, also titled Undercurrent and River of Night, 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

Kōzaburō Yoshimura was a Japanese film director. Biography Born in Shiga Prefecture, he joined the Shōchiku studio in 1929. He debuted as director in 1934, but continued working as an assistant director for such filmmakers as Yasujirō Ozu and Yasujirō Shimazu ...

. It was Yoshimura's first film photographed in colour. The screenplay by

Sumie Tanaka was a Japanese screenwriter and playwright with a feminist agenda. She was a long-time collaborator of film director Mikio Naruse and wrote screenplays for Japan's first major female director Kinuyo Tanaka. A member of the Bungakuza theatre c ...

is based on a novel by Hisao Sawano.

Plot

Kiwa Funaki is a young successful

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

designer working at her family's

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

-based business. While she fends off both the admiration of young painter Goro and the obtrusive advances of business partner Omiya, she eventually falls in love with scientist Takemura, who is writing a paper on the Shojobae fly. After she has started an affair with him, Kiwa learns that Takemura has a wife terminally ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. When Takemura's wife finally dies, he proposes to her, but Kiwa, criticising him for his egotism, chooses her independence over the prospect of becoming his wife.

Cast

Fujiko Yamamoto (born 11 December 1931) is a Japanese film and stage actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1953 and 1963. She won the first Grand Prix of Miss Nippon in 1950. Career Yamamoto was born on 11 December 1931, in Nishi-ku, Osaka, to a cot ...

as Kiwa Funaki *

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 Takemura *

Eitarō Ozawa , also credited as Sakae Ozawa (小沢栄), was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1988, directed by notable filmmakers such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Kaneto Shindō. Selected fi ...

as Omiya * Michiko Ai as Setsuko *

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 Yūjirō, Kiwa's father * Kazuko Ichikawa as Atsuko, Takemura's daughter * Michiko Ono as Miyo, Kiwa's sister * Kimiko Tachibana as Mitsu, Kiwa's stepmother * Mineko Yorozuyo as Yasushi, Omiya's wife * Keizo Kawasaki as Gora Okamoto

Release history

''Night River'' was released in Japan on 12 September 1956 and shown under the title ''Undercurrent'' at the 1957 New York Japanese Film Festival. It was released on DVD in Japan in 2007.

Legacy

''Night River'' was screened at a 2012 retrospective on

Kaneto Shindō was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and writer, who directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include ''Children of Hiroshima'', ''The Naked Island'', '' Onibaba'', ''Kuroneko'' an ...

and Kōzaburō Yoshimura in London, organised by the

British Film Institute 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 to encourage film production, ...

and the

Japan Foundation The was established in 1972 by an Act of the National Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an Independent Administrative Institution under the jurisdiction of the Ministry o ...

Awards

* 1956

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, ...

for Best Supporting Actor (Eijirō Tōno for ''Night River'' and two other films) and Best Sound Recording (Yukio Kaihara for ''Night River'' and three other films)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Night River 1956 films 1956 drama films Japanese drama films Daiei Film films Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Kōzaburō Yoshimura Films set in Kyoto 1950s Japanese films Films scored by Sei Ikeno