Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1951 • Japan
Starring Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara, Yukiko Shimazaki
A watershed work in the career of master director Mikio Naruse, REPAST marked the beginning of his extraordinary late-career renaissance. The first of a string of adaptations that Naruse would direct based on the work of feminist writer Fumiko Hayashi, REPAST stars Setsuko Hara as Michiyo, a loving wife whose five-year marriage to Hatsu (Ken Uehara) seems to be threatened by the visit of his young cousin Satako (Yukiko Shimazaki). The tension between them as her spouse seems to stray and her decision about what to do is conveyed via the supremely subtle yet intensely focused style that would become the filmmaker’s signature.
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Mother
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1952 • Japan
Starring Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyoko Kagawa, Eiji OkadaRather more upbeat (and at times even lighthearted) than the transcendentally tragic melodramas he is best known for, Mikio Naruse’s bittersweet family portrait features a quietly masterful performance from ...
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Wife
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1953 • Japan
Starring Mieko Takamine, Ken Uehara, Rentaro MikuniOne of six films that director Mikio Naruse adapted from the novels of Fumiko Hayashi, WIFE is an incisive, unsparing portrait of a decade-old marriage in the process of disintegrating. Opening and closin...
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Late Chrysanthemums
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1954 • Japan
Starring Haruko Sugimura, Ken Uehara, Sadako SawamuraSuffused 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 gr...
