#Yoshiko Kuga

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Farewell to Dream (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1956)

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YOSHIKO KUGA as AYAKO (Aglaya Ivanovna) in THE IDIOT / 白痴 (1951) dir. Akira Kurosawa

[moviesiveseenandwanttoremember]

Akira Kurosawa’s “白痴” (The Idiot) May 23, 1951.

[shihlun]

Kinuyo Tanaka

- Love Letter

1954

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In Memory of Yoshiko Kuga, Actress Yoshiko Kuga and Yasujiro Ozu. Photo by Ken Domon

追悼　久我美子さん（女優） 久我美子と小津安二郎 撮影：土門拳

[dare-g]

Zero Focus (1961)

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SUBLIME CINEMA #648 - GOOD MORNING

Ozu’s films were characterized by the relentless use of 50mm lenses and what cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta referred to as ‘tatami shots’ -  table level static angles of domestic scenes, meticulously composed and coordinated by tone, shape and color. The angle and lack of movement have a flattening effect onto the image; Ozu’s films often look like unsettlingly symmetrical print work. 

The narratives puzzle together in similar ways: circuitous tapestries of the private lives of ordinary people, stories that are profoundly observant and gently emotional. 

[davidhudson]

Happy 93rd, Yoshiko Kuga.

With Tomoemon Otani in Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Woman in the Rumor (1954).

[falsenote]

[absencesrepetees]

woman of rumour (kenji mizoguchi, 1954)

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Farewell to Dream (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1956)

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W A T C H I N G

[byneddiedingo]

Ineko Arima, Fujiko Yamamoto, and Yoshiko Kuga in Equinox Flower (Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)

Cast: Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima, Yoshiko Kuga, Keiji Sada, Teiji Takahashi, Miyuki Kuwano, Chishu Ryu, Chieko Naniwa, Fujiko Yamamoto. Screenplay: Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Noda, based on a story by Ton Satomi. Cinematography: Yuharu Atsuta. Art direction: Tatsuo Hamada. Film editing: Yoshiyasu Hamamura. Music: Takanobu Saito.

Equinox Flower is Yasujiro Ozu's first color film. Once again he lagged behind film industry trends -- the first color film in Japan was made in 1951 -- and managed to anger the Japanese film industry by using the German-made Agfa color process instead of Fuji film because he thought the reds in Agfa film were truer. American viewers may be struck by how the movie often seems to be a Japanese translation of the American family comedy: think Father of the Bride (Vincente Minnelli, 1950). It centers on Wataru Hirayama (Shin Saburi), who finds his wife and daughters scheming against him when he insists on arranging the marriage of his elder daughter, Setsuko (Ineko Arima). When a young man he has never met before, Masahiko Taniguchi (Keiji Sada), comes to his office one day to ask for Setsuko's hand, Hirayama is furious, and not only forbids the marriage but also insists that Setsuko, who has met Taniguchi at the place where she works, be confined to home. Eventually, things work out for the young couple, but not before Hirayama has learned a lesson about the way the roles of the sexes have changed in Japan. In fact, when we first see Hirayama, he is giving a speech at a wedding, indicating his preference for parental approval and noting that even though their own marriage had been arranged, he and his wife, Kiyoko (Kinuyo Tanaka), who is sitting silently beside him, made a go of it. We will soon learn that Kiyoko is not quite so submissive as she seems. The bite that underlies this quite charming comedy lies in its portrayal of the post-war Japanese male, the warrior turned salaryman, most effectively seen in an episode in which Hirayama, after reluctantly attending the wedding of Setsuko and Taniguchi, goes to a reunion of his old classmates, who sing songs about the glory of the Japanese warrior though their own lives consist of office work and golf.

[shihlun]

Yoshitaro Nomura

- Zero Focus

1961

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[lairreparablefugadeltiempo]

Haru no mezame (Naruse Mikio, 1947)