Sekishunchô

Kinoshita Keisuke was Shochiku's second most prestigious director, after Ozu. In terms of filmmaking, they are in many ways polar opposites. Ozu's way of crafting films is stylistically coherent, while no two Kinoshita films are exactly alike. This makes the latter's filmography a continuously interesting one, but also bumpy and qualitatively variable. In 1959, Shochiku was in crisis financially. No longer the biggest-grossing studio, but actually the fifth biggest, it was felt that the studio's core emphasis on home-dramas and warm humanism did not resonate with the post-war generation. Then again the older filmmakers like Kinoshita (47 in 1959) did not feel comfortable with the modern way of filling films with sex and violence.

"Sekishunchô" (Farewell to Spring, 1959) is the director's effort to build a bridge between the generations, his depiction of the post-war generation. Thematically and in terms of the subject, it may seem worlds apart from what is customary for the director, but not necessarily. Like his other 1959 film "Kazabana" (The Snow Flurry), the best thing about "Sekishunchô" is the beautiful color cinematography by Kusuda Hiroshi. Aesthetically this is a beautiful film to watch. Narratively, is when we run into problems. It was a big trend in Japan during the 50's to adapt literature, even difficult literature, to film. I expected this to be a literary adaptation, due to the sheer amount of characters and sub-plots almost bringing to mind Tolstoy's "War and Peace". The film is also very serious and dry, which is often the case when adapting literature. Yet this is actually an original screenplay by Kinoshita, which guides one to view it more critically. In an adaptation, you can point at something that should not be in the film, and reason that it's there because it's in the book. An original screenplay however doesn't have that excuse.

The film is about five childhood friends (Kawazu Yusuke, Tsugawa Masahiko, Kosaka Kazuya, Ishihama Akira & Yamamoto Toyozo) who meet at a small mountain village named Aizu, three years after graduating from school together. They are initially glad to meet each other after the long separation, but things quickly turn sour as they discover how much they have drifted apart. All of them have shadows looming over them, and gradually we get to know their backgrounds. It's not a bad idea to watch this film with a notebook to write down the details, and to keep track which character is which. Through this depiction, Kinoshita is going for a generational depiction, and to offer a realistic view of the problems for younger people. Apparently though, Shochiku didn't think that five new-comer actors could carry a film or make it marketable, so the big stars Sada Keiji and Arima Ineko have been added, and have a small side-plot. They are marketed as the leads of this film, but are in it only briefly.

The film has a weird feel to it, due to the way Kinoshita frames the role of tradition in the lives of these young men. There is a theme song about White Tiger Warriors who committed a group suicide centuries ago, and this song is repeatedly sung by the lead characters. If the film otherwise attempts to create a realistic, unsentimental feel to the narrative, it is destroyed by the manner in which the characters feel anachronistically old-fashioned and tradition-oriented. Kinoshita's films frequently show tradition as a burden, and this is not one of his better takes on the subject. The film feels crushingly heavy, because of the amount of narrative that is crammed in it. Yet it also feels stagnated, as the progress for individual characters seems non-existing. The amount of characters also makes them less interesting as individuals.

When it finally comes to an end, it is difficult to gather, what the intended message of the film was. So in the end, for the hit and miss director Kinoshita is, this for me is clearly a miss. (I would say that it's an interesting experiment if the film wasn't so boring.)

I loved this movie but I feel like I should caution people about it because many will probably hate it. The plot is about five friends who reunite for the first time in the two years since graduation. At first they are overjoyed to see each other but they gradually realize that they have drifted apart due to outside influences such as love, arranged marriages, and, as is often the case in old Japanese movies, money. There is also a sub-plot that serves as a counter-point about one of the boys' uncle who once eloped with a geisha. The performances are all great and the color cinematography is beautiful. What might be a stumbling block for people is the music. There is a lot of traditional music in the movie, with many songs sung by the characters, with lots of traditional dancing thrown in as well. Kinoshita also lays on the soundtrack fairly heavily near the end of the movie to heighten the drama. It comes right up to the border of overbearing, but for me, it doesn't quite cross it.

I should point out something else about the movie that most Americans (like me) won't get. The movie takes place in an area of Japan named Aizu. There is, apparently, a famous historical event that took place there about nineteen teen aged warriors who committed suicide. The tale is referenced continually throughout the movie but the full significance of the tale and its relation to the characters will probably be lost to most non-Japanese. Regardless, the movie stands up well on its own and I heartily recommend it.

Really good tale from Japan. Written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, about midway through his career. Very well done story, with several subplots. Story about students who re-unite a couple years later, and realize how much they have all changed since they last met. The recurring theme is "honor" (this is Japan, after all!) interesting dilemma near the end... is it more honorable to tell the police what one knows, or more honorable to let a friend escape before he can be caught? Another recurring theme is the story of the Fighting Tigers, who made a valiant last stand protecting their city. and they keep singing the song that tells that story. I wasn't able to find much about the actual Fighting Tigers legend, but it seems to have been an actual group of teenage warriors in the 1860s.

Japanese drama from Shochiku and writer-director Keisuke Kinoshita. Five high school friends reunite in their small home town after going their separate ways for the past few years. Each is dealing with various personal issues, including pressure from parents to marry, troubles with work, and finances. They soon discover that the years have changed some of them more than others, and their friendships are tested.

This movie is all over the place, in both quality and storytelling. Some acting is decent, particularly from Keiji Sada and Ineko Arima as star-crossed lovers who are doomed if they reunite. Unfortunately, they are more supporting characters, and all five of the lead guys aren't nearly as good. The scenario could have been tightened up and made a little more clear, and there's a plethora of cultural references that will be lost on most Western audiences. The film's widescreen, color cinematography seems wasted for much of the film, but some scenes at a sacred site are made more visually impressive by the format.

(1959) A Farewell to Spring (In Japanese with English subtitles) DRAMA

Written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita with five friends of Yasup, Akita Teshirocogi, Takuya Minemura, Makita, Masugi and Naoji Iwaguaki reunite after having not seen each other after two years from their white tiger group, formed together while they were in school. As they recanter what each of them did during their youth, realizing how much each one of them had changed during those two years, reliving their moment by singing their melody.

Watching this movie is reminiscent of a Yashiro Ozu film as it's a part of adolescence as their lives have drifted each other apart.