Mikio Naruse
Mikio Naruse
RANKED:
7. Mother (1952)
After the rousing success of his 1951 film "Repast," Mikio Naruse crafted his next feature film from a screenplay that was based on a prize-winning entry of a school essay-writing competition. The story focused on a mother's struggles during the post-war years in Japan. The film, simply titled "Mother" encompasses the heartbreaking fracturing that occurs in her family and represents the fractured family unit that would emerge in Japanese culture after the war. Although it is mostly somber in tone, "Mother" offers a great deal of heart that extends from the uncompromised love of its titular mother.
6. Wife (1953)
With his 1953 film "Wife," Mikio Naruse once again traverses the realms of a disintegrating marriage, as well as adapting a third (out of an eventual six) film that is based on the works by writer Hayashi. What's unique about this story is that its contemporary framework allows for viewers to contemplate the societal circumstances that play into this domestic tragedy. "Wife" is full of fractured relationships and people yearning desperately for connection.
5. Sound of the Mountain (1954)
As Japanese cinema was reaching a zenith in the 1950s, so too was Mikio Naruse and his domestic dramas. His first of two films from 1954, "Sound of the Mountain," centers on a father who becomes concerned for his two adult children when their relationships fall apart. The film demonstrates the contemporary issues of fracturing family units in post-war Japan, with an even concentrated focus on the abuse of women by emotionally distant and unavailable men still reeling from the war. "Sound of the Mountain" maintains Naruse's signature emotional connection to the fracture post-war family unit while also hitting at the heart of the complicated relationships between women and men.
4. Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
Mikio Naruse's second feature length film out of 1954, "Late Chrysanthemums" continues the themes of a post-war Japanese society completed fractured and frayed by economics, social issues, and domestic turmoil. The film follows a group of aging single women as they attempt to navigate the economic turbulence they find themselves in. This turbulence creates natural fractures in their relationships, along with their disconnection with society as a whole. "Late Chrysanthemums" is a bleak portrait of a Japanese society and more specifically, the women of that society, in a state of hopelessness. It's a film full of broken people and broken relationships that doesn't look like it's getting repaired any time soon.
3. Flowing (1956)
With his 1956 film "Flowing," Mikio Naruse has proven himself to be a master of tone. There's something very breezy and sublime about the film, which is set in a geisha house that is slowly fading into obscurity. The three primary characters are played by some of Japan's most celebrated actresses working at the time: Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, and Hideko Takamine. The ensemble, along with Naruse's sublime direction, makes "Flowing" one of the more captivatingly simple films of his entire career.
2. Repast (1951)
Although Mikio Naruse had a 20 year career by the time he made 1951's "Repast," it was this film that changed things for the director. Critics had regarded his films very unfavorably or mildly until "Repast," which breathed new life into the artistic sails of the Japanese director. Taking advantage of Setsuko Hara's rising stardom as an actress, Naruse cast her as a exhausted housewife going through an existential crisis. The film demonstrates what many Japanese films were demonstrating at the time: the pressures and limitations being placed on Japanese women at the time by careless and uncaring men.
1. Floating Clouds (1955)
What separates Mikio Naruse's "Floating Clouds" from other Japanese cinema of the post-war period is not any sort of intricate plot or narrative structure. Rather, its the tone that Naruse infuses into the story. "Floating Clouds" centers on two expatriates who reunite after the war in an attempt to experience human connection. In their desperate attempts to grab hold of something in their lives, the atmosphere of their lives is filled with a malaise of emptiness and demoralization. These sentiments echoes the emptiness and meaningless existence that many in Japanese society felt after the devastation of the war, which makes "Floating Clouds" an emotionally true film for its time period and the Japanese people. Many contemporary Japanese filmmakers at the time, like Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, hailed the film as one of the greatest Japanese films ever made.
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