, also known as ''Tragedy of Japan'', is a 1953 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. The film tells the story of a mother who has to raise two children during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but whose children reject her. Kinoshita interspersed

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

footage within the film in an attempt to relate the story of the film to the wider context of Japan's post-war difficulties.

Plot

War widow Haruke, mother of two children, gets involved in prostitution during and after the Second World War to raise money for the family and secure the children a proper education. Her son Seiichi and daughter Utako, sharing a flat of their own, are embarrassed by their mother's activities and reluctant to her visits. Eager to cut ties with his past and poor upbringing, Seiichi, a medical student, aims at being adopted by an upper-class family. His sister Utako studies dressmaking and attends an English language school, engaging with her married teacher. Eventually, Seiichi's plan fulfils, while Utako, who claims that she can't lead a normal relationship after being raped by a cousin as a child, evokes a marital crisis. When Haruke finally realises that she has lost both her children, she commits suicide.

Cast

Yūko Mochizuki was a Japanese film and theatre actress who already had long stage experience, first with light comedies, later with dramatic roles, before making her film debut. Mochizuki often appeared in the films of Keisuke Kinoshita, but also worked for pr ...

as Haruko Inoue * Yōko Katsuragi as Utako, Haruko's daughter * Masumi Taura as Seiichi, Haruko's son *

Teiji Takahashi was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than twenty films from 1950 to 1959. Takahashi died in a traffic accident. Career Born in Tokyo, Takahashi graduated from the Japanese Film School (Nihon Eiga Gakkō) and joined the Shochiku studi ...

as Sato *

Keiji Sada is the stage name for a Japanese cinema actor active from the late-1940s to the early 1960s. His real name was Kanichi Nakai. He won the award for best actor at the 7th Blue Ribbon Awards for and . He was the father of the actor Kiichi Nakai an ...

as Tatsuya, a street musician *

Ken Uehara was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1990. He starred in '' Entotsu no mieru basho'', which was entered in the 3rd Berlin International Film Festival. His son is the singer and actor Yūzō Kayama. Sel ...

as Masayuki Akazawa, the English teacher * Sanae Takasugi as Mrs. Akazawa *

Keiko Awaji was a Japanese film actress. Notable highlights of her career were an appearance in Akira Kurosawa's ''Stray Dog'', and a role as Kimiko in '' The Bridges at Toko-Ri'', in which she appeared alongside William Holden and Mickey Rooney. Her firs ...

as Wakamaru, a geisha

Reception

Alexander Jacoby regarded the personal conflict between the mother and her selfish children to be more "vivid" than the wider context provided by the newsreels.

Isolde Standish Isolde Standish is an Australian and British academic film theorist who specialises on East Asia (mainly Japan and South Korea). Mostly known for her works on Japanese Cinema, she is currently an ''Emerita Reader'' (Professor Emeritus) at the Sc ...

points out that the newsreels give credence to the "subjective memories" of the characters that are shown in the film's flashback scenes. For example, newsreel footage of American soldiers cavorting with Japanese women foreshadow a flashback scene depicting Haruko's decision to become a prostitute. The flashbacks also provide contexts for the family's present day misunderstandings, when Haruko gets involved in the black market to provide food for the family, but her son Seiichi only knows that the activity causes him embarrassment at school, or when the children's cruel uncle tells them that their mother is enjoying herself at the

Atami is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 36,865 in 21,593 households and a population density of 600 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Atami is located in the far ea ...

hot springs, while she is working as a prostitute to raise money for the family. According to film critic

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...

, ''A Japanese Tragedy'' was one of the first post-war films to focus on Japanese mothers, as

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, ...

's '' Repast'' was one of the first to focus on the plight of Japanese wives.

Awards

Kinoshita won both the

Mainichi Film Award The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

and Blue Ribbon Award for best screenplay in 1953. Yūko Mochizuki won the 1953 Mainichi Film Award for best actress.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Tragedy, A 1953 films 1953 drama films 1950s Japanese-language films Japanese black-and-white films Films directed by Keisuke Kinoshita Films with screenplays by Keisuke Kinoshita Shochiku films Japanese drama films 1950s Japanese films