She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955)

 Keisuke Kinoshita's "She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum"


Typically known for his politically-charged films, Keisuke Kinoshita changed his pace for his 1955 film "She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum." Centering on a man who reminisces about a childhood romance, the film brims with a nostalgia for days gone by. For the flashback sequences, Kinoshita employs an oval-shaped mask framing on the camera, which evokes the films of the silent era. In these flashbacks, our protagonist Masao recalls Tamiko, and their forbidden romance. 

Kinoshita's tone for this film is much more bittersweet and sentimental, which steers from the far more socially conscious film he's accustomed to making. As Jacek Klinowski and Adam Garbicz note in their book "Feature Cinema in the 20th Century: Volume Two: 1951-1963: a Comprehensive Guide," Kinoshita returns to "pastoral lyricism," making "one of the most sincere and purest films of its type in Japanese cinema." 




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