, also titled ''Twilight Story'', is a 1960 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
Shirō Toyoda
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed over 60 films during his career spanning 50 years.
Career
Born in Kyoto, Toyoda moved to Tokyo after finishing high school and studied scriptwriting under the pioneering film director ...
. It is based on
Kafū Nagai
was a Japanese writer, editor and translator. His works like '' Geisha in Rivalry'' and ''A Strange Tale from East of the River'' are noted for their depictions of life of the demimonde in early 20th-century Tokyo.
Biography
Nagai was born Sōki ...
's 1937 short story ''A Strange Tale from East of the River''.
Plot
In the Tamanoi (now Higashi-Mukōjima, Sumida) district of 1936
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 ...
, geisha Oyuki earns her money as a prostitute to support her sick mother. One day, Oyuki meets and falls in love with a new customer, English teacher Junpei, who pretends that he lives alone while in reality he has a wife, Mitsuko. He and Mitsuko have ongoing arguments about his low salary and his discontent to accept financial support from the father of Mitsuko's child which she brought into the marriage. Meanwhile, Oyuki's uncle Otokichi, who acts as a messenger, spends the money intended for her mother on a prostitute himself, resulting in the mother's death. Junpei eventually returns to Mitsuko, though reluctantly, while the disillusioned Oyuki is hospitalised with blood poisoning. In the final scene, the narrator, an elderly writer and regular visitor to Tamanoi, reflects on the district's decline with the
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
entering its last stage.
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 Oyuki
*
Hiroshi Akutagawa
is a common masculine Japanese given name. It can also be transliterated as Hirosi.
Possible writings
Hiroshi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:
*浩, "meaning"
*汎
*弘,
*宏,
*寛,
*洋,
*博,
*博一,
*博司,
...
as Junpei Taneda
* Masao Oda as Uncle Otokichi
*
Michiyo Aratama
was a Japanese film and stage actress.
Biography
After graduating from the Takarazuka Music and Dance School, Aratama joined the Takarazuka Revue in 1945. She gave her film debut in 1951, but it was not before 1955 that she left the Takarazuk ...
as Mitsuko Taneda
*
Nobuo Nakamura
was a Japanese actor, who made notable appearances in the films of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps his most famous roles in the West were those of the callous deputy mayor in Kurosawa's ''Ikiru'' (1952), and the h ...
as Sanji
*
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 Yamai
*
Nobuko Otowa
was a Japanese actress who appeared in more than 100 films between 1950 and 1994.
A graduate of Takarazuka Girl's Opera School, Otowa was first signed to Daiei studios, before becoming a freelance actress by the early 1950s. After starring in ...
as Kyoko Yamai
*
Keiko Awaji
was a Japanese film actress.
Notable highlights of her career were an appearance in Akira Kurosawa's '' Stray Dog'', and a role as Kimiko in ''The Bridges at Toko-Ri'', in which she appeared alongside William Holden and Mickey Rooney.
Her firs ...
as Ofusa
*
Seiji Miyaguchi
was a Japanese actor who appeared in films of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Tadashi Imai and many others. He succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 71.
Distinctions
One of Kurosawa's iconic ''Seven Samurai'', Miyaguchi won the 195 ...
as Yoshizo
*
Kyōko Kishida
was a Japanese actress, voice actress, and writer of children's books.
Career
Kishida became an actress in 1950, and starred in a Yukio Mishima production of the 1960 film '' Salome''. Her film and television drama credits number in the hundreds ...
as Teruko
*
Natsuko Kahara
was a Japanese stage and film actress. She was a member of the Bungakuza theatre company and regularly appeared in the films of director Mikio Naruse. During her 50 years spanning career, she also worked for directors such as Yasujirō Ozu, Aki ...
as Yoshizo's wife Otane
*
Sumiko Hidaka
was a Japanese actress. She appeared in films of Tadashi Imai, Kaneto Shindō, Masahiro Shinoda and others.
Selected filmography
* ''Dedication of the Great Buddha'' (1952)
* ''Epitome'' (1953)
* ''Life of a Woman'' (1953)
* ''An Actress'' (19 ...
as Tamae
*
Chisako Hara
, better known under the stage name , was a Japanese actress best known for starring in ''Akai Giwaku'', ''Kishibe no Album'', and the '' Ultra Series'' franchise.
Biography
Chisako Hara was born on 6 January 1936
Reception
In their compendium ''The Japanese Film – Art and Industry'', film historians
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 dir ...
and Joseph L. Anderson called ''The Twilight Story'' an "outstanding adaptation" of Nagai's story.
Awards
*
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 Actress Fujiko Yamamoto (for ''The Twilight Story'' and ''
A Woman's Testament
is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Kōzaburō Yoshimura, Kon Ichikawa and Yasuzo Masumura. It was entered into the 10th Berlin International Film Festival.
Plot
This is a series of three stories revolving around women. The first story i ...
'')
* Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actor Masao Oda (for ''The Twilight Story'' and ''
The River Fuefuki
is a 1960 Japanese historical drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and starring Hideko Takamine. It is based on a novel by Shichirō Fukazawa.
Plot
The film is set in the Sengoku period in Japan, spanning in time from the Battle of Iidagaw ...
'')
Legacy
''The Twilight Story'' was screened at the
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...
in 1994.
Kafu's story was again adapted in 1992 by director
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'' and ' ...