Keisuke Kinoshita
Keisuke Kinoshita
RANKED:
8. She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955)
Typically known for his politically-charged or socially conscious films, Keisuke Kinoshita returned to pastoral lyricism with his 1955 film "She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum." The film centers on a man reminiscing about a childhood romance. Brimming with nostalgia for days gone by, Kinoshita employs an oval-shaped framing for the flashback sequences, evoking films from the silent era. Bittersweet and sentimental, "She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum" is overflowing with purity and sincerity, making it one of Kinoshita's most diverging pieces in his entire filmography.
7. Phoenix (1947)
In 1947, Japan was on the other side of the terror and horror of the war and film was taking off in a way like it had never before in the country. One of its filmmakers of note, Keisuke Kinoshita, was making films of thematic relevance to the country's post-war anxieties. His 1947 film "Phoenix" centers on a lonely widow reminiscing on life with her military husband. She emerges on the other side of the hardships of his death and must figure out a new lease on life, just as the people of Japan had to figure out after the aftermath of World War II.
6. The Portrait (1948)
Centering on a mistress who is getting her portrait done, Keisuke Kinoshita's 1948 film "The Portrait" is a tale about perspectives. When two corrupt home owners attempt to kick a family out of their home by moving in, the family's kindness and joy of life becomes infectious and changes their perspective. The mistress sees in her portrait a woman she could never be, an idealized version of herself. However, that person is attainable. You can always manifest the person you want to be simply by changing your perspectives on life and changing your behavior to choose kindness and virtue.
5. Farewell to Dream (1956)
Keisuke Kinoshita spend much of his career making films that critiqued Japan's involvement in the Second World War. Kinoshita demonstrated his criticisms through stories of families and the hardships that plagued them after the war ended. With his 1956 film "Farewell to Dream," Kinoshita, along with his sister Yoshiko who penned it, create a story centered around a young boy who dreams of becoming a seaman, only for his dreams to be slowly stripped away by the unfortunate circumstances that plague his family after the war. Because of their economic hardship, their lives completely unravel, leading the boy to give up his dreams to take care of their debilitating circumstances. A coming-of-age story in its purest form, "Farewell to Dream" locks its characters into a tragic fate they are unable to escape, illustrating the dire circumstances many families found themselves in Japan in the late 1940s and 1950s.
4. A Japanese Tragedy (1953)
Some of the great films of the Japanese Golden Age of cinema seemed to identify the suffering and crises that defined the post-war period in Japanese culture. However, many of them did so in an abstract and indirect way. This was not the case with Keisuke Kinoshita's 1953 film "A Japanese Tragedy," which even showed real footage of political upheaval, contemporary headlines, and pinpointed many of the problems outpouring from the current climate. The film centers on a mother facing resentment and abandonment from her growing children, despite spending the war years doing everything possible to keep them alive and fed, including selling herself into prostitution. The central story is focused on the tragedy of motherhood at the time, but zooms out to encapsulate the sentiment of corruption, chaos, and a breakdown of Japanese culture all together. Kinoshita presents to us the contemporary crisis of modern Japan: an utter disintegration of traditional Japanese culture and honor and the replacement of individualized, selfish, corrupt, and desperate people attempting to fit into the new paradigm of a 'dog-eat-dog' mentality. "A Japanese Tragedy" presents the its viewer the entire collapse of morality and social structure of Japan and the inextricable fracture that can never be mended.
3. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)
Keisuke Kinoshita does not shy away from making pointed criticisms of the Japanese government and their culpability in the war. Even with more touching and sentimental films like "Twenty-Four Eyes," his straightforwardness remains. "Twenty-Four Eyes" takes place from 1928 to 1946 as a teacher watches the future of her bright students slowly stripped away. The economic depression and the nationalism that takes hold of the country rots away any chance these young boys and girls have for any sense of prosperity. Having both a feminist perspective and a stanch anti-war sentiment, the film's main concern is the humans at the heart of the story. Your attachment to its characters is what makes the sad erosion of their future all the more devastating.
2. Morning for the Osone Family (1946)
With his 1946 film "Morning for the Osone Family," Japanese director Keisuke Kinoshita takes a look at the common domestic experience of Japanese families living during the war. A militaristic uncle sends all of the young boys off, the father of the home is arrested for anti-war sentiments, and the woman of the family (the mother and daughter) are left to deal with the uncle, as well as food shortages, bombings, and other social troubles. "Morning for the Osone Family" is a film that is able to tap in to the sentiment of the average Japanese family and ask the question "what do we do now?" after so much devastation and destruction has brought Japan to its ease. Thankfully, the final moments of the film offer hope, believing that Japanese citizens are looking at a 'new Japan' on the horizon.
1. The Ballad of Narayama (1958)
By 1958, color filmmaking started to infiltrate Japanese cinema, leading filmmakers to take wild and dramatic approaches to this new tool. Keisuke Kinoshita used color to such a stark effect with his 1958 film "The Ballad of Narayama," it created a visually unique and engaging picture that divided audiences. Some of this division over the film is not on the visual elements alone. Kinoshita's film is strange and tonally unfamiliar film that captures a Kabuki style, one that tonally turns off Western audiences. However, its effect is powerful. It centers on a 70-year-old village woman who must adhere to the traditions of the village that states elderly people who reach the age of 70 must ascend the mountain of Narayama in order to die of starvation. Although the visually poetic nature of the film pulls your attention, the underlying themes of society's treatment of the elderly, the contentious traditions of Japan's past, and the big-picture conceptions of time and aging all stir within the viewer long after the film is over. "The Ballad of Narayama" is a unique film with a dreamlike quality that is sure to illicit strong and uncertain emotions.
Comments
Post a Comment