is a 1979 Japanese film directed by

Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director. Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worked as an assistant director to Mi ...

Cast

Shinobu Otake is a Japanese actress. She has won three Japanese Academy Awards: the 2000 Best Actress award for '' Railroad Man'', and the 1979 awards for both Best Actress ('' The Incident'') and Best Supporting Actress (''Seishoku no ishibumi''). She also w ...

as Mine Masai *

Mieko Harada is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. She has played various roles in many motion pictures, television shows and television dramas since her debut in 1974. Career Harada most notably portrayed Lady Kaede in Akira Kurosawa's 1985 film ''Ran'', and ...

as Yuki Shinoda * Chikako Yūri as Hana Mishima *

Yūko Kotegawa is a Japanese actress from the city of Ōita. Biography Yūko graduated from high school in the city of Ōita. She placed first in the 1976 Miss Salad Girl contest (the runner-up was Yūko Natori). She landed a part in a Kanebo cosmetics com ...

as Kiku Shoji *

Rentarō Mikuni (also sometimes credited as 三国連太郎) (January 20, 1923 – April 14, 2013) was a Japanese film actor from Gunma Prefecture. He appeared in over 150 films since making his screen debut in 1951, and won three Japanese Academy Awards for ...

as Tokichi Adachi

Plot

An indictment of the treatment of

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

silkworkers by their employers.

Production

The film was one of the last made by director

and was followed by a 1982 sequel, his final work, ''Nomugi Pass II'' (''Ā, Nomugi tōge: Shinryoku hen'').

Release

A roadshow version of the film was released in Japan on June 9, 1979 where it was distributed by

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 an ...

. It received a general release on June 30, 1979. The film was Toho's highest-grossing film of the year and was the second highest grossing among domestic releases. The film was released in the United States with English-subtitles by Toho International on December 28, 1979.

Reception

In Japan, at the 34th

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, ...

s, ''Nomugi Pass'' won the awards for

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Score. At the

Japanese Academy Awards The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

, the film won the award for Best Sound, and Best Music Score (

Masaru Sato (sometimes transliterated Satoh) was a Japanese composer of film scores. Following the 1955 death of Fumio Hayasaka, whom Sato studied under, Sato was the composer of Akira Kurosawa's films for the next 10 years. He was nominated for Best Music a ...

Footnotes

References

* *

External links

* * 1979 films Films directed by Satsuo Yamamoto 1970s Japanese films Films scored by Masaru Sato Toho films Films set in factories {{1970s-Japan-film-stub