Catching up on sites, I found English subtitles had recently appeared for a Japanese film which I could find hardly any details for. Curious about the title,I decided at night to go to the river.
View on the film:
Turning to colour for the first time by being inspired from kimono patterns, directing auteur Kozaburo Yoshimura makes an immaculate entrance, drawing with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (cinematographer for Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) a lush water colour design, surrounding Kiwa's family workplace in bright, luxury material lining the walls being colour coded with the Kimono patterns the family put their soul in making, bringing out a refined elegance to Kiwa's romantic drama.
Revealing later that the use of red, white and blue in his works is to represent "liberty, equality and fraternity." and printed in the middle of his 1951-1960 period of works on working women in the ancient capital city of Kyoto, (a city Miyagawa called "A film makers dream.")
Yoshimura gazes on the remains of Kyoto's wooden architect landscape in beautiful wide-shots which descend on the family textile workplace, where they continue to work the traditional way with rustic colours,as Yoshimura keeps the glossy colours of the modern world seeping towards them, as the sunbeam of Yoshimura's red,white and blue blazes across the skyline in a dazzling closing shot.
The first of two times he would work with Yoshimura, (the other being Onna no saka (1960)) Hisao Sawano is joined by female screenwriter Sumie Tanaka in weaving a delicate screenplay. Tanaka's touch brings a sharp focus to Yoshimura's major recurring theme of the personal drama experienced by women exploring the dilemma of a country in the midst of frantic and irreversible transformations, as Kiwa starts a passionate affair with Professor Takemura, placing Kiwa in the middle of keeping to tradition with the family workplace, and that of the modern scientist/ professor.
Lighting up the family workplace the moment she walks on screen,Fujiko Yamamoto gives a incredibly subtle performance as Kiwa,thanks to Yamamoto expressing in her body language the underlying love she has for Takemura, (played by a terrific, measured Ken Uehara) and the strings of care which connect her to the family business, as Kiwa watches the river by night.
View on the film:
Turning to colour for the first time by being inspired from kimono patterns, directing auteur Kozaburo Yoshimura makes an immaculate entrance, drawing with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (cinematographer for Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) a lush water colour design, surrounding Kiwa's family workplace in bright, luxury material lining the walls being colour coded with the Kimono patterns the family put their soul in making, bringing out a refined elegance to Kiwa's romantic drama.
Revealing later that the use of red, white and blue in his works is to represent "liberty, equality and fraternity." and printed in the middle of his 1951-1960 period of works on working women in the ancient capital city of Kyoto, (a city Miyagawa called "A film makers dream.")
Yoshimura gazes on the remains of Kyoto's wooden architect landscape in beautiful wide-shots which descend on the family textile workplace, where they continue to work the traditional way with rustic colours,as Yoshimura keeps the glossy colours of the modern world seeping towards them, as the sunbeam of Yoshimura's red,white and blue blazes across the skyline in a dazzling closing shot.
The first of two times he would work with Yoshimura, (the other being Onna no saka (1960)) Hisao Sawano is joined by female screenwriter Sumie Tanaka in weaving a delicate screenplay. Tanaka's touch brings a sharp focus to Yoshimura's major recurring theme of the personal drama experienced by women exploring the dilemma of a country in the midst of frantic and irreversible transformations, as Kiwa starts a passionate affair with Professor Takemura, placing Kiwa in the middle of keeping to tradition with the family workplace, and that of the modern scientist/ professor.
Lighting up the family workplace the moment she walks on screen,Fujiko Yamamoto gives a incredibly subtle performance as Kiwa,thanks to Yamamoto expressing in her body language the underlying love she has for Takemura, (played by a terrific, measured Ken Uehara) and the strings of care which connect her to the family business, as Kiwa watches the river by night.
