Mother (Okaasan)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Written by Yôko Mizuki
1952/Japan
Shintoho Film Distribution Committee
First viewing/Hulu
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. — Abraham Lincoln
This is a moving tribute to mothers struggling to keep their families together amidst the hardships of postwar Japan.
The Fukuhara family consists of mother, father, a grown son who is confined to bed by “exhaustion”, a teenage daughter, a grade school age daughter, and the young son of the mother’s sister, a widow who is studying to be a hair dresser. The story is narrated by the teenage daughter and mother is played by Kinuyo Tanaka, looking much changed from her great performance in The Life of Oharu this same year.
Hardship is never far from this family but there are plenty of lighter moments as well. This is more or less a glimpse of daily life as the family tries to make a go of a laundry business. Mother soldiers on as she loses first her son and then her husband. Finally, after her husband’s death, she decides to allow his brother to adopt the youngest girl. Nevertheless, the love between all these people is palpable.
I really liked this movie. This is the closest I have seen Naruse get to the light touch one finds in Ozu’s films. The children are pretty great and provide much of the humor. The story is moving without ever once succumbing to melodrama. Recommended.
Clip (Spanish subtitles)
Thanks, I’ll chase this one up, sounds good.
To return the favor of your excellent reviews can I suggest, if you can get a hold of it, from the same country and with the same title (hint do not read the 2 comments on IMDB before viewing as a bit spoilerish, by all means after watching as both are intelligently written)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1632065/
This is pretty much in my top 3 series, grabbed me from the start and wouldn’t let go. The child actor is nigh perfect (to my inexperienced eye) but everyone does a top job acting wise. Liked the idea of balance in that the villain get’s a chance to tell her story in one episode also. Loved it and cannot understand why it seems to be relatively ignored.
This sounds good. Will have to do some research. There’s a very nice Japanese movie from 2008 that deals with the same themes as this one only during WWII that I can recommend called Kabei: Our Mother: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0855852/combined
Goodie goodie gumdrops, from the gent who was involved in the excellent movie The Twilight Samurai….it is added to the watch list. Thanks heaps.
I hope you like it. You don’t really think about the political prisoners in pre-War Japan and the hardships faced by dissenters. It kind of opened my eyes.