it. To her shock, Koji responds by saying that the only woman he really loves is Reiko herself. Worried about what

others would think, Reiko rejects Koji, who is 12 years her junior. As if to prove himself to her, Koji takes over when the

store's delivery boy quits and begins working deligently. Reiko, however, finds the situation stifling, so she suddenly

declares to the family that she is leaving for home, lying that she has a lover there. Disbelieving her story, Koji accompanies

her on the trip home against her will. Touched by his sincerity, Reiko admits she is happy he loves her, but when Koji tries

to kiss her in their room at an inn, she violently pushes him away. Koji storms out and gets roaring drunk. Reiko rises in the

morning and is set to leave when she hears a commotion in the street: someone had fallen off a cliff during the night.

Rushing outside, Reiko is stunned by the sight of Koji's body being carried away on a stretcher.

Notes:

Stories centered on the travails of a daughter-in-law oppressed by her husband's family were central to Japanese

melodrama, especially with the coming of TV. Naruse Mikio, however, working from a script by Matsuyama Zenzo,

Takamine Hideko's husband, produces a film that is more cool in its observation of the psychological dynamics of its female

characters, further upsetting the conventional moral structure by introducing the problem of love between the

daughter-in-law and her husband's brother. Kayama Yuzo, known for his light, romantic leading roles, is featured here in a

rare serious role.

Midareru © 1964 Toho. Co., Ltd

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