Kaze no Naka no Mendori (1948)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 84 minuten
Alternative title: A Hen in the Wind
Country:
Japan
Directed by: Yasujirô Ozu
Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Shūji Sano and Chieko Murata
IMDb score:
7,4 (2.248)
Releasedate: 17 September 1948
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Kaze no Naka no Mendori plot
While her husband fights at the front, a young mother has to keep her head above water. In order to save her ailing child, she prostitutes herself one evening. When her husband returns and finds out what happened, he reacts furiously and violently.
Actors and actresses
Tokiko Amamiya
Shuichi Amamiya
Akiko Ida
Kazuichiro Satake
Shoichi
Fusako Onada
Orie Noma
Hikozo Sakai
Tsune
Fusako Onoda
Reviews & comments
Collins
-
- 7502 messages
- 4469 votes
While her husband is still busy with the war and therefore absent, a young woman and mother finds herself in financial straits. She sees only one way out. That way out eases her financial pain, but she pays a high price. The film vividly depicts the woman's struggle. The scenes in which she weighs her options are particularly intense. Once the damage has been done and the burdens are momentarily lighter, the intensity of the images fades, only to relentlessly increase upon her husband's return.
The film presents a bleak picture of postwar Japanese society. It depicts the postwar depression of the Japanese nation through the plight of a single woman. The resistance and pain the woman experiences mirror the struggle of a nation. Just as the nation, mired in a terrible depression and having no choice but to endure and survive, so too does the woman fight a similar battle. Just as the nation, in its deplorable state after the war, struggles with the far-reaching aftermath of her actions, so too does the woman.
Visually, the film is a beautiful work. The backdrops against which it unfolds are depressing. The intensity with which director Yasujirô Ozu visually portrays the misery is oppressive. The film thus creates a gloomy underlying sentiment through which you experience the story. There's nothing wrong with the underlying atmosphere. What kept pulling me unpleasantly away from the intense atmosphere is the terribly melodramatic way the story is told. I simply couldn't get into it. What the film visually presents as beautiful is mercilessly undermined by the melodramatic storytelling. The setting is harsh and raw. The narrative is saccharine, overly sentimental. I couldn't quite reconcile it.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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