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Mikio Naruse
was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, portrayed by actresses such as Hideko Takamine, Kinuyo Tanaka, and Setsuko Hara. Because of his focus on family drama and the intersection of traditional and modern Japanese culture, his films have been compared with the works of Yasujirō Ozu. Many of his films in his later career were adaptations of the works of acknowledged Japanese writers. Titled a "major figure of Japan's golden age" and "supremely intelligent dramatist", he remains lesser known than his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Ozu. Among his most noted films are ''Sound of the Mountain'', ''Late Chrysanthemums'', ''Floating Clouds'' and ''When A Woman Ascends The Stairs''. Biography Early years Mikio Naruse was born in Tokyo in 1905 and raised by his brot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinosuke Gosho
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed Japan's first sound film, '' The Neighbor's Wife and Mine'', in 1931. His films are mostly associated with the shomin-geki (lit. "common people drama") genre. Among his most noted works are ''Where Chimneys Are Seen'', '' An Inn at Osaka'', ''Takekurabe'' and ''Yellow Crow''. Life Gosho was born on January 24, 1902, in Kanda, Tokyo, to merchant Heisuke Gosho and his father's geisha mistress. At the age of five, after Heisuke's eldest son died, Gosho left his mother to be the successor to his father's wholesale business. He studied business at Keio University, graduating in 1923. Through his father's close relation to film director Yasujirō Shimazu, Gosho was able to join the Shochiku film studios and worked as assistant director to Shimazu. In 1925, Gosho debuted as a director with the film ''Nantō no haru''. His films of the 1920s are nowadays regarded as lost. Gosho's first notable success, and Japan's first feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hideko The Bus Conductor
is a 1941 Japanese comedy drama film written and directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the serialised novella ''Okoma-san'' by Masuji Ibuse and the first collaboration of Naruse and star Hideko Takamine. Plot Okoma, a young lady working as a conductor with the Kohoku bus company in Kofu, Yamanashi, is worried about the dwingling number of passengers, who prefer the more expensive but clean and faster buses of the competing Kaihatsu company. After hearing a radio programme about bus guides, she develops the idea to entertain the passengers with informations about the local sites during the drive. After convincing the driver Sonoda and the company boss of her idea, she manages to get visiting writer Ikawa to write a script for her. Ikawa waives a payment because Okoma had found and returned his lost notebook. During the practice run, Okoma is hurt and the bus slightly damaged in an accident. The company boss tries to talk Sonoda into giving false testimony about the accident's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sincerity (1939 Film)
''Sincerity'' ( ja, まごころ, Magokoro) is a 1939 Japanese drama film written and directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a short story by Yōjirō Ishizaka. Plot In a small countryside town, the schoolyear has ended. While Tomiko, daughter of a single mother and of lower middle-class descent, has been ranked the best pupil in her class, her classmate and friend Nobuko, daughter of a seemingly intact upper-class family, has only been ranked tenth. During a discussion between Mrs. Asada and her husband Keikichi about Nobuko's low grades and her new teacher, whom Mrs. Asada holds responsible, it is revealed that Keikichi, who had been adopted into his wife's family, and Tomiko's mother Tsuta had once been in love. In tears, Mrs. Asada blames him for still feeling attracted to her, overheard by Nobuko. The next day, Nobuko tells Tomiko of her parents' conversation, and both start crying when they get into an argument over their different families. Later, when Nobuko is hurt dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Soviet–Japanese War. The Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been in progress since 7 July 1937, with hostilities dating back as far as 19 September 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific War itself began on 7 December (8 December Japanese time) 1941, when the Japanese simultaneously invaded Thailand, attacked the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong as well as the United States military and naval bases in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines. The Pacific War saw the Allies pitted against Japan, the latter ai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geisha
{{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha {{nihongo, Geisha, 芸者 ({{IPAc-en, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ʃ, ə; {{IPA-ja, ɡeːɕa, lang), also known as {{nihongo, , 芸子, geiko (in Kyoto and Kanazawa) or {{nihongo, , 芸妓, geigi, are a class of female Japanese performing artists and entertainers trained in traditional Japanese performing arts styles, such as dance, music and singing, as well as being proficient conversationalists and hosts. Their distinct appearance is characterised by long, trailing kimono, traditional hairstyles and {{transliteration, ja, oshiroi make-up. Geisha entertain at parties known as {{transliteration, ja, ozashiki, often for the entertainment of wealthy clientele, as well as performing on stage and at festivals. Modern geisha are not prostitutes. This misconception originated due to the conflation of Japanese courtesans ({{transliteration, ja, oiran), {{transliteration, ja, oiran reenactors, the extant {{transliteration, ja, tayū, and prostitutes, who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinema Junpo
, commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' has been published twice a month. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Technical High School at the time). In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three issues were printed on art paper and had four pages each. ''Kinejun'' initially specialized in covering foreign films, in part because its writers sided with the principles of the Pure Film Movement and strongly criticized Japanese cinema. It later expanded coverage to films released in Japan. While long emphasizing film criticism, it has also served as a trade journal, reporting on the film industry in Japan and announcing new films and trends.加藤幹郎 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wife! Be Like A Rose!
''Wife! Be Like a Rose!'' ''Kimiko'' ( ja, 妻よ薔薇のやうに, Tsuma yo bara no yô ni) is a 1935 Japanese comedy drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the shinpa play ''Futari tsuma'' (二人妻, lit. ''Two Wives'') by Minoru Nakano and one of Naruse's earliest sound films. ''Wife! Be Like a Rose!'' was one of the first Japanese films to see a theatrical release in the United States. Plot Kimiko, a young modern Tokyo woman, lives alone with her poetress mother Etsuko. Etsuko still grieves for her former husband Shunsaku, who left the family for ex-geisha Oyuki fifteen years ago, although Kimiko remembers their marriage not as a happy one. The only contact between Shunsaku, Etsuko and his daughter are money orders without personal messages he sends them. Kimiko travels to the countryside to talk Shunsaku into returning to the family, as her boyfriend Seiji's father wants to meet him before giving his admittance to Kimiko's and Seiji's marriage. Contrary to he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical hour-long legal or medical drama, but exhibit far fewer jokes-per-minute as in a typical half-hour sitcom. In the United States Examples from United States television include: ''M*A*S*H (TV series), M*A*S*H'', ''Moonlighting (TV series), Moonlighting'', ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'', ''Northern Exposure'', ''Ally McBeal'', ''Sex and the City'', ''Desperate Housewives'' and ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs''. The term "dramedy" was coined to describe the late 1980s wave of shows, including ''The Wonder Years'', ''Hooperman'', ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' and ''Frank's Place''. See also *List of comedy drama television series *Black comedy *Dramatic structure *Melodrama *Seriousness *Tragicomedy *Psychological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toho
is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer and distributor of many '' kaiju'' and ''tokusatsu'' films, the Chouseishin ''tokusatsu'' superhero television franchise, the films of Akira Kurosawa, and the anime films of Studio Ghibli, CoMix Wave Films, TMS Entertainment and OLM, Inc. All nine of the highest-grossing Japanese films are released by Toho. Other famous directors, including Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masaki Kobayashi, and Mikio Naruse, also directed films for Toho. Toho's most famous creation is Godzilla, who is featured in 32 of the company's films. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla are described as Toho's Big Five because of the monsters' numerous appearances throughout the franchise, as well as spin-offs. Toho has also been involved in the pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Street Without End
is a 1934 Japanese silent drama film directed by Mikio Naruse, based on a newspaper serial by Komatsu Kitamura. It was Naruse's last silent film and his final film for the Shochiku studio. Plot Sugiko works as a waitress in a café in Tokyo's Ginza district. Her boyfriend Machio proposes to her, although his family has arranged a marriage with a woman from a wealthy family for him. She is also approached by Yukihiko, a talent scout for a film studio which is looking for a new star actress. When she steps onto the street absent-mindedly, she is hit by the car of Hiroshi, the heir of the Yamanouchi family. Machio sees her being taken away in Hiroshi's car, believing that she is dating Hiroshi and has decided against his proposal, and leaves town. Hiroshi starts dating Sugiko, despite his mother's and sister's objections against his liaison with a girl of lower class descent, but when he insists on marrying her, they eventually give in. Meanwhile, Sugiko's friend and colleague ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Every-Night Dreams
is a 1933 Japanese silent drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. The film follows a single mother who works as a bar hostess and her struggles to provide for her son in depression-era Japan. Plot Omitsu works as a hostess in a harbour bar entertaining docked sailors. Since her husband left three years ago, she supports her son Fumio on her own, and shares a flat with a couple who babysit for her. Returning home after a few weeks of absence, Omitsu learns that an unknown man has repeatedly been trying to see her. The stranger turns out to be Omitsu's husband Mizuhara, who begs for her forgiveness and wants to see his son. Reluctant at first, she finally gives in, and the couple reconcile. Mizuhara declares his intention to take care of his family. Yet, due to his weak constitution, he is unable to find work. During an argument, she urges him not to give up, while he asks her to look for a more "serious" job. Soon after, Fumio is hit by a car, and needs hospital care beyond his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
