Ai to kibô no machi

Pretty good study of class division in Japan, circa 1959. I was especially pleased that the film's title turns out to be ironic. Less pleased with the general air of stolidity and humorlessness that you often find in Japanese art house cinema (Ozu notably excepted). Could have used more of the sardonic female shoeshine workers and less of the extremely dull love story sub plot involving the dedicated high school teacher, a character on whom you can usually count in films to be a bore, and the young CEO. B minus.

Hiroshi Fujikawa has a scam of selling his sister's pet pigeons, knowing they will fly back if they get the chance. He's done it before and expects to do it again. His family is desperately poor. His mother is a shoe shine, but is sick and cannot work, and welfare does not pay enough for them to live on. His mother wants him to go to high school, and his teacher, Kakuko Chino, understands her desire and their plight.

Fujikawa has sold the pigeons this time to Yuki Tominaga. Her younger brother is sick, and never likes the gifts she brings, When Miss Chino finds out about the pigeon scam, she explains to Miss Tominaga, who tries to get Fujikawa a job at her father's company. Her elder brother, Fumio Watanabe, begins a courtship with Miss Chino.

Nagisa Ôshima's first movie as a director is an overt and strident study of class warfare in the new Japan of rich businessmen and the poverty stricken. set in the industrial sections of Tokyo. Although I thought the ending a bit over the top, it's a cleanly written and performed movie with something to say.

I caught this on TCM in December of 2021. Researching the film online proved frustrating. The title has several translations, including Street of Hope and Love. According to trivia, the director wanted to title the film The Boy Who Sold His Pigeon but was overruled by the film studio's executives.

Don't let its taut running time fool you: this film contains multiple layers of thought-provoking elements in a small package. It's well written. The cast does a fine job. The direction is very good, as is the cinematography and art direction, especially the location scouting. If I were to make one critique, it would be that the music didn't particularly seem fitting at times.

The basic story is about a teenage girl from a wealthy family who wants to help a poor boy by hooking him up with a job opportunity. To describe more would be to give away spoilers. It's important to know up front that it's not an uplifting film. One bit of trivia I learned, assuming it's true, is that the studio suspended the director for six months once they learned the movie was not the feel-good family film they were expecting.