Japanese Girls at the Harbor

I just watched this film and it is brilliant. The story is about two schoolgirls, Sunako (an amazing Michiko Oikawa) and Dora (Yukiko Inoue) who both like Henry, who drives a motorcycle. He spends time with Sunako, but then its found out Henry has been spending time with the somewhat vampish Yoko. Sunako confronts him, then her and violence is the result. Sunako flees and becomes a prostitute, while Dora marries Henry. Sunako comes back to Yokohama and meets her former friends Dora and Henry, and wants to get out of the world she has made for herself. This film is completely silent, no music track. It is available with English subtitles, being part of a recent domestic release by Criterion films. This film has elements of lust, love, betrayal, hopelessness and regret. It lasts almost 72 minutes, but for me it could have gone on for another forty minutes and I wouldn't have minded. The relationships of the characters are simply told and rather than many fade outs which the director Mr. Shimizu used in "Masseurs And The Woman" he favors tight editing here, with little camera tricks. The story may be simply told but it is fascinating. Michiko Oikawa is so good as Sunako, her expressions are perfect and how you feel about her changes often. I don't find it difficult to follow at all. It has elements of Kenji Mizoguchi's style, but it really is a great film. Buy the box set, even for just this film, though I liked the others in the set. In my opinion, this is the best one in the set and with so many films from Japan criminally lost, this is a grateful find. It really moved me.

Fine camera work and beautiful costumes, but a rather melodramatic story. In it one love triangle is replaced with another, and the second time it's between old friends, so there's an extra level of emotional tension. I liked how the film moved itself along with decent pace, though the lack of an explanation after a shooting felt like too big a jump, and bringing back a character late in the film unnecessarily contrived, so the plotting is not particularly strong. On the other hand, moments like the jump cuts while zooming in and out during emotional scenes were fantastic, and the heartbreak of unrequited love felt genuine. Shimizu has an eye for contemplative beauty, and gives it to us in things like the ships passing in the harbor below, or the laundry hanging out on the line in the wind.

There seems to be something to the friends being played by mixed-race actresses, other character names like Henry and Yoko Sheridan reflecting intermarriage as well, and the apparel often being western, but if so, it didn't come with a moralistic message that was heavy-handed, e.g. Westernization is evil. Similarly, the film depicts "fallen" women, but it felt mostly sympathetic to them. It seemed like a cautionary tale about being virtuous amidst modernization, and it's pretty gentle about illustrating this, coming across as a humanistic work. Definitely makes me want to see more from Shimizu.

Although the movie was made in 1933, the visuals are shockingly contemporary. In some ways the streets are cleaner and in better order than the streets of present day Yokohama. Aren't we supposed to be evolving ? I don't see any sign of that in terms of beauty of the city and the behavior of the people in this movie.

I don't know much about the film's director, but I understand that he's supposed to be one of the greats of early Japanese cinema. I can see that. There's sharpness, and vivid quality to every scene. It's almost breath taking.

Some things changes while others remain timeless. I got to reevaluate my life's value after watching this movie. So many things that I thought were important now looks silly. The people in this movie have already lived it.

Great movie to put your life into perspective, and behold at how advanced it was in 1933. With a little change in clothing and furniture, it's exactly like the life we live today.

The director of this movie had an impeccable taste.

Relationships are a big part of Japanese novels, and movies, more so, in my opinion than in Hollywood, where plot drives the movies for the most part. Shimizu, Hiroshi is an artist. He is an experienced director in showing the auidence rather than telling them the enduring themes he wants to examine in the film. Lonliness and the seeking of fulfillment is one of the themes here. A second one is the technology and wealth of the society in the 1930's, part of the recovery from the Great Depression. Society is going up. Attraction by Japan toward America and Western society is another theme presented here. There is an interesting acting sytle which is partially familiar from Kabuki gestures and part of the new more natural way of behaving in front of a camera here. Shimizu is intgerested in women's lives , in the 3 movies I have watched, this one, Arigato-San, and Boss's Son goes to College. The women havee the stronger roles. Sunako is the featured woman in this movie. She has a longing for some image of happiness, which means finding a husband. She really has found someone who tgruly loves her, but she doesn't find a peace of mind until the end. There are two Japanese actors with English names, Henry, and Dora. Much of the action is in Yokohama, where 3 girls are in a Catholic? School. Shimizu likes port cities. Ports are points of contact with the outside world. The girls wish to leave their situation, but they really can't go very far, only to Kobe (another port city) . There are few chjoices for them to esxpress their potential. Though we don't know what that potential is. Instead we learn only of an emotional lonliness and restlessness. They might be children of the middle-clkass, they are turning away slowly from the traditoinal modes, and look for something to fulfill them in the Western culture...And yet, they don't have tghe means to purchasse the goods of the West. They are on the edge, and this edge is not so comvortable for any of them. I particularly like the scene in the parking lot at the dock of President Asia cruise ship. This is Sunako searching for her boy friend, who chose Yoko for the big Ball. Youth is spent chasing the new consumer cultuere that is in its childhood here. There are many scene compositions which I enjoy Shimiuzu focusing on.

...this time from director Hiroshi Shimizu. Sunako (Michiko Oikawa) is a teenage girl in the port city of Yokohama. When she discovers that her older boyfriend is seeing another woman, Sunako commits a terrible act and leaves the city. After years of drifting about, she returns to Yokohama as a bar hostess and reconnects with her old boyfriend, who has married Sunako's former best friend in the interim. Heartbreak naturally ensues.

Director Shimizu indulges in a number of camera tricks, like rapid tracking shots, fast-edit zoom ins, and having characters dissolve likes ghosts when leaving a scene. While many of these gimmicks are eye-catching, they don't do anything to add to the meager, routine plot. A distinct lack of characterization in the script makes discerning who's who a chore for the film's first half hour, which is bad in a one hour movie. The coastal scenery and some decent performances from Shochiku regulars save this from being a loss, though. (