is a

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

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 is based on the novel by Tomoji Abe.

Plot

After the opening sequence, documenting the uprise of students at a women's

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

following the death of one of their fellow students, the preceding events are told in a flashback narration: Among a number of young female students, opposition is growing against the conservative-authoritarian school administration and its strict doctrines. The opposing students are divided into fractions themselves,

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

like Akiko versus unpolitical like Tomiko, and ones who call for action now versus those who urge not to act prematurely. The latter is a repeated cause for debate between Akiko, an overt

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

of upper-class descent, and Toshiko, who acts as sort of a leading figure and

ideologue An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

. Catalyst of the events is student Yoshie, who is behind in her studies, but not allowed to work late at night according to the rules. Yoshie enrolled in the school in an attempt to escape her rigid father, who also rejects her wish to marry her friend Shimoda once both have their degrees. Picked on by teacher Mayumi and suffering from social distancing by the other girls, Yoshie finally commits suicide. While she is mourned by Tomiko and Shimoda, with Tomiko, Akiko and Mayumi blaming each other for her death, the other students block the auditorium under Toshiko's guidance and sing their unofficial student's hymn which the administration had banned.

Reception

Writers on Japanese film have noted the film's contrast between the traditional, feudalistic Japan represented by the educational establishment, and the emerging, more democratic post-war values seen in the pupils. They also commented favourably on Kinoshita's treatment of adolescent girls' emotional problems in this context.

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. One of the foremost directors within the Japanese New Wave, his films include ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan, and ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' ...

named ''The Garden of Women'' as the film which led to his decision to become a filmmaker himself in his 1995 documentary ''100 Years of Japanese Cinema''.

Awards

''The Garden of Women'' received the 1954

Mainichi Film Awards 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 Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Yoshiko Kuga), Best Music and Best Sound Recording, as well as the

Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay The Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay is a prize recognizing the work of a screenplay of a Japanese film. It was awarded annually by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists as one of the Blue Ribbon Awards. It was lastly awarded in 1966 at ...

Cast

Mieko Takamine (2 December 1918 – 27 May 1990) was a Japanese actress and singer. Biography Mieko Takamine was born the eldest daughter of famous chikuzen biwa player and teacher Chikufu Takamine. She gave her acting debut in the 1936 film ''Kimi yo takarak ...

— Mayumi Gojō, teacher *

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) ...

— Yoshie Izushi *

Keiko Kishi is a Japanese actress, writer, and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. Life and career She made her acting debut in 1951. In the 1950s, David Lean had proposed her for the main role in ''The Wind Cannot Read'', which is about a Japanese language instru ...

— Tomiko Takioka *

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 ...

— Akiko Hayashino * Kazuko Yamamoto — Toshiko *

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 ...

— Sankichi Shimoda * Masami Taura — Yoshikazu Sagara *

Chieko Higashiyama was a Japanese stage and film actress. She appeared in more than 60 films from 1936 to 1967. Career Graduating from the girls' school at Gakushuin, she married a businessman in 1909 and spent eight years in Moscow. In 1925, at the age of 35, ...

— President * Kikue Mori — Dean * Kuniko Igawa — Yoshie's sister *

Nobuo Kaneko was a Japanese actor. His wife was actress Yatsuko Tanami. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1950 and 1993. Career Kaneko was a versatile character actor, playing roles ranging from comedic buffoons to hardened yakuza bosses. He is es ...

— Kihei Hirato *

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 pr ...

— Landlady *

Chieko Naniwa Chieko Naniwa (浪花千栄子) (November 19, 1907 – December 22, 1973) was a Japanese actress who was active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She is best known for playing geisha in several films, such as Keiji Mizoguchi's ''A Geisha'', and t ...

— Tomiko's aunt

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garden of Women, The 1954 films 1954 drama films Japanese drama films Japanese black-and-white films Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Keisuke Kinoshita Films about educators 1950s Japanese films