JAPANESE FILMS

Someone Who Looks Like Gary Cooper (cont.)

This is part six of “Films of 1949” series (Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Nobuyoshi Araki, a renowned photographer and an artist, admires young Setsuko Hara in “Late Spring” in his own particular way. He considers her sturdy build and impressive physique the most “photogenic”, very favorable human (female) features in visual arts. For Hara was uniquely “different” from other actresses of the era in this regard, Araki notes, she radiates her visual presence on the screen tremendously. He comments rather jokingly on the scene in which Hara was readied for wedding in the last of “Late Spring”(1); …

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JAPANESE FILMS

Someone Who Looks Like Gary Cooper

This is part five of “Films of 1949” series (Part 1, 2 3 and 4). In his “Truth of Cinema”, Tadao Sato vividly describes (1) the conversation among young workers in the office immediately after the war; What will be your choice? Arranged marriage or “romantic marriage”? Arranged marriage is the marriage in which partners are introduced through parents or relations; it does not require romantic relationship prior to marriage. “Romantic marriage” is realized through the romantic relationship between partners. Many old folks, such as my uncles and aunts, or those who had been in their teens or twenties in …

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JAPANESE FILMS

88 Keys

This is part four of “Films of 1949” series (Part 1, 2 and 3). The Ikedas lost all the glitters and glamor they once had. A decade ago, they were the respectable clan of respectable society. The end of the war brought them a period of humiliation, disgrace and loss, enormous loss. The head of the family was thrown into jail, their properties were liquidated and prospect of regaining the past glory is dim. Their beautiful daughter, Kyoko, whom her parents and grandparents had envisioned bright future, and possibly a marriage with a handsome young man from a family of …

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