Naruse's "Okaasan" (E+J)

[Aaron Gerow]

Birgit Kellner asked,

>I've seen _Okaasan_ yesterday, but did not notice any of the upside-down
>scenes described in this paragraph, though, having read about them
>beforehand, I was attentively looking. Could it be possible that what I
>saw was a reedited print? (length was 98 min.) 

I certainly don't recall such upside down scenes when I saw it, but you 
might want to look up some of the recent publications on Naruse.  Until 
recently, there was little written on Naruse in Japan, but the last few 
years have seen a spate of retros and publications (possibly prompted by 
foreign attention to Naruse).

Sorry for including it in Japanese, but here are some of the recent books 
on Naruse in Japanese:

????? : ?????????????? / ????[??]?. -- ??
     ??????, 1995. -- (????)

???????? : ????????? / ???, ?????. -- ???
     ?, 1990. -- (???????? ; 7)

???????? : ?????????? / ????. -- ?????, 1997

The first book includes an extensive filmography with notes on all of his 
films, so that might discuss the issue.

Also, there is Kinema Club's own Susanne Schermann's new book on Naruse 
(in Japanese) which just came out.  I don't have the title in front of me 
now, but it is an extensive and thorough analysis of his major films, so 
I'm sure it would discuss this issue.

Aaron Gerow
YNU