Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)

 Sadao Yamanaka's "Humanity and Paper Balloons"

In his very brief career, Japanese director Sadao Yamanaka only made 3 feature length films. All 3 made an enormous impact in Japanese culture and are still praised by the film community today. The final of the 3 films he made, 1937's "Humanity and Paper Balloons" is perhaps the very reason his life was cut short. At the time of the film's release, the Japanese government had already invaded China and was exponentially building its militia. They felt as though Yamanka's film damaged the nationalistic and militaristic viewpoint they were trying to instill in the country. Because they were so displeased with the 'message' of the film, they sent Yamanaka to the Chinese front, where he died a year later in 1938.

The reason for this retribution by the Japanese government was because the film focuses on a group of characters who actively display the worst attributes of Japanese society. Yamanaka's story takes place in the feudal period, where class and economic tensions are bubbling over into violence, kidnapping, extortion, shaming, and suicide. A lower class gambler and a disgraced ronin kidnap a bride to shame the local thug. Through these actions, they succeed in punishing the powerful local authority due to their resentment over his authoritative control and his disregard for the weaker positions. In the end, the local thug kills the gambler, while the ronin is murdered by his wife who then commits seppuku herself.

To me, "Humanity and Paper Balloons" feels like an inverse theme to Yamanaka's debut film, "The Million Ryo Pot." In the latter, a community is brought together through their shared sense of destitution and strife and find that the relationship they build together is far more valuable than the prosperity they attempt to achieve. However, with "Humanity and Paper Balloons," the community is ripped apart by shame, disparity, alcoholism, and unfulfilled prosperity. It is a film about the malaise of the current Japanese society under the thumb of a state at war. The depressive atmosphere of the film captured this hopelessness. The film begins with a suicide and ends with a suicide. In the middle is nothing but resentment and unfulfilled promise. It's a bleak tale filled with shame and disgrace and it is no wonder the Japanese state had such an issue with the blatant antipatriotic sentiments.

Unfortunately, this powerfully dark film cost Yamanka his life. What he left behind was a tiny filmography, but a filmography that speaks volumes of Japanese culture at the time. He died at the age of 28 and the possibilities of what sort of films he could have made in the Golden Era of Japanese cinema are left unrealized, much like his unfortunate characters in "Humanity and Paper Balloons."