Today, June 17 (or what’s left of it) is the 88th birthday of Japanese actress Setsuko Hara, who, according to IMDB, is still with us. She is best known for her work in Ozu movies like LATE SPRING and TOKYO STORY. I had the day off and I decided to honor her birthday (and someone else’s—I’ll get to that in a couple of paragraphs). So I picked off from my shelf one of her movies that I hadn’t seen yet, an apt title for reasons I’ll explain below, NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH (1946), directed by Akira Kurosawa, which I have on a VHS tape purchased at Tower Video almost six years ago.

The story takes place over the course of Japan’s turbulent history from 1931 to the end of the war, casting a critical eye on the fascist tendencies of the government and its crackdown on academic freedom in the early ’30s. Miss Hara’s character, Yukie Yagihara, goes through some astounding transformations in the course of the film—emotional, psychological, political, moral, and physical, just to name a few. She plays a spoiled, impetuous girl who acts on her whims, a professor’s daughter who has two male suitors, students at her father’s school (Kyoto University), neither of whom she commits to until some ten years after the film’s opening, when she finally marries the more radical of the two. Not the most stable person to begin with, she finds herself suffering from bouts of depression and crying jags caused, we are told, by fears of her husband’s impending capture by the authorities for his anti-government activities. (Today, I'm guessing she’d be classified as a manic-depressive.) To make a long story short, Yukie, a cultured, educated woman from Kyoto, winds up on her in-laws’ farm, where the old couple is harassed by vicious townsfolk who call them “spies” and “traitors.” Yukie plunges herself into planting rice on the couple’s farm, striking the earth with a hoe, carrying wood on her back, planting the rice in the paddies, until she’s almost unrecognizable as the woman she used to be. And Kurosawa favors us with dozens of closeups of Hara throughout the film. The entire story is told in her face.

I don’t recall anyone ever telling me how great this movie is. (If someone on this board did and I’ve forgotten, my apologies.) I don’t recall reading much about it anywhere. I have never seen a movie like this before. I have never seen a movie about Japanese women like this before. I have never seen a central female performance like this before. I had seen Miss Hara in three movies by Ozu and probably a few others along the way, but nothing ever prepared me for this one. (I'm sure there are other Japanese movies like this one, but I either haven't seen them or can't recall them.) So I looked the film up in various books I have on Japanese cinema. Nothing noteworthy in any except one, “The Waves at Genji’s Door: Japan Through its Cinema,” by Joan Mellen. She calls the film “one of the finest examples in the history of the Japanese film of a woman’s struggle for personal liberation.” Describing Hara’s performance, she says, “her face expresses the very potential of the Japanese woman that has been so often, during all these long centuries, left wasted and latent.” Amen.

What prompted all this? Well, since I run the risk of losing you all with this paragraph anyway, I’ll keep it short. I did a blog entry today wishing a happy birthday to Nozomi “Nono” Tsuji, the former member of Morning Musume who went off last year and got pregnant, married Ultraman, and had a baby. She turned 21 today. I added an item about Setsuko Hara because I thought it was interesting that two of my favorite Japanese female performers were born on the same day, 67 years apart, and I wanted to give a little film history to my J-pop-saturated blog readership. And in writing that, I determined that I ought to celebrate the occasion by watching something with each of them. So I did. I picked NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH for Hara because I thought the title resonated with the near-scandal Nono’s pregnancy caused. Who knew what a revelation it would be? I have more to say about a spiritual connection between Hara and Nono, but this has already gotten too long. I'll address it on my blog.

Thanks for the review, Brian! I'll have to track this down. I've only seen Setsuko Hara in a few films at a Mikio Naruse retrospective a few years ago. I must admit I was personally more wowed by two other actresses I saw during the series: Hideko Takamine and Kinuyo Tanaka. But it sounds like this film is one of Setsuko Hara's best performances and definitely worth checking out.

BTW, can you post a link to your blog?

Since you asked, here it is:

http://madara-blog.livejournal.com/

Just remember, it's a no-frills live journal thing, mostly reviews of J-pop releases with occasional side trips. I don't know how to add pictures or video clips, although some people who add comments manage to insert YouTube videos. I don't know how to do that myself.

Also, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I have yet to see a Mikio Naruse film. I don't know why not and I don't know what I've been waiting for. I don't have any in my collection, but I'll try to correct that as soon as possible. (Naruse fans: what should I look for that's available?)

I've long been a defender of "No Regrets" which I consider a bit flawed -- but still fascinating. And the two strongest points of the film are the cinematography of Asakazu Nakai (making use of some techniques possibly first explored in Naruse's Song Lantern) and Setusko Hara's lead performance. (Main liability -- an often rather clunky script).

I would note that the 17th is not really the birthday of Setsuko Hara but of Masae Aida (the actress's birth name -- which she reclaimed in 1963, when she retired her persona as Setsuko Hara for good). Interestingly, she has lived (as a normal, well-off lady -- not a hermit) in Kamakura (where Ozu is buried) since her retirement. And she has never discussed her film career (or met with old film colleagues) since her abrupt retirement that year (note, if she actually retired in 1963 _after_ Ozu's death -- as many sources report -- she must have retired within two weeks of his death on Dec. 12).

While I suspect Kinuyo Tanaka may have been (in technical terms) the greatest Japanese film actress ever, my heart belongs to Hara -- who (more than any other individual) is responsible for my now-fanatic love of classic Japanese cinema. Of course, all the same, one cannot ignore the wonders of Tanaka and Hideko Takamine (who can now be seen on DVD -- sans all her fron teeth -- in Ozu's Tokyo Chorus).

Sadly, Hara's first major role is not available on subbed DVD -- she was exscellent in a key supporting role in Yamanaka's Kochiyama Soshun. She is surprisingly shy in this -- and in her follow-up in the Fanck-Itamai propaganda/volcano film -- the New Earth (where she never seems to say anything in German above a whisper).

I have yet to see any of her WW2 films (where she normally played the girl next door sort of parts -- but apparently played a fanatically militant super-patriot in one of them). After the war, she played a fairly wide array of roles -- before entering "Ozu World". As amazing as her part in AK's "No Regrets" may have been -- her role in Hideo Oba's Woman of the Typhoon District was even moreso. In this, she seems to be channeling Rita Hayworth at her most sultry -- playing the moll of a smuggling gang leader. One of the key films from this period finally appears on DVD (w/o subs, of course) next week -- Yoshimura's Ball at Anjo House. Another key performance was in Imai's "Blue Mountains" -- though the unsubbed DVD of this has never gotten any subs (even unofficial ones -- so far as I know).

Hara's performance as "Nastasha Filippovna" in AK's adaptation of Dostoevsky's Idiot was much criticized at the time. but, in retrospect) strikes me as a brilliant peice of work (as were the performances of her great fellow stars Masyuki Mori, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshiko Kuga and -- last but not least -- Chieko Higashiyama). Ironically, Hara would play an even more off-putting character in Ozu's Tokyo Twilight (a disaster at the time -- only now finally being recognized as a masterpiece). I think her performance in Ozu's Late Spring might be her greatest technical accomplishment ever -- but I love her most in "Early Summer".

While Hara's work for Ozu and Kurosawa was quite impressive -- some of her best work might be the films she made for Naruse, especially Repast and Sound of the Mountain. She does another brilliant job in Naruse's Sudden Rain (where she has an unusual degree of edginess and sarcasm). By contrast, her sweetest performance (since her youth) was in her last film for Naruse's Daughter, Wife, Mother.

Worth noting also that NO REGRETS is in the wonderful Post-War Kurosawa boxed set at $37.51 in DEEP DISCOUNT's "20% off" sale ending in a few days once you have a useable code.

Victor

RE: the script for NO REGRETS. In his book, Something Like an Autobiography, Kurosawa describes how he had to rewrite his original script on the order of Toho's Scenario Review Committee because it was too much like another script that had been submitted, even though Kurosawa insisted that the finished film would be completely different from the other film. They later admitted, after seeing the finished films, that he was right. Kurosawa says:

"Playwright Hisaita Eijiro's first script for my film was such a beautiful piece of work that it still pains me to remember that it was shelved at the hands of such thoughtless people.
"The second draft of the script for No Regrets was a forced rewrite of the story, so it became somewhat distorted. This shows in the last twenty minutes of the film. But my intention was to gamble everything on that last twenty minutes. I poured a feverish energy into those two thousand feet and close to two hundred shots of film. All of the rage I felt toward the Scenario Review Committee went into those final images."

He goes on to recount how the American censors, when they watched the film, viewed the last 20 minutes in complete silence and showered praise on him afterwards. One of them, a Mr. Garky, even threw a party in honor of the film.

Speaking of which, those last 20 minutes look forward to the Italian neorealist film, BITTER RICE (1949).

RE: Miss Hara's retirement and seclusion. Your description, Michael, reminds me a great deal of the central character in Satoshi Kon's animated film, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS (2001). When I interviewed Kon about that film some years ago, he did say that Setsuko Hara was one of the inspirations for the character.

Brian, Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs with Hideko Takamine is available from Criterion. It's good, but not among my favorites.

There is a British box set which features the Naruse / Setsuko Hara collaborations Repast and Sound of the Mountain, which Michael recommended. It also includes Flowing, starring Hideko Takamine and Kinuyo Tanaka, which I really liked a lot.

Finally there is a BFI box set which features When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Floating Clouds, and Late Chrysanthemums, the last of which I highly recommend.

Both sets are available from Amazon UK. Here's a link to the retrospective I saw. It will give you a concise overview of Naruse's films:

http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/naruse

I don't think you'd be disappointed if you decided to pick up either one of the box sets.

BTW, thanks for the link to your blog, Brian. I don't think I'm ready to enter the world of Morning Musume, but I appreciate your fan devotion.

I'd love to see this! Not something I'd expect from the "Eternal Virgin", as I've read Setsuko Hara was called in Japan.

Oba's "Taifu-ken no onna" came out on (unsubbed) video in Japan. I wonder whether stuff like this will ever make it to DVD. I doubt this will ever appear with subtitles. I'd like to see more by Oba -- as the other film I've seen by him was also interesting (the Bells of Nagasaki -- the first Japanese film dealing with the atomic bomb, I believe).

Hara had at least one other "bad girl" role around this same time (albeit not quite such an exotic one) -- in Yoshimura's Yuwaku (Temptation) -- where she is responsible for messing up the marriage of Shin Saburi and Haruko Sugimura (who is sickly).

Not many are ready, which is why I rarely post the link here. (I think this was the 2nd time I did it.) I can't imagine how that stuff reads to the uninitiated. :unsure:

I didn't know it was criticised, I really liked it and agree that it is brilliant.

I also recommend the Eureka box set Brian, it would be money well spent.

I'm also very happy with Criterion "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs", I find a wonderful film and can't decide which I like best, Flowing or When A Woman...

Now I'm interesed in the BFI box set but I already have When a Woman... - :(

Originally, Criterion was supposed to release a box set featuring the same films as the BFI set. Somehow this got whittled down to only "Woman Ascending" -- with no follow up releases to date.

I would say there at least 30 Naruse films that need nice, subbed DVD releases (though I personally would prefer even more).

I suspect lots of Hara's work was expended on pretty ephemeral films. My sense is that (unlike Tanaka) she only really shined when working for a good director. (Thus, I would note that her performance in Kinoshita's Cheers for the Young Ladies was surprisingly generic).

I rented out both NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH, LATE SPRING, and THE IDIOT (while I thought it was interesting to see the director (Kurosawa) doing something different from his other films, the subject matter never quite gelled for me with this one, despite the excellent cast) and I really enjoyed the former film, mainly because it was refreshing ( and rare) to see a female protagonist as the lead in a Kurosawa film for once. I thought Hara had a strikingly lively and vivacious presence, and that she had a typical lovely '40's style-beauty. I also though that in LATE SPRING, the fact that her character wasn't all that set on getting married, was pretty interesting, because it seemed to go against the grain of most movies in general from that era in the treatment of the subject matter. Anyway, after seeing Hara in these films, looked her up (this was about 10 years ago) and there were only listings of her film back to the mid '40's which made it seem like she'd only had about a 15-year career. Recently looked her after seeing these posts--apparently she'd had about a 30-year career, which is probably one of the reasons she wanted to pull a Garbo and just disappear into a normal,quiet life. There's a couple of links to some interesting articles on IMDB about why she may have done so:

http://www.ozuyasujiro.com/resources/setsukohara.htm

and:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/...sium1.html#hara


Interesting to hear that's she's still around, though. I also liked WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS, too.

. . . I finally dug into the POSTWAR KUROSAWA set and agree that NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH (1946) is a pretty great film by this favorite director . . . Ms. Hara is reason enough to enjoy this movie (that FACE!!), but it is also full of many other visual treats - most of which, of course, seem to include her: the quick cuts as she seems strike dramatic poses standing against the door inside her room while her father tries to get her come out; the painted backdrop and obvious set as Noge's mother and Yukie bury his remains; the panning shot through the window of the store below Noge's office as Yukie walks left to right wearing one outfit, right to left wearing something else, which is repeated a few times, with changes in clothes and the weather, as the days pass and she tries to decide if she should go in to see him; and, of course, the great Soviet Cinema influenced rice planting sequences . . . this is one Kurosawa I had never seen - which also goes for the other four films in this set - so I think I have some good viewing ahead of me . . .