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Within the framework of Mikio Naruse‘s postwar productions, “Sound of the Mountain” stands as a cornerstone of his mature period, marking a departure from the experimental camera movements and comedic elements of his Shochiku days toward a more austere exploration of the human condition. Here, the lens becomes a discreet yet truthful observer.

Sincerity is screening at Metrograph as part of the Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us program

Whether at home or at work, Shingo Ogata (So Yamamura) knows no peace. His son Shuichi (Ken Uehara) mistreats his wife Kikuko (Setsuko Hara) and jeopardizes the family business through an affair. Meanwhile, the marriage of Shingo’s daughter Fusako (Chieko Nakakita) is falling apart, prompting her return to the parental home. Seeking to restore order, Shingo enlists the help of his secretary (Yōko Sugi) to uncover the identity of Shuichi’s lover. But the discovery reveals not just infidelity...

Japanese Girls at the Harbor.In 1924, Hiroshi Shimizu, the 21-year-old son of a wealthy businessman, dropped his studies at an agricultural school in Hokkaido and moved to Tokyo to pursue his interest in filmmaking. The Japanese industry was in a state of flux, moving away from the jidaigeki, or period dramas, and towards gendaigeki, films about contemporary life: slapstick, romantic, and sport-themed comedies; crime films; and its trademark, shōshimin-eiga, social dramas concerned with working and middle class life.One of the major forces of this change was Shochiku, the studio where Shimizu landed a job, first as an assistant director, and then in 1925 as a full-fledged director. Under the leadership of Shiro Kido, an ambitious young executive, Shochiku was establishing itself as a distinctly modern film studio within a major metropolis. Tokyo was in the midst of a growth spurt, with urban sprawl accelerating and multitudes of people migrating from the countryside.

This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels, Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner).

This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.

The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.

So here’s Film History 101.

In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.

In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.

However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.

Has another photo existed with so many great filmmakers in one shot? This was taken in 1936 on the occation of the creation of the Japan Film Directors Society.

Front row, from left:

Teinosuke Kinugasa (1896-1982)

Yoshinobu Ikeda (1892-1973)

Sadao Yamanaka (1909-1938)

Mansaku Itami (1900-1946)

Heinosuke Gosho (1902-1981)

Minoru Murata (1894-1937)

Shigeyoshi Suzuki (1900-1976)

Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956)

Second row, from left:

Tomotaka Tasaka (1902-1974)

Yasujiro Shimazu (1897-1945)

Hiroshi Shimizu (1903-1966)

Yutaka Abe (1895-1977)

Kiyohiko Ushihara (1897-1985)

Kajiro Yamamoto (1902-1974)

Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963)

Tomu Uchida (1898-1970)

Third row, from left:

Mikio Naruse (1905-1969)

Kintaro Inoue (1901-1954)

(Via Vermillion and One Nights.)...

"Actor Ryo Ikebe died of sepsis at a Tokyo hospital on October 8," reports Tokyograph News. "He was 92."

For Variety, Mark Schilling notes that Ikebe originally intended to become a director for the Toho studio. "His soft-featured, city-bred good looks drew the attention of Toho helmer Yasujiro Shimazu, who cast Ikebe in the 1941 pic Fighting Fish (Togyo)." Following World War II, "Ikebe moved from young leading man roles to a wider range of parts, such as the elite bureaucrat who falls into self-destructive dissipation in Minoru Shibuya's Modern Man (Gendaijin, 1952) and the cheating businessman in a troubled marriage in Yasujiro Ozu's Early Spring (Soshun, 1956)." He then rode the Japanese New Wave, "starring as an ex-con who takes up with a fast-living younger women in Masahiro Shinoda's seminal gangster pic Pale Flower (Kawaita Hana, 1964)," which, of course, has just screened in the Shinoda Masterworks series at this year's New York Film Festival.

Above: Yasujiro Shimazu's 1937 film, The Lights of Asakusa.

Arriving for the last few days of this year’s Berlinale, at first I thought my being late to the party was why I didn’t find any new films that blew me away (as opposed to last year’s stellar yield of Everyone Else, By Comparison, Beeswax, and The Milk of Sorrow). But reports of the first week, such as those of fellow Auteurs correspondents, led me to believe that I hadn’t missed that much, what with World on a Wire, a restored 1973 Fassbinder TV miniseries, drumming up the most critical excitement.

Germany’s present-day cinema made a strong showing, with Angela Shanalec’s Orly and Thomas Arslan’s Im Schatten (In the Shadows) drawing raves on this site and elsewhere. I was able to catch up with the Arslan and if anything, it’s an incredibly pleasurable film to watch,...

Above: Yasujiro Shimazu's 1937 film, The Lights of Asakusa.

Arriving for the last few days of this year’s Berlinale, at first I thought my being late to the party was why I didn’t find any new films that blew me away (as opposed to last year’s stellar yield of Everyone Else, By Comparison, Beeswax, and The Milk of Sorrow). But reports of the first week, such as those of fellow Auteurs correspondents, led me to believe that I hadn’t missed that much, what with World on a Wire, a restored 1973 Fassbinder TV miniseries, drumming up the most critical excitement.

Germany’s present-day cinema made a strong showing, with Angela Shanalec’s Orly and Thomas Arslan’s Im Schatten (In the Shadows) drawing raves on this site and elsewhere. I was able to catch up with the Arslan and if anything, it’s an incredibly pleasurable film to watch,...