Le fleuve noir

This is The Lower Depths but angry. This feels like the closest Kobayashi ever came to making a Kurosawa movie, and it's still distinctly his own. It's a look at people living in the shadow of an American military base on the eve of the American military's departure from the area, when development opportunities are opening up, and what happens to the people in the lowest rungs of society in the face of that. It's also a love-triangle. There's definitely interlapping elements between the two major storylines, both literally and thematically, but I still feel like the two could have been intertwined more intimately.

A slum area of Tokyo welcomes a new resident, the student Nishida (Fumio Watanabe). He has decided to move out here to save some money, finding a cheap place to rent run by an unscrupulous landlady (Isuzu Yamada). On his way, he meets with the pretty Shizuko (Ineko Arima), a waitress who lives in the area. She is also spied by Joe (Tatsuya Nakadai), a local gang leader who decides that he's going to have her. Nishida meets the tenants of the shack of an apartment building, including a husband whose wife he has no idea is a prostitute, a sickly man with a wife, and even some of Joe's gang. That night, Joe sends his gang out to accost Shizuko while she's alone, allowing him to put on a show of saving her from the group of six men. He then immediately rapes her. She is a good girl, though, and knows that he took possession of her. She comes to him the next day and demands that he marry her formally, a prospect that Joe laughs off while taking her on as a kept woman. This causes a rift between Shizuko and Nishida in more ways that one. They were obviously fond of each other in that stranger likes another sort of way, and she had promised to borrow a book from him. With her shame, she runs away from him instead.

Behind all of this is the landlady working with a government official to get the tenants to sign eviction notices because she wants to sell the land to the government for development. Tenant rights in Japan at the time apparently included a provision that each tenant in a tenement had to affirmatively sign off on the eviction for the sale to go through, so the landlady enlists the services of Joe and his men to get those signatures. They're happy to pay three thousand yen for a signature, but they'll commit fraud if necessary. And commit fraud they do, getting at least three fake signatures (as well as stamps, which were apparently a thing) including that of Nishida.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Shizuko and Joe continues with Shizuko obviously trapped in a situation she has no love for, living in rather constant fear, while also trying to find ways to break off just to see Nishida for a few moments whenever she can, but it never works out. He grows increasingly disgusted with the whole situation, and she grows increasingly desperate that she's losing her way out of her depression.

The final major section of the film is really centered on the love triangle while pretty much completely dropping the tenant storyline. There is something going on here that connects the two, though. It's all about how to survive in such a world. Do you keep your innocence, whatever it may be after a crime committed against you, or do you become like Joe? Well, Shizuko chooses one path, and Nishida does not want her to take it. He puts himself in danger to prevent her from doing it, but she does it on the eponymous black river (a stretch of street that is pitch black in the middle of the night). The final shot is just great, by the way. A marvelous composition of stark contrasts in both light and subject.

I think Black River is a good film overall, but the out of balance nature of the two subplots undermines the emotional throughline of Nishida, I think. The center of this film is the degrading effects of this lawless, dog eat dog environment on the people, starting with the presence of Joe and continuing into the degradation of Shizuko. The look at the tenants is another dimension of this same idea, meaning that the two subplots do tie together, but it ends up feeling like extra stuff rather than essential elements to the story. So, it's not quite two movies awkwardly stitched together, but it's close to it. It feels like Kobayashi's typical issue (I wouldn't go so far as to call it a problem) where he has what he wants to say (this time about the lawlessness of post-war Japan that tramples under the underclasses) while trying to find a story to attach to it. The story itself, the romantic trio, actually has all of the subtext that he was looking for, which is interesting in and of itself. Perhaps simply diminishing the tenants in importance while giving us more time with Nishida would have been enough to push this into the upper tier of Kobayashi's body of work.

As it is, though, Black River is the continued evolution of Kobayashi learning to say what he wants to say within a story effectively. He's never been bad at it, and he's made better films, however the strength of the love triangle element's subtext is probably the best he's done at it. The overall package is solidly good, but that love triangle represents some very good work on Kobayashi's part.

Although Masaki Kobayashi belongs to the generation after Yasujiro Ozu, he is in particular known for his triloogy about Japan during the Second World War ("The human condition" 1959 - 1961), while Ozu portrays the Japanese middle class during the years after Worldwar II. In this somewhat lesser known film Kobayashi focusses also on the postwar years. His subject is however not the middle class but people on the fringes of society. In this respect the film is more like a Mizoguchi film than like an Ozu film.

The story seems to be about a girl who has to choose between a poor student (the good guy) and a petty criminal who can afford to offer her more luxury (the bad guy). In reality the story is however much broader than this. We meet the inhabitants of an appartment complex nearby an American army compound (one of which is the aforementioned poor student). The landlord tries to throw them out of their houses so she can start a brothel. Althoug the story of the student and the the girl is predominant, we also learn something about the other inhabitants. The film takes on some elements of the ensemble film and can be compared with "Street of shame" (1956, Kenji Mizoguchi).

The image that Kobayashi presents of the Japanese society is not a favourable one. The American occupiers do not have a positive influence. On numerous occasions a jet fighter is flying over causing an immense roar, just to make clear how annoying the presence of American soldiers realy is. The question is how fair this kind of framing is. To be sure the American soldiers without any doubt are responsible for the demand for prostitutes. The supply of these prostitutes and the real estate corruption that surrounds the establishment of the brothel are however of a Japanese making.

Japanese drama from Shochiku and director Masaki Kobayashi. The story follows civil engineering student Nishida (Fumio Watanabe) as he moves into a slum apartment building near a U. S. army base. His fellow tenants struggle to survive by doing all sorts of unsavory things, while Nishida simply tries to keep his head down, concentrating on his studies, and staying out of trouble. Things get complicated when he falls for nice-girl waitress Shizuko (Ineko Arima), who has also caught the eye of young gang leader Killer Joe (Tatsuya Nakadai).

Director Kobayashi's film is meant as an indictment on post-war Japanese decadence and corruption, with a very critical eye toward the continuing U. S. military presence. Various concessions made for the comfort and convenience of the troops lead to poverty and squalor for the neighboring Japanese citizens, many of whom turn to petty crime and prostitution for survival. I think the director's message gets lost a bit in the love triangle, though. Watanabe makes for a passable lead, while Arima turns in another good turn, although not as impressive as that in Tokyo Twilight, which I watched yesterday. The real star is Nakadai, one of my favorite Japanese actors, here in his breakthrough role. He's menacing and compelling, while also imbuing what could have been a one-note psycho-thug with some depth and nuance. The film features excellent, moody cinematography, and the oppressive heat of the summer season is depicted very well.

The story is set around an American Air Force base which has attracted bars and brothels and the native Japanese who need this sordid world to scape by and make money to just barely survive. A love triangle develops among the dwellers of a falling down apartment building and a local gangster called Killer Joe.

It's a fascinating slice of life with engaging vivid seedy characters, these type of shanty towns always develop around military bases, I can't think of any other films I've seen that take place there. It's a rare look into the postwar lower middle class and lower end criminal element in Japan. Fast moving and convincing well worth watching if you can find it. Memorable ending and last image to a memorable film.

From that beautiful classic rumble like music they blare frequently, to the cast sporting unique bright clothing in high contrast to the dark or black backgrounds that often inhabit the screen, the look and feel of this film is true noir, fantastic cinematography, and a dark themed plot.

Complete with romance, gang violence, a slumbers handing out evictions, and a love triangle. . Id call the plot original. And enthralling, in plain terms.

I put this up against classics like M, Chinatown, the Crimson Kimono.