Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1954 • Japan
Starring Haruko Sugimura, Ken Uehara, Sadako Sawamura
Suffused with the sense of autumnal melancholy and nostalgia that its title suggests, LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS is one of director Mikio Naruse’s most perfectly realized works. In a rare starring role, the great Haruko Sugimura (FLOATING WEEDS, TOKYO STORY) portrays Kin, a former geisha who has parlayed her earnings from her erstwhile profession into work as a moneylender; but most of her clients are ex-colleagues of hers, and their lives are not what they once were, nor do any of them have much real chance for happiness. As in many of Naruse’s films, the focus is on the heartbreaking limitations of women’s lives as they see their opportunities constricted by the inexorable passage of time.
Up Next in Directed by Mikio Naruse
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Sound of the Mountain
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1954 • Japan
Starring Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara, So YamamuraMikio Naruse’s THE SOUND OF THE MOUNTAIN (YAMA NO OTO) was one of the director’s personal favorites among his own movies. The story concerns a woman, Kukiko (Setsuko Hara), trapped in a loveless marriage to Ot...
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Flowing
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1956 • Japan
Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko TakamineOne of director Mikio Naruse’s most sublime achievements traces the fortunes of a geisha house struggling to survive in the face of a changing society. As seen through the eyes of the establishment’s new maid (K...
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Yearning
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1964 • Japan
Starring Hideko Takamine, Yuzo Kayama, Mitsuko KusabueOne of Mikio Naruse’s supreme achievements, this transcendent melodrama weaves a heartrending story of an extended family tragedy growing out of the Second World War. The great Hideko Takamine stars as...
