''Farewell to Dream'' ''Clouds at Twilight'' ( ja, 夕やけ雲, Yūyake-gumo) is a 1956 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-g ...

directed by

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasu ...

. It was written by Kinoshita's sister Yoshiko Kusuda.

Plot

After the opening titles, which announce the story of a boy whose dream didn't come true, ''Farewell to Dream'' shows the protagonist, 20-year-old fishmonger Yoichi, standing in the shop's backyard and looking out into the distance. In a long flashback, the film then switches to the preceding events which took place a few years earlier. 15-year-old Yoichi, the second child of five of a poor

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 ...

fishmonger and his wife, dreams of becoming a sailor like his deceased uncle. With his binoculars, a gift from his uncle, he watches a young woman living above a beauty salon in another district of the city and makes up a story about her. His older sister Toyoko, much to her parents' concern, repeatedly cancels her engagements, insisting that she wants to marry a rich man and escape her poor upbringing. Toyoko finally marries a much older man, but has an affair with Sudo, her former fiancé. After a heart attack, Yoichi's father is bedridden and finally dies, so Yoichi has to take over the shop and his younger sister Kazue is adopted by another uncle. When his best friend Seiji moves away due to his father's reassignment and the young woman from the beauty salon marries, Yoichi feels left alone. Back in the present, Yoichi makes a short break during work in the shop's backyard, musing about his failed dream and the people he had to part ways with.

Cast

* Shinji Tanaka as Yoichi *

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 pro ...

as Oshin, Yoichi's mother *

Yoshiko Kuga is a Japanese people, Japanese actress. Biography and personal life Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her father, , was a marquis and a member of the House of Peers (Japan), House of Peers. In 1946, while still attending Gakushuin Junior High Sc ...

as Toyoko, Yoichi's older sister *

Eijirō Tōno was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting more than 50 years, appeared in over 400 television shows, nearly 250 films and numerous stage productions. He is best known in the West for his roles in films by Akira Kurosawa, such as ''Seven Samu ...

as Genkichi, Yoichi's father * Ryōhei Ōno as Seiji Harada *

Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Biography Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a geisha. Under her mother ...

as Kiyo, Seiji's mother *

Nobuo Nakamura was a Japanese actor, who made notable appearances in the films of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps his most famous roles in the West were those of the callous deputy mayor in Kurosawa's ''Ikiru'' (1952), and the h ...

as Haruo, Seiji's father * Shin'ichi Himori as Kozo Akimoto, Genkichi's brother *

Takahiro Tamura was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in 100 films between 1954 and 2005. He and his younger brothers Masakazu and Ryō were known as the three Tamura brothers. They were sons of actor Tsumasaburo Bando. Biography Tamura graduated from Dosh ...

as Sudo * Noriko Kikuoki as Kazue, Yoichi's younger sister

Reception

Michael Kienzl comments on Critic.de that "Kinoshita relies less on emotional outbursts than on quiet touching moments." He gives as an example the farewell scene between Yoichi and his best friend, in which the tragedy of their parting is conveyed through

close-up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long s ...

s of their touching feet and a long handshake. Turner Classic Movies' Rob Nixon draws attention to the beginning framing scene, in which Yoichi's being hemmed in by his circumstances is reflected in the

mise-en-scène ''Mise-en-scène'' (; en, "placing on stage" or "what is put into the scene") is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, ...

which shows Yoichi in a narrow frame between two buildings.

Awards

, who played Yoishi's older sister, won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''Farewell to Dream'' and two other films.

, who played Yoishi's father, won the

Mainichi Film Award for Best Supporting Actor The Mainichi Film Award for Best Supporting Actor is a film award given at 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 194 ...

for his performance in this film and in ''Yoru no kawa''.

References

External links

* * {{Keisuke Kinoshita 1956 films 1956 drama films Japanese black-and-white films Films directed by Keisuke Kinoshita Films set in Tokyo Japanese drama films