is a 1960 Japanese historical drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and starring

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'' (195 ...

. It is based on a novel by

Shichirō Fukazawa was a Japanese author and guitarist whose 1960 short story ''Fūryū mutan'' ("Tale of an Elegant Dream") caused a nationwide uproar and led to an attempt by an ultranationalist to assassinate the president of the magazine that published it. B ...

Plot

The film is set in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

in Japan, spanning in time from the Battle of Iidagawara and the birth of

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

in 1521 to the

Battle of Tenmokuzan The 1582 in Japan, also known as the Battle of Toriibata, is regarded as the last stand of the Takeda clan. This was the final attempt by Takeda Katsuyori to resist the combined forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga, who had been campaign ...

and fall of the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

in 1582. It follows five generations of a farming family, who live in a house on the banks of the Fuefuki river, and whose fate is inseparably linked to the Takedas. The main protagonists are farming couple Sadahei and Okei, whose two oldest sons join the ranks of the warriors, while the daughter becomes a servant at the court. After the final battle, Sadahei is the sole survivor of the family. He discovers a flag of the destroyed Takeda clan floating near the river bank, picks it up, and eventually throws it back into the river.

Cast

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 ...

: Sadahei *

: Okei *

Kōshirō Matsumoto Kōshirō, Koshiro or Koushirou (written: , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese politician *, various kabuki actors *, Japanese actor and kabuki actor *, Japanese ...

: Sozo, 1st son * Kichiemon Nakamura: Yasuzo, 2nd son * Shinji Tanaka: Heikichi, 3rd son *

Shima Iwashita is a Japanese actress who has appeared in about 100 films and many TV productions. She is married to film director Masahiro Shinoda, in whose films she has frequently appeared. She won the award for best actress at the 2nd Hochi Film Award for ...

: Ume, daughter *

Yūsuke Kawazu was a Japanese actor. Life and career Kawazu was born in Tokyo on 12 May 1935. While still a student at Keio University, Kawazu signed with Shochiku in 1958 and debuted in Kinoshita's ''The Eternal Rainbow''. He became one of the studio's lead ...

: Jiro

Reception

''The River Fuefuki'' was Kinoshita's second adaptation of a literary work by Shichirō Fukazawa, following '' The Ballad of Narayama'', filmed 2 years earlier. Opinions of critics and film historians regarding ''The River Fuefuki'' are mixed. Alexander Jacoby detected a "simple pacifism" in its anti-war theme, lacking an investigation of the causes, a fact which Jacoby already found evident in earlier films by Kinoshita.

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...

, calling ''The River Fuefuki'' the director's last important film, considered its antitraditionalism to be mere appearance, as it "rejects only the worst of traditional life", but approves of the rest, the institution of the family in particular. Marcus Stiglegger viewed it as a unique pessimistic version of the

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

myth, in contrast to

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 ...

's epic samurai films of the time, and one of Kinoshita's most experimental and spectacular films. Reviewers also commented on the techniques Kinoshita incorporated into the film, one being the addition of colour to the monochromatic images, an effect which Jacoby called "somewhat schematic". According to Richie, the use of colour imitates Japanese

woodblock prints Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is crea ...

and emphasises the film's theatricality. Additionally, Kinoshita inserted still photographs, particularly during battle scenes, which "both halt and hold the action" (Richie), resembling

kamishibai is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" narrator") w ...

theater. Stiglegger compared the freezing of images with the rigidity of a social system which had exhausted itself in its traditions.

References

External links

* * * 1960s historical drama films Japanese historical drama films Films directed by Keisuke Kinoshita Films based on Japanese novels Films with screenplays by Keisuke Kinoshita Sengoku period in fiction Shochiku films 1960 drama films 1960 films 1960s Japanese films {{1960s-Japan-film-stub