Japan Society, Metrograph Partner on 30-Film Retrospective of Japanese Master Mikio Naruse

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The Japan Society and Metrograph are joining forces to share an exceptional 30-film series, titled “Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us,” which celebrates one of the “four great” masters of Japanese cinema. This collaborative event with the Japan Foundation, New York is a significant milestone, marking the first comprehensive survey of Naruse’s work in New York in two decades. It honors the 120th anniversary of his birth and will feature films shown on rare prints from Japanese collections and archives.

Highlights of this series include all six adaptations of renowned feminist author Fumiko Hayashi’s works, such as “Floating Clouds,” “Repast,” “Lightning,” “Wife,” “Late Chrysanthemums,” and “A Wanderer’s Notebook.” Additionally, the series will showcase some of Naruse’s scarcest films, including three pre-war masterpieces that have never been screened in New York before: “Morning’s Tree-Lined Street,” “A Woman’s Sorrows,” and “Sincerity.

Mikio Naruse, whose body of work covers almost four decades and includes 89 films (with 68 still intact), started his career at the prominent Japanese studio Shochiku. However, feeling stifled by the lack of opportunities compared to their star director Yasujiro Ozu, he left Shochiku to join a newly established company called P.C.L., now recognized globally as Toho. Notably, one of Naruse’s former assistants, Akira Kurosawa, gained international recognition through Toho, and once said about his mentor: “Mikio Naruse’s style is like a tranquil river on the surface, but beneath it runs a powerful current.

As a gamer delving into the world of Japanese cinema, I find myself captivated by the works of Mikio Naruse, a contemporary and peer of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirō Ozu. His melodramas, marked by their subtle style and unwavering observation of reality, particularly those that explored the lives and social standings of women in modern Japan within the genre known as shoshimin eiga, have earned him admiration from both his peers and critics.

Starting with his early sound masterpiece Wife! Be Like a Rose! (1935), Naruse established himself as a director revered by actresses, guiding many of the era’s most iconic performers to their greatest screen performances. From the pre-war stars like Sachiko Chiba (the lead in Be Like a Rose! and Naruse’s former wife), Takako Irie (A Woman’s Sorrows), and Isuzu Yamada (Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro) to the post-war divas like Setsuko Hara (Repast, Sound of the Mountain) and Kinuyo Tanaka (Mother), Haruko Sugimura (Late Chrysanthemums), Yoko Tsukasa (Scattered Clouds), and Hideko Takamine, with whom he collaborated 17 times, most notably on four of his Golden Age masterpieces: Lightning, Floating Clouds, Flowing and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.

As a die-hard admirer, I can’t help but be baffled by the enigmatic director whose silent demeanor frequently left my peers scratching their heads. His reluctance to clarify his directorial vision only added to the mystique surrounding him.

Tatsuya Nakadai, known for films like ‘Samurai Rebellion’ and ‘Kwaidan’, once remarked that the director he found most challenging to work with was a silent one, displaying a distinct lack of interest in life.

As a devoted admirer, I can’t help but acknowledge the enigmatic nature of Naruse, yet beneath this facade, a profoundly egalitarian and progressive spirit thrived. He boldly refused to be addressed as a teacher and championed Tanaka, whom he mentored for two months, in her pursuit of film directing. A man harboring quiet fury, Naruse tirelessly strived to elevate his family above the clutches of poverty. His legacy, marked by stoicism and unyielding determination, has echoed powerfully through generations of filmmakers, from Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien to the esteemed Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who eventually claimed an Oscar.

In his early years, Naruse expressed a belief that our world often disappoints or deceives us. This idea has stayed with him throughout his life.

Beginning on May 9th, Japan Society will showcase Mikio Naruse’s uncontested masterpiece, “Floating Clouds”, as part of the series titled, “Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us – Part I“, which continues until May 31st, wrapping up with his heart-wrenching late work, “Yearning” (1964). Notably, Naruse scholar Catherine Russell, author of “The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity“, will deliver a lecture at Japan Society on May 31st. The sequel, “Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us – Part II“, commences at Metrograph on June 5th with Naruse’s most renowned film, “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs” (1960), and concludes on June 29th with his final work, “Scattered Clouds” (1967).

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2025-04-10 15:24