Mikio Naruse Collection [1955] [DVD]

LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS / EVENING CHRYSANTHEMUMS (Lit.) (BANGIKU). Life And Times In A Geisha Retirement Community.Rating = ***Director: Mikio NaruseProducer: Sanezumi FujimotoStreaming1954Film = three (3) stars; restoration/preservation = three (3) stars; cinematography = three (3) stars; subtitles = barely three (3) stars; music = two (2) stars. Director Mikio Naruse's very talkative examination of geisha retirement and the lack of planning therefore--something apparently badly needed in geisha-house training processes following WW II! Naruse's nuance-filled photoplay is a tight, insightful, and often amusing mostly understated drama about socioeconomic discrimination encountered by former geisha. It is also a showcase for veteran actress Haruko Sugimura (playing a hard-nosed business women) who is surrounded by an excellent cast of character actresses. Not so much for character actors who deliver, at best, marginal performances. (Using "chrysanthemum" in the film's title is, perhaps, not the best choice of a metaphor, as this is a major symbolic blossom in Japanese culture [along with, of course, sakura---the cherry blossom] and often used in movie names causing no little confusion!) Restoration/preservation is okay except for audio artifacts where reels seem to have been spliced together. Cinematography (narrow screen, black & white) is fine, but poor lighting occurs in some scenes. Subtitles are a bit overly literary and can flash by too fast. Signs are translated. Music is minimalistic and consists of a sequence of solitary instruments (some Japanese, some Western). Use of a percussion instrument here and there is a bit jarring/distracting. Otherwise, the "score" stays in the background. Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

This set contains three films of the first order, by any standards. The settings are early post-war Japan, but the themes are universal. A truly great actress, Takamine Hideko, appears in two of the films, "When A Woman Ascends The Stairs" (about a bar madam trying to chart a life for herself as she gets older) and "Floating Clouds", an adaptation of the Hayashi Fumiko novel of the same name (about the relationship between a man and a woman, begun in occupied Indo-China during the war and carried on into occupied Japan). "Floating Clouds" is possibly the best of this great trio from Naruse's creative peak in the mid-1950s.The DVDs include, as extras, a useful interview with a former assistant to Naruse, as well as a couple of Western critics giving their takes on the films. You may agree or disagree with what they have to say, but their comments can be useful for stimulating a discussion. (Unfortunately, they sometimes show a poor understanding of who is who and what is what; for example, when the male lead in "Floating Clouds" is mistakenly described as having been a wartime military officer - in fact, he was a government bureaucrat.) The quality of the reproductions is good, on the whole, although the prints from which the transfers were made have not been restored and show some wear and tear. This, however, is not a major detraction.These are films about relationships. The dynamics that attract and repel the various characters are subtly and authentically held in control by the director; the viewer is intrigued, sometimes puzzled, but never trifled with or bamboozled. There are clues laid carefully to enable an understanding, without ever forcing one. The directorial presence is completely unobtrusive. The cinematography and editing are also superb.Immerse yourself and be provoked. There are not many better DVD sets out there.

Naruse is lesser known in the West than Mizoguchi, Kurosawa & Ozu however his style is so unique that when you fall in love with this style you cannot get enough of his movies. Next to the OOP Naruse MoC 3DVD box and the sheer beautiful book The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity true killer must haves for every Japanophile. Highest possible recommendation.