A Japanese Tragedy (1953)

  'A Japanese Tragedy' (Nihon no higeki) is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.

  After the Second World War, a recently widowed mother (Haruko) must cater for her two children (Seiichi and Utako). The children asume the mothers actions where to lead a life of pleasure, but she was making many sacrifices for the two children, including trading on the black market. She paid for Seiichi's medical lessons and Utako's English lessons, yet they are ungrateful and are fed up with her. Seiichi is making plans to leave for an elderly couple who own a hospital, but have lost their son in the war. Utako, on the other hand, falls in love with her English teacher.

  My third Kinoshita film is rarely seen outside of Japan. I have only seen three, but I can already see he is a director which experiments with different genres. 'Ballad of Narayama' and 'A Japanese Tragedy' focuses on troubled relationships between youths and adults, whereas '24 eyes' centres on a loving teacher and her relationship with her pupils. The opposite. His films do feel traditional, focusing on relationships rather than samurai and cops like Kobayashi and Kurosawa.

  'A Japanese Tragedy' is, of course, a tragic movie. It's unusual for a film's protagonist to be a loving mother who has disrespectful kids. The mother is acted well, but it's painful to see her descent into depression. Japan came out of the war in a terrible depression and that is shown on-screen, with it's post-war climate. Families are struggling, the loss of those who have died is weighing on people's minds, and the economy is in a dire state.

 The story sounds like something new, but the film feels very familiar. Kinsohita's other two works (which I have seen) seem far more accomplished and visually superior. The other films spend longer time manipulating the emotion of the audience, unlike 'A Japanese Tragedy', which when the sudden ending occurs, it's not that saddening. The characters the film develops throughout the film that aren't particularly appealing, but they are familiar. The main theme of the film, ignorant relatives and their effect on a loving person, is common today as much as it was in the 1950s, so the film is relatable.

TO CONCLUDE
A tragic film, that refuses to pull heartstrings. It's nicely (not amazingly) made but feels like it's nothing new.

SCORE
74