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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 , literally ''common people drama'', is a pseudo-Japanese word invented by Western film scholars. It describes a genre of Japanese realist films which focus on the everyday lives of ordinary people. In Japanese the correct word for this genre is ...
("common people drama") films with female protagonists, portrayed by actresses such as
Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) ...
,
Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952) and ''Ugetsu'' (1953). W ...
, and
Setsuko Hara Setsuko (written: or in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, later of Japan *, actress *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese actress and model *Setsuko Klossowska de Rola (born 1942), Japane ...
. 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 was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...
. 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 was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
,
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...
, and Ozu. Among his most noted films are ''
Sound of the Mountain is a 1954 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel ''The Sound of the Mountain'' by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. Plot Shingo, an aging businessman, sees the marriage of his son Shuichi and his daughter-i ...
'', ''
Late Chrysanthemums is a 1954 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It follows four retired geisha and their struggles to make ends meet in post World War II Japan. The film is based on three short stories by female author Fumiko Hayashi. Plot ''Late Chrysa ...
'', ''
Floating Clouds is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel of the same name by Japanese writer Fumiko Hayashi, published just before her death in 1951. The film received numerous national awards upon its release and remai ...
'' and ''
When A Woman Ascends The Stairs is a 1960 Japanese drama directed by Mikio Naruse. Plot Keiko (called "Mama" by the other characters), a young widow approaching 30, is a hostess at a bar in Ginza. Realizing she is getting older, she decides after talking to her bar manager, Ko ...
''.


Biography


Early years

Mikio Naruse was born in
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 ...
in 1905 and raised by his brother and sister after his parents' early death. He entered Shiro Kido's
Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all ...
film studio in the 1920s as a light crew assistant and was soon assigned to comedy director
Yoshinobu Ikeda was a Japanese film director and film industry executive. Career Born in Nagano Prefecture, Ikeda first worked at the post office before heading to Tokyo in 1920 to join the theater world. He entered the Shochiku studio in 1921 and debuted as a ...
. It was not until 1930 that he was allowed to direct a film on his own. His debut film, the short slapstick comedy ''Mr. and Mrs. Swordplay'' (''Chanbara fūfū''), was edited by
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 ...
who tried to support the young filmmaker. The film was considered a success, and Naruse was allowed to direct the romance film ''Pure Love'' (''Junjo''). Both films, like the majority of his directorial efforts at Shochiku, are regarded as lost. Naruse's earliest extant work is the short '' Flunky, Work Hard!'' (1931), a mixture of comedy and domestic drama. In 1933–1934, he directed a series of silent melodramas, '' Apart From You'', ''
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 entert ...
'', and ''
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 ...
'', which centered on women confronted with hostile environments and practical responsibilities, and demonstrated "a considerable stylistic virtuosity" (Alexander Jacoby). Unsatisfied with the working conditions at Shochiku and the projects he was assigned to, Naruse left Shochiku in 1934 and moved to P.C.L. studios (Photo Chemical Laboratories, which later became
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 ...
). His first major film was the
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 co ...
''
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 Mino ...
'' (1935). It was elected as Best Movie of the Year by the magazine
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'' ha ...
, and was the first Japanese film to receive a theatrical release in the United States (where it was not well received). The film concerns a young woman whose father deserted his family for a former
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 ...
. When she visits her father in a remote mountain village, it turns out that the second wife is far more suitable for him than the first. Film historians have emphasised the film's "sprightly, modern feel" and "innovative visual style" and "progressive social attitudes". Naruse's films of the following years are often regarded as lesser works by film historians, owed in parts to weak scripts and acting, although Jacoby noted the formal experimentation and sceptical attitude towards the institutions of marriage and family in ''Avalanche'' and ''A Woman's Sorrows'' (both 1937). Naruse later argued that at the time he didn't have the courage to refuse some of the projects he was offered, and that his attempts to compensate weak content with concentration on technique didn't work out. During the war years, Naruse kept to what his biographer Catherine Russell referred to as "safe projects", including "home front films" like ''
Sincerity Sincerity is the virtue of one who communicates and acts in accordance with the entirety of their feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and desires in a manner that is honest and genuine. Etymology The Oxford English Dictionary and most scholars state ...
''. The early 1940s saw the collapse of Naruse's first marriage with Sachiko Chiba, who had starred in ''Wife! Be Like a Rose!'' and whom he had married in 1936. In 1941, he directed the comedy ''
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 ...
'' with
Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) ...
, who would later become his regular starring actress.


Post-war career

The 1951 '' Repast'' marked a return for the director and was the first of a series of adaptations of works of female writer Fumiko Hayashi, including ''
Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
'' (1952) and ''
Floating Clouds is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel of the same name by Japanese writer Fumiko Hayashi, published just before her death in 1951. The film received numerous national awards upon its release and remai ...
'' (1955). All of these films featured women struggling with unhappy relationships or family relations and were awarded prestigious national film prizes. ''
Late Chrysanthemums is a 1954 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It follows four retired geisha and their struggles to make ends meet in post World War II Japan. The film is based on three short stories by female author Fumiko Hayashi. Plot ''Late Chrysa ...
'' (1954), based on short stories by Hayashi, centered on four former geisha and their attempts to cope with financial restraints in post-war Japan. ''
Sound of the Mountain is a 1954 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel ''The Sound of the Mountain'' by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. Plot Shingo, an aging businessman, sees the marriage of his son Shuichi and his daughter-i ...
'' (1954), a portrayal of a marriage falling apart, and '' Flowing'' (1956), which follows the decline of a once flourishing geisha house, were based on novels by
Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal an ...
and
Aya Kōda was a Japanese writer of novels, short stories and essays. She was the daughter of writer Kōda Rohan, Rohan Kōda. Among her most noted works is the 1955 novel ''Nagareru''. Biography Kōda was born in Terajima, Minami Katsushika-gun, Tokyo P ...
. In the 1960s, Naruse's output decreased in number (partially owed to illness), while film historians at the same time detect an increase of sentimentality and "a more spectacular mode of melodrama". ''
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is a 1960 Japanese drama directed by Mikio Naruse. Plot Keiko (called "Mama" by the other characters), a young widow approaching 30, is a hostess at a bar in Ginza. Realizing she is getting older, she decides after talking to her bar manager, Ko ...
'' (1960) tells the story of an aging bar hostess trying to start her own business, ''
A Wanderer's Notebook , also known as '' Her Lonely Lane'', is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse, starring Hideko Takamine. It is based on the autobiographical novel of the same title by writer Fumiko Hayashi and its stage adaptation ...
'' (1964) follows the life of writer Fumiko Hayashi. His last film was ''
Scattered Clouds is a 1967 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse starring Yōko Tsukasa and Yūzō Kayama. It was Naruse's final film after a long lasting career which started in 1930. Plot Shortly before Yumiko's and her husband Hiroshi's (an employee o ...
'' (a.k.a. ''Two in the Shadow'', 1967). Two years later, Naruse died of cancer, aged 63. Naruse was described as serious and reticent, and even his closest and long-lasting collaborators like cinematographer Tamai Masao claimed to know nothing about him personally. He gave very few interviews and was, according to Akira Kurosawa, a very self-assured director who did everything himself on the
set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...
. Hideko Takamine remembered, " en during the shooting of a picture, he would never say if anything was good, or bad, interesting or trite. He was a completely unresponsive director. I appeared in about 20 of his films, and yet there was never an instance in which he gave me any acting instructions."


Film style and themes

Naruse is known as particularly exemplifying the Japanese concept of "
mono no aware , literally "the pathos of things", and also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese idiom for the awareness of , or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at th ...
", the awareness of the
transience Transience or transient may refer to: Music * Transient (album), ''Transient'' (album), a 2004 album by Gaelle * Transience (Steven Wilson album), ''Transience'' (Steven Wilson album), 2015 * Transience (Wreckless Eric album) Science and enginee ...
of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing. "From the youngest age, I have thought that the world we live in betrays us", the director explained. His protagonists were usually women, and his studies of female experience spanned a wide range of social milieux, professions and situations. Six of his films were adaptations of a single novelist, Fumiko Hayashi, whose pessimistic outlook seemed to match his own. From her work he made films about unrequited passion, unhappy families and stale marriages. Surrounded by unbreakable family bonds and fixed customs, the characters are never more vulnerable than when they for once decide to make an individual move: "If they move even a little, they quickly hit the wall" (Naruse). Expectations invariably end in disappointment, happiness is impossible, and contentment is the best the characters can achieve. Of ''Repast'', '' Husband and Wife'' and ''
Wife A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...
'', Naruse said, "these pictures have little that happens in them and end without a conclusion–just like life". Naruse's films contain simple screenplays, with minimal dialogue, unobtrusive camera work, and low-key production design. Earlier films employ a more experimental style, while the style of his later work is deliberately slow and leisurely, designed to magnify the everyday drama of ordinary Japanese people's trials and tribulations, with a maximum of psychological nuances in every glance, gesture, and movement.


Awards and legacy

;Wife! Be Like a Rose! *
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'' ha ...
Award for Best Film ;Repast * Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film *
Mainichi Film Concours 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, ...
for Best Film and Best Director ;Lightning *Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film and Best Director ;Mother *Blue Ribbon Award for Best Director ;Floating Clouds *Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film *Mainichi Film Concours for Best Film and Best Director *Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film and Best Director Film scholar Audie Bock curated two extensive retrospectives on Naruse in Chicago and New York in 1984–1985. Retrospectives were also held at the
Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...
(1984) and at festivals in Hong Kong (1987) and Melbourne (1988). ''Floating Clouds'' and ''Flowing'' have been voted into the 2009 All Time Best Japanese Movies lists by readers and critics of Kinema Junpo.


Filmography


Home media (English subtitled)

* ''Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse''. DVD box containing ''Flunky, Work Hard'' (1931), ''No Blood Relation'' (1932), ''Apart From You'' (1933), ''Every-Night Dreams'' (1933), ''Street Without End'' (1934) (
The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
, region 1 NTSC) * ''Mikio Naruse''. DVD box containing ''Late Chrysanthemums'' (1954), ''Floating Clouds'' (1955), ''When a Woman Ascends the Stairs'' (1960) (
BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
, region 2 PAL) * ''Naruse Volume One''. DVD box containing ''Repast'' (1951), ''Sound of the Mountain'' (1954), ''Flowing'' (1956) ( Eureka! Masters of Cinema, region 2 NTSC) * ''When a Woman Ascends the Stairs'' (1960) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC DVD)


References


Further reading

* * * Bock, Audie, "Japanese Film Directors". Tokyo: Kodansha, 1978. Print, and Kodansha America, 1985 (reprint). * Hirano, Kyoko. Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945-1952. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. Print * * * The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo, New York: Kodansha, 1983. Print. * McDonald, Keiko. From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Film. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Print. * Narboni, Jean. Interview with Antoine Thirion. “Naruse Series.” Trans. Chris Fujiwara. Cahiers du Cinéma Oct. 2008: 60. Print. * * Rimer, J. Thomas. “Four Plays by Tanaka Chikao.” Monumenta Nipponica Autumn 1976: 275-98. Print * Sarris, Andrew. The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1968. Print *


External links

*
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

Better Late Than Never: The Films of Mikio Naruse

Flowing: The Films of Mikio Naruse

Strictly Film School reviews



The materialist ethic of Mikio Naruse

Notebook Roundtable: Talking Silent Naruse

Silent Naruse
Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
essay
A Mikio Naruse Companion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naruse Mikio Japanese film directors People from Tokyo 1905 births 1969 deaths