Morning for the Osone Family (1946)

 Keisuke Kinoshita's "Morning for the Osone Family"


After watching Keisuke Kinoshita's 1946 Japanese family drama "Morning for the Osone Family," I was struck by how little writing there is about the film. I was so enthralled and moved by the film, that I felt that there was for sure a lot more to be said by the film community about such a flick. I personally found the film a marvel.

The film centers on the Osone family between the years of 1943 and 1945. As war rages on in their country, the family is torn apart by a headstrong military uncle who is able to enlist all of the boys, much to the chagrin of the mother and sister of the family. The young boys go off to war (some against their desire), the father is arrested by the police for writing a paper against the war effort, and the mother and sister are left behind to deal with the abrasive privilege of the military uncle. By the end of the war, children are dead and Japan is in a state of turmoil. 

I found the film to be an interesting and unique perspective into the common viewpoints of Japanese citizens regarding the ongoing global war. There are some members of the family who are super gung-ho about the war effort, while others are trepidatious. It brings a lot of inner turmoil and family drama. To me, this film is a representation of the Japanese temperament about the war in general after its conclusion. The uncle represents the state itself, as it continues to send boys off to die while he sits in safety, eating the foods that much of the country is without. He even hoards and steals food while the entire country is facing starvation. In the end, he feels no remorse about his part in the conflict and digs his heels even more. The young sons, obviously, represent the young people of Japan who are forced to go off to battle. The father in the film represents the intellectual class of Japan who are silenced and imprisoned during the war. And the mother and sister of the film represent the women of Japan who had to deal with all of this, including domestic issues of food shortages, bombings, and social conflicts. 

By the end of the film, the mother finally works up the courage to tell the uncle off and demand he leave her house. It is in this moment that I felt the most emotional. All of the pain and trauma of the story had culminated into these final moments of anger and standing up for oneself, a feeling that most of Japan must have felt after their government led them into a disastrous conflict that ravaged their country. 

To me, "Morning for the Osone Family" represents this national temperament in Japan in 1946. It is a recognition of what common families and the entire country as a whole, domestically, had to go through during the tough wartime years. In the end, it is morning. We are left with a feeling of "what do we do now?" This is the question that the film itself poses to viewers, while also projecting a sense of hope for the future and the 'new Japan' that is on the horizon.



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