Metrograph

A prestige talent showcase for Toho, led by the venerable Aiko Mimasu alongside Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine, and supported by a dozen further major and minor stars of the era, Naruse’s full color melodrama is a feat of directorial command, never once buckling under its own widescreen weight. Concerning the ill fortunes of a widowed mother (Mimasu) and her five adult children as they endure a string of destabilizing personal and financial shocks, this melancholy picture of a Japanese family’s gradual disintegration evokes Naruse’s friend and critical rival Ozu with its succession of domestic rearrangements and tests of filial responsibility. Small wonder that Ozu favorite Chishu Ryu makes an eleventh hour cameo.

Introduction by filmmaker Kent Jones on Sunday, June 29th