Minato no Nihonmusume

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.

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 story involves two girls, Dora and Sunako, who are best friends in Yokohama. They vow never to separate, but along enters a man (with the Western name Henry). Sunako goes for him, but he's a bad guy, a gangster and a philanderer. She eventually catches him with another woman, and does something rash. In her shame, Sunako runs away only to become a geisha. Later she meets up with Dora and Henry again, now married to each other and feeling guilty for what became of Sunako. Japanese Girls at the Harbor is often a very pretty film, but I sometimes found it to be poorly made. The first half is especially confusing with Shimizu's gimmicky editing. And the transition between the big event of the first half and the second half of the film is never quite clear. I had initially thought I was confused because I watched it tired, but I watched most of the first half over again and still found it hard to put together. Plus, whenever characters who aren't one of the main three enter the film, it's always hard to understand who they are. The second half of the film is much stronger than the first, but I would still complain that Henry and Dora are never especially interesting characters. My attention was focused entirely on Sunako, and I found it hard to concentrate when she wasn't around. This is the earliest film in the Eclipse Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu box set (and the only silent film), and I've read at least one review of the set that claims that it's the weakest. Looking at the better aspects of the film, it's clear that Shimizu is a talented director. I'm confident that the other films will be better. I definitely do not recommend starting with this film if you're just renting them. Skip it all together, or at least come back to it later.

Hiroshi Shimizu is not a name that springs instantly to mind when one thinks of Japanese film directors. Although Shimizu was a contemporary of Yasujiro Ozu, both having worked at Shochiku Studios, it is Ozu whose body of work is the better known. While not for one moment does this take away from Ozu's reputation as a great film director, it does not mean that Shimizu was not also a director of equal stature. Ozu said: "I can't shoot films like Shimizu." And the great Kenji Mizoguchi once said: "People like me and Ozu get films made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius" Shimizu made some sublime films in a career that spanned the years 1924 to 1959. A four-disc box set of Shimizu's films is now available. Films included are "Mr. Thank You", "Ornamental Hairpin", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Japanese Girls at The Harbour", all with English subtitles. A few days ago I watched Shimizu's 1933 silent film, "Japanese Girls at The Harbour." Set in the port city of Yokohama, two girls, Sunako and Dora who attend a Christian school, pledge to be friends. But when a youth named Henry appears on his motorcycle and offers to take Sunako for a ride, we know that this friendship won't last and that the lives of both girls will change in ways they are barely able to comprehend, and can do little to change. "Japanese Girls at The Harbour." is a microcosm, a snapshot if you will, of Japanese society of the early 1930s, at a time when the old way of life in Japan was about to crumble before the more tempting, faster-paced life of the West. It is clear from this collection that Hiroshi Shimizu was the equal of, if not as good as, Japanese directors like Ozu and Mizoguchi in holding up a bright shining mirror to the minutiae of Japanese life.

...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. (