Late Chrysanthemums

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Fernando F May 31 What a painful disappointment! Naruse masturbated Hayashi’s Bangiku; he turned Kin into a lioness of a moneylender, resentful to boot, and the original story into a painful melodrama of post-war survival featuring four bitter ex-geishas. Any adaptation should offer a different version. Adapting does not mean vulgar betrayal of the peculiarities of the characters in the original work. If I turned Elizabeth Bennet into an insecure and submissive woman, I wouldn’t dare call any version I came up with ‘Pride and Prejudice’ under any pretext. Adding the other three geishas to spice up the film with bursts of other stories is one thing. Stripping Okin (Kin in the original) of her obsession with beauty and her ritual with ice as if it were a face mask, and her hormone injections (she even gives herself one in the middle of a meeting with Tabe, excited), and omitting her rigorous diet is to corrupt Kin’s personality. Compared to the story, this film is mediocre not only because it eradicates the psychological introspection of a 56-year-old woman (written, moreover, by another woman in a profession considered masculine) and her post-war feminine resilience (it was published in a magazine immediately after the lost war, in 1948), ....continue: https://wp.me/pguJCZ-pr See more 12/15/2013 Wonderful character piece--A 'lost' masterpiece!! See more 07/10/2012 Four prostitutes, just stealin' your stuff, havin' a ball! See more 06/28/2011 Naruse at his sublime best, with impeccable performances and camerawork. Profound and humanistic films such as this (and Renoir, Ray, Bergman) now seem to come from an altogether different age, but have lost none of their power See more 05/07/2011 I do love Naruse, but maybe I missed something about this film. All the ideas are there. It follows a groupof retired geisha, each trying to survive in the world past their prime. One has saved money and has become a scrupulous business woman. She lends money, but demands it back in a friendly, casual, but threatening way. Her old friends hold her in contempt, and believe she thinks she is better than them now. She has erased men from her life and she holds this as the reason to her success. Needless to say, some old flames soon arrive and she flirts with the idea of love once again. The film isn't bad, just very dull. I love my slow movies, but this was all talking. Everyone just says what they think, feel, and so on. It makes for a very bland movie experience. Especially when two characters spell out the films message at the end. I know this film was adapted from a number of short stories, and it kind of shows. Though these would work better bas articles. Don't start your Naruse viewing with this, as he has some incredible movies out there. See more 01/05/2011 One of Mikio Naruse's most famous films is yet again, another heartbreaker. Not a big surprise as his trademark of dabling in the area of broken relationships is in full effect here, with the incomparable Haruko Sugimura in the lead, as the aging geisha, longing for the man that left her behind years ago. But when he comes back into her life, does all mean well? Or does he have alterior motives? See more Read all reviews

Late Chrysanthemums

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