Asunaro Monogatari

Michael Raine michael-raine
Mon Mar 22 15:57:33 EST 1999


Not having seen the film I can't be of much help, but I can tell you what
I've read about it: 

it was released in late 1955, first film directed by Horikawa Hiromichi,
who was assistant to Ichikawa Kon, Taniguchi Senkichi, and Kurosawa Akira.
Kurosawa wrote the screenplay to the film. If memory serves, Sato Tadao in
his recent history of Japanese film says it's a tale of the strong female
personalities a boy meets in the process of growing up. It seems to me that
there's a postwar string of films about devitalized male characters that
frayed in the late 50s when actors such as Ishihara Yujiro combined "nanpa"
and "koha", "nimaime" and "tateyaku" roles. As you write, it comes from a
novel by Inoue Yasushi, one of the most adapted of postwar novelists in a
cinema heavy with adaptation. According to PIA, the film is available for
purchase, though I don't know if that's still the case. 

Horikawa Hiromichi is interesting to me as one of the "pre-New Wave" new
faces in late 50s Japanese cinema, regarded along with Masumura Yasuzo,
Nakahira Ko, Okamoto Kihachi and others as one of those most likely to
reshape the film industry. He went on to make Nisshoku no natsu in 1956
from Ishihara Shintaro's screenplay and perhaps his most famous film,
Hadaka no taisho in 1958. Sato ranks this with films by Sawashima Tadashi
as introducing a  modern sensibility into the period film. For some reason,
Horikawa doesn't seem to have made that many films: does anyone know why
that is? 

I'm not sure how big a role she plays, but the film also features Okada
Mariko, daughter of famous nimaime Okada Tokihiko [I'm still interested in
the prevalence of "geino dynasties" in Japan: does anyone think they're
more prevalent in Japan than in other countries?] and future wife (and
star) of Yoshida Yoshishige. Okada has always seemed to me one of the more
interesting personalities in Japanese cinema. She apparently appeared in
the first "bed scene" in Japanese cinema (Geisha konatsu [?], 1954) and was
impressive in films such as Akitsu onsen after moving to Shochiku. She was
displaced as top star by Iwashita Shima, which seems to me indicative of
changes in ideal representations of female bodies and sexuality in the
1960s. After appearing on stage and TV, Okada made a comeback of sorts in
Itami Juzo films such as Tanpopo (she plays the "mana- sensei" who teaches
her students how to eat spaghetti!).  

I hope someone who's seen the film can tell us something less vague about
it's significance. 

Michael

At 12:44 PM 3/22/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I am wondering if anyone has any information about ASUNARO MONOGATARI. It
>seems the film was made in the late 1950s or early 1960s and is based on the
>novel by the same title by Inoue Yasushi. I would appreciate it if someone
>could direct me to info about the movie.
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Marty Holman
>***********************
>J. Martin Holman
>Japanese Studies
>Huron College
>University of Western Ontario
>London, Ontario N6G 1H3 CANADA
>Tel. (519) 438-7224  ext. 333   Fax: (519) 438-3938
>e-mail: mholman at julian.uwo.ca
>
>Japanese Studies at Huron College, UWO
>http://instruct.uwo.ca/japanese/ics-hc/
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>after August 1, 1999:
>
>Director
>International Center
>Berea College
>Berea, Kentucky   40404   e-mail: martin_holman at berea.edu
>





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