, also titled ''Forever a Woman'', is a 1955 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 actress

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 ...

. It is based on the life of

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

poet Fumiko Nakajō (1922–1954).

Plot

Unhappily married Fumiko, mother of two children, divorces her drug-addicted husband after an incident which she regards as an act of unfaithfulness, and moves back to her mother. At the same time, she tries to find her voice as a poet, regularly attending a poetry circle, encouraged by her married tutor Hori, whom she loves with a respectful distance. While struggling with the divorce and the fact that she could only take her daughter with her, she is diagnosed with late-stage

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

. She undergoes a double

mastectomy Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operat ...

, which she writes about in a series of widely noticed and prize-winning poems, and tries to live her life as freely as possible and as her illness allows. She has a short affair with journalist Ōtsuki, who writes about her in a newspaper series before she finally dies.

Cast

Yumeji Tsukioka was a Japanese film actress. She appeared in more than 150 films between 1940 and 1994. She starred in the film ''The Temptress and the Monk'', which was entered into the 8th Berlin International Film Festival. Her husband was the director Umets ...

as Fumiko Shimojō, * Ryōji Hayama as Akira Ōtsuki *

Junkichi Orimoto was a Japanese actor. Orimoto often worked with Kinji Fukasaku and Sadao Nakajima. He started his acting career at the Shinkyō theatre company in 1949. His first film appearance was in the 1952 film ''Yamabiko Gakkō'' directed by Tadashi Imai. ...

as Shigeru Anzai * Hiroko Kawasaki as Tatsuko * Shirō Ōsaka as Yoshio * Ikuko Kimuro as Seiko * Masayuki Mori as Takashi Hori *

Yōko Sugi Yōko Sugi (杉葉子) (October 28, 1928 – May 15, 2019) was a Japanese actress who performed major roles in films like ''Aoi sanmyaku'' and '' Repast''. Early life Sugi was born on October 28, 1928 in what is now Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. ...

as Kinuko, Hori's wife * Chōko Iida as Hide *

Bokuzen Hidari was a Japanese actor and comedian born in Kotesashi Village (now part of Tokorozawa), Iruma District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. He appeared in such films as Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'', ''The Lower Depths'' and ''Ikiru''. Hidari was f ...

as Hide's husband *

Tōru Abe was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1944 to 1985. Selected filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, Toru 1917 births 1993 deaths Japanese male film actors 20th-century Japanese male ...

as Yamagami * Fumie Kitahara as Kobayashi *

as neighbour's wife * Yoshiko Tsubouchi as Shirakawa

Reception

Unanimously highly regarded for its directorial skills, film scholars differ in their evaluation of the themes addressed in ''The Eternal Breasts''. While Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández calls it "a daring depiction of female sexuality ��as well as a powerful instance of women's creativity and self-expression", Alexander Jacoby sees the "feminist and progressive" theme of a woman willingly choosing career over marriage obscured by the film's concentration on her illness, thus shying away from the more controversial implications.

Legacy

''The Eternal Breasts'' has seen repeated screenings at festivals and film museums in the US, in France and in Germany. 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, ...

included the film in its 2020 ''The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now'' list.

References

External links

* *

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eternal Breasts, The 1955 films 1955 drama films Japanese drama films Films about writers Japanese black-and-white films 1950s Japanese films Films based on biographies