william d

It's too bad Naruse died so young. In his films from the 60s you can really see him adopt more modern techniques and experimenting with color. I would have loved to have seen what he would have come up if given another twenty years.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Mikio Naruse's last feature (and one of the few I remember being in colour) is a mature work that stabs its characters deeply with the dagger of death in the first 20 minutes and then never lets them recover. Yumiko has everything: her husband has just been promoted in his government job and they are moving to Washington DC and about to have their first child. When he is suddenly struck down and killed by a driver in an out-of-control car, she finds her life shattered. Her in-laws essentially disown her and she struggles to make ends meet. Although exonerated from wrongdoing (the car had a flat tire), the driver of the car (Mishima-san) sends her small amounts of money as compensation. When he is transferred from Tokyo as punishment for his "crime", he finds himself in her hometown where she has also returned to live with her sister-in-law (also a widow). Of course, Yumiko and Mishima keep running into each other, which brings pain and then possibly love. But to contemplate such a relationship also means to contemplate the cruel fate that brought them together - thus everything here is pain, pain, pain. After setting up the situation quickly, Naruse allows the relationship to develop slowly with many carefully observed moments (and his usual attention to money and the tensions it brings), dwelling on the characters' suffering and cruelly snatching away any hope.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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Audience Member

Naruse's last film, an elegant, depressing romance between a widow and the remorseful driver who accidentally killed her husband. As with Naruse's best films, which this is one, the conventions of society, economy, modesty, and tradition act as barriers to any kind of long term happiness. With a sweeping, typically lovely score by Toru Takemitsu.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Audience Member

Soigne et plutot touchant, mais on n'y retrouve pas le style Naruse.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

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Audience Member

one of my favorite naruse

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Mikio Naruse

Director

Yûzô Kayama

Shiro Mishima

Yoko Tsukasa

Yumiko

Mitsuko Kusabue

Ayako

Mitsuko Mori

Katsuko

Mie Hama

Teruko

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Keith Uhlich

Slant Magazine

The cinematic equivalent of a hangover, though the heady haze the film conveys is part of its charm.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jun 7, 2006

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Synopsis

A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to a remote branch in a small town. Before he leaves, he gives the man's widow a large sum of money that she uses to move back to her hometown.

Director: Mikio Naruse
Screenwriter: Nobuo Yamada
Distributor: Toho Company Ltd.
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 24, 1968, Original

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