[KineJapan] greatest cast in a film I never heard of until now!

Fri Jan 26 08:13:52 EST 2024

Indeed, thank you Maria Jose for taking the time to write such a detailed response!

David

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 26, 2024, at 6:55 AM, Maria Jose Gonzalez via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

It has also been shown on telly.
I will ask my Eiga Tomos see if someone has a DVD and I can refresh my memory.
;-)
The film was a collection of stories from the book, scripted by Tanaka Sumie, and it felt slightly overwhelming. Of course, one of the main motors of the film is having such a powerful cast, to which I would add the prison itself, since the film was shot on the real location.
A scene with Tanaka and Hara overlooking the corridor with prison cells from above stays in my mind.

On Friday, 26 January 2024 at 08:31:48 PM GMT+9, Roger Macy via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

Thank you, María José.

Sadly, I have not seen a single film by Hisamatsu.

Keiko McDonald gives a few pages in ‘From Book to Screen’ to Hisamatsu’s treatment of some other women writers during this period (pp55-9).

Time for a travelling retrospective, ‘Hidden treasures of Japan’s Golden Age’ ??

Roger

On Friday, 26 January 2024 at 04:36:04 GMT, Maria Jose Gonzalez via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

In recent years this film has been shown several times at retrospectives related to any of the numerous and famous cast.
I even have the 台本 somewhere in my collection.
I first saw it in the Takarazuka Film Festival many years ago and then twice more.
There is an incredible amount of films from that period relatively or completely unknown abroad, some of them truly interesting, as the Shintoho Cinema Nostalgia DVD series has been proving.
The film is based on the autobiography of Mita Tsuneko, the first female warden of a prison in Japan who worked to improve the treatment and rehabilitation of female prisoners in Wakayama's Women Prison as part of GHQ's efforts to allow more women into the management of prisons.
The book was published in 1955, just one year before Hisamatsu's work.
Kinuyo Tanaka plays a somehow subdued warden. It's easy to get the impression that Toho wanted to put as many famous faces on the poster as possible as a reclaim. This was her fourth film that year (out of a total of six!) and somehow, as far as I can recall, that shows. Even Hara gives the same impression.
The weight and interest of the film really falls onto the prisoners, each with very difficult backgrounds and criminal records. There are some good performances overall, some over the top.
Sadly, the ending reflects once more that the only socially acceptable salvation for these women is marriage.

María José González Muñoz
Kwansei Gakuin University
Center for International Education and Cooperation (CIEC)
Nishinomiya, Japan

On Friday, 26 January 2024 at 11:59:06 AM GMT+9, Shane Robinson via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

Really interesting reading about that film, I found quite a few stills and pamphlets on sites like Yahoo Auctions Japan. It was shown on the Japanese Movie Channel in April 2017 (https://x.com/nihoneiga/status/851698881108824064<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://x.com/nihoneiga/status/851698881108824064__;!!DZ3fjg!9wMbxTV3MqY7mzAYTApnjN71WrqKPYjiE6osO3zp1ul0Jcptocg0P-djHesNNFRuKangNqg53L_xkvmcko_hl8hNRUg$>). I'm not familiar with him, but a Twitter user by the name of Ken Shimomura seems to have information that the prints were "junked" by Toho (https://x.com/Shimo_x2/status/1622444741093883904<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://x.com/Shimo_x2/status/1622444741093883904__;!!DZ3fjg!9wMbxTV3MqY7mzAYTApnjN71WrqKPYjiE6osO3zp1ul0Jcptocg0P-djHesNNFRuKangNqg53L_xkvmcko_h2KzztN8$>). This seems to be their area of expertise, so while I wouldn't take it as fact, it seems like reliable information. Does anybody know this person?

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Today's Topics:

   1. greatest cast in a film I never heard of until now!
      (Desser, David M)
   2. Re: greatest cast in a film I never heard of until now!
      (Gerow Aaron)

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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2024 23:22:14 +0000
From: "Desser, David M" <desser at illinois.edu<mailto:desser at illinois.edu>>
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: [KineJapan] greatest cast in a film I never heard of until
        now!
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Has anyone heard of, let alone seen, the following film? It has one of the greatest casts in all of Japanese film history, I guess!

Joshu to tomo ni (Hisamatsu Seiji, 1956)

with:

Hara Setsuko

Tanaka Kinuyo

Kogure Michiyo

Kagawa Kyoko

Kuga Yoshiko

Okada Mariko

Awaji Keiko

Yoko Tani (a forgotten figure of film history!)

David Desser
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:41:51 -0500
From: Gerow Aaron <aaron.gerow at yale.edu<mailto:aaron.gerow at yale.edu>>
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] greatest cast in a film I never heard of
        until now!
Message-ID: <6C1EF29F-9E84-4DD8-B651-EE85E81A29CE at yale.edu<mailto:6C1EF29F-9E84-4DD8-B651-EE85E81A29CE at yale.edu>>
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Wow, a women?s prison film with Tanaka Kinuyo as the warden and Kuga Yoshiko (who in real life was the daughter of a marquis) as a prisoner!

I haven?t seen it, but it doesn?t seem to be easy to find. The NFAJ does not have it and it is not out on DVD. SkyPerfect doesn't seemed to have shown it. But it has been screened at a rep house before:

https://www.shogakukan.co.jp/jinbocho-theater/program/women_list.html#movie09<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.shogakukan.co.jp/jinbocho-theater/program/women_list.html*movie09__;Iw!!DZ3fjg!9wMbxTV3MqY7mzAYTApnjN71WrqKPYjiE6osO3zp1ul0Jcptocg0P-djHesNNFRuKangNqg53L_xkvmcko_h-7fjK68$>

Aaron Gerow

> 1/25/24 ??6:22?Desser, David M via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>????:
>
> Has anyone heard of, let alone seen, the following film? It has one of the greatest casts in all of Japanese film history, I guess!
>
> Joshu to tomo ni (Hisamatsu Seiji, 1956)
> with:
> Hara Setsuko
> Tanaka Kinuyo
> Kogure Michiyo
> Kagawa Kyoko
> Kuga Yoshiko
> Okada Mariko
> Awaji Keiko
> Yoko Tani (a forgotten figure of film history!)
>
> David Desser
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu> <mailto:KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
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