American Cinematheque is presenting a retrospective of films by director Mikio Naruse (1905-1969) at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; and Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica.
• Friday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. at Egyptian Theatre: “Every-Night Dreams” (1933, 65 minutes). In the dockside neighborhoods of Tokyo, a single mother works tirelessly as a Ginza bar hostess to ensure a better life for her young son — until her long-lost husband returns. Japanese title: 夜ごとの夢 (Yogoto no Yume)
“Apart from You” (1933, 60 minutes). Naruse turns his camera on the lives of working women, which he would continue to do throughout his long career. In this gently devastating drama, a critical breakthrough for the director, he contrasts the life of an aging geisha, whose angry teenage son is ashamed of her profession, with that of her youthful counterpart, a lovely young girl resentful of her family for forcing her into a life of ignominy. Japanese title: 君と別れて (Kimi to Wakarete)
Both screenings will feature a live performance by benshi Ichiro Kataoka and pianist Makia Matsumura. During the silent film era, benshi provided dramatic voices for characters and narrated plot points.
$17 members, $22 general
• Saturday, Feb. 28, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “Brother and Sister” (1953, 87 minutes). A financially precarious family unravels when the eldest daughter, Mon (Machiko Kyō, in her only collaboration with Naruse), returns home after an unexpected pregnancy. Her brother Inokichi (Masayuki Mori) is consumed by rage over what he sees as bringing disgrace to the family, while their parents worry that a scandal — a constant threat with gossipy neighbors all around — could thwart the younger sister San’s (Yoshiko Kuga) chances for a suitable marriage. To complicate things, there is an uneasy suggestion that Inokichi’s fury stems from more than just brotherly concern. Japanese title: あにいもうと (Ani Imōto)
$10 members, $15 general
• Saturday, March 7, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “Avalanche” (1937, 59 minutes). Scripted in collaboration with Marxist intellectual Murayama Tomoyoshi, this film was a critical disaster; Naruse himself later called this merry-go-round of wily patrician courtship a failure, while assistant directors Akira Kurosawa and Ishiro Honda Ishiro rarely mentioned their involvement.
“Avalanche” is by no means the auteur’s supreme visual accomplishment, yet this mini-drama is striking in its liberal use of flashbacks, superimposition and thoughtful interior monologue. A semi-translucent tinted screen descends over the image every time a character enters subjective rumination, with dissolves and double exposures serving as two more inventive techniques with which Naruse effectively communicates idiosyncratic states of mind. Japanese title: 雪崩 (Nadare)
$10 members, $15 general
• Saturday, March 14, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts” (1935, 75 minutes). Based on the short story “The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa” by Yasunari Kawabata, Naruse’s first sound film vibrantly captures the social fabric of Asakusa, Japan’s largest entertainment district at the time, with musical flair and tenderness. Inspired by the visual storytelling of the silent film era, Naruse builds tension with nuanced sound design and inventive camerawork, vividly tracing the sisters’ distinct emotional arcs.
A poignant exploration of women’s roles and lives in 1930s Japan and a heartfelt portrait of three siblings choosing survival, sacrifice and the bonds that hold them together. Japanese title: 乙女ごころ三人姉妹 (Otome-gokoro Sannin Shimai)
$10 members, $15 general
• Saturday, March 21, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “The Thin Line” (1966, 102 minutes). Two friends meet in a bar. Later that night, one friend’s flirtatious wife is reportedly in an accident. The other friend doesn’t feel well. What’s come over him? Japanese title: 女の中にいる他人 (Onna no Naka ni Iru Tanin or The Stranger Within a Woman)
$10 members, $15 general
• Saturday, March 28, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “A Wanderer’s Notebook” (1962, 123 minutes). Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, a novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, this film traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid) and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture. Japanese title: 放浪記 (Hōrōki)
$10 members, $15 general
• Friday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m. at Aero Theatre: “Floating Clouds” (1955, 124 minutes). Entrenched in the devastating reality of postwar Japan, Naruse’s masterpiece adapts Fumiko Hayashi’s final completed novel to trace the lives of two repatriated lovers reunited in the ruins of a defeated nation. The wartime affair of Tomioka (Masayuki Mori), a married Forestry Ministry officer, and typist Yukiko (Hideko Takamine) continues in the postwar rubble, but their bleak existence pales against the faraway romance that took place in French Indochina.
Reluctant to leave his wife, the lecherous Tomioka comes and goes at his leisure to visit Yukiko, who clings to him desperately, propping up the vestiges of their long-lost passion over the course of years. Takamine’s heartbreaking performance is perhaps her finest hour, a role of sheer emotional magnitude that bears an agonizing love, drawn from the fading memory of what once was. Japanese title: 浮雲 (Ukigumo)
$12 members, $17 general
• Saturday, April 4, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “Moment of Terror” (1966, 100 minutes). A child is killed in a hit-and-run. The mother plots her revenge by posing as a maid in the house of the murderer. Japanese title: ひき逃げ (Hikinige or Hit and Run)
$10 members, $15 general
• Thursday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Aero Theatre: “Repast” (1951, 93 minutes). Michiyo lives in Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and clean for her husband. Japanese title: めし (Meshi)
“Lightning” (1952, 87 minutes): Facing pressures to marry and having witnessed her two sisters’ own marital struggles, sightseeing bus guide Kiyoko (Hideko Takamine) strives for her own solitary independence, resisting suitors and openly expressing a disdain for men. Through a family of four siblings, each from different fathers, Naruse explores the suffocating family life of Kiyoko’s Shitamachi (Old Tokyo) household and its surroundings.
The film is a buildup of vignettes, events and occurrences, as Kiyo experiences the world around her — misfortune, family tragedy, interpersonal quarrels and the vulgarities of men — trying to make sense of a modern existence where the promise of happiness still comes second for women. Japanese title: 稲妻 (Inazuma)
$12 members, $17 general
• Saturday, April 11, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “Sudden Rain” (1956, 91 minutes). Sundays for Ryotaro and Fumiko have become routine: he reads the paper, she knits; he complains that his stomach hurts, she readies his medicine; she suggests things to do, he decides to stay home; he yawns, she yawns. They have no children and live in a suburb outside of Tokyo, surrounded by gossipy neighbors.
One particular afternoon, the community gains two new residents, Nenkichi and his nonconformist wife Hinako. As the two couples come to know each other, upcoming layoffs in Ryotaro’s company trigger what could very well be the end of his marriage to Fumiko. He wishes to return to the country. She wishes to stay near Tokyo and find employment of her own. He opposes the idea of his wife working. Despite being married for some time, they still do not understand each other. Japanese title: 驟雨 (Shūu)
• Saturday, April 25, at 1 p.m. at Los Feliz Theatre: “Sound of the Mountain” (1954, 95 minutes). The Ogatas are an upper-class postwar Japanese family in which everyone has become trapped in a passionless marriage. The parents, Shingo and Yasuko, coexist without even pretending to love one another. Their daughter, Fusako, was married off against her will, and has since become estranged from her husband. Meanwhile, the marriage between the son, Shuichi, and his wife, Kikuko, begins to disintegrate.
Instead of returning home, Shuichi opts to spend most of his evenings downing alcohol and, it is soon confirmed, seeing another woman. Shingo sets out in an effort to mend his son’s marriage, in an effort to save the happiness of his rueful daughter-in-law. Japanese title: 山の音 (Yama no Oto)
$10 members, $15 general
• Sunday, April 26, at 7 p.m. at Egyptian Theatre: “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs” (1960, 111 minutes). Possibly Naruse’s finest hour — a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko (Hideko Takamine), who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo’s very modern postwar Ginza district, who entertains businessmen after work. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. Japanese title: 女が階段を上る時 (Onna ga Kaidan o Agaru Toki)
$12 membeers, $17 general
• Thursday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Aero Theatre: “Late Chrysanthemums” (1954, 101 minutes). With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geisha contemplating their troubles with men and money. Japanese title: 晩菊 (Bangiku)
$12 members, $17 general
• Sunday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Aero Theatre: “Flowing” (1956, 116 minutes). Three super-stars lead a great cast: head of the geisha house Isuzu Yamada looks on the bright side, while daughter Hideko Takamine works that sewing machine. But quietly observing maid Kinuyo Tanaka is the only one who actually realizes the inevitable end of their world in a harsh post-war Tokyo. Japanese title: 流れる (Nagareru)
“Mother” (1952, 98 minutes). Based on a children’s essay adapted by famed screenwriter Yoko Mizuki in her first work for Naruse, this film stars the legendary actress-director Kinuyo Tanaka as a beleaguered working-class matron whose self-sacrificing efforts to maintain her family during Tokyo’s postwar reconstruction make her a paragon of maternal virtue in the eyes of her teenage daughter Toshiko (Kyoko Kagawa). Toshiko idealizes her mother and the value system she embodies, a naive perspective that pleasantly lifts what in fact unfurls as a bitterly sad, episodic tale of slow-burn economic emmiseration. Japanese title: おかあさん (Okaasan)
$12 members, $17 general
• Sunday, May 17, at 3 p.m. at Aero Theatre: “Scattered Clouds” (1967, 108 minutes). Hiroshi Eda, who works at a governmental office, got a promotion and his wife, Yumiko, is pregnant. Their happiness seems to last forever, but actually it ends that afternoon with a traffic accident that kills the husband. Shiro Mishima, the young man who caused the accident, is a promising salaryman of the Pacific Trading Company. He happens to meet Yumiko in the restaurant where she last saw her husband alive and promises to give her 15,000 yen every month for compensation. Japanese title: 乱れ雲 (Midaregumo)
$12 members, $17 general
• Sunday, May 24, at 7 p.m. at Egyptian Theatre: “Yearning” (1964, 98 minutes). Naruse’s late-period masterpiece, a sumptuous melodrama of undulating and repressed feeling, set as the postwar dispersal of modernization stretches beyond Tokyo. Widow Reiko (Hideko Takamine) runs her in-laws’ produce store, having rebuilt it herself in the 18 years since her husband’s passing, but faces a sudden outburst of new pressures: a push to remarry, fierce competition from a newly minted supermarket and a love confession from her dead husband’s much younger brother Koji (Yuzo Kayama). Scripted by Takamine’s husband Zenzo Matsuyama, “Yearning” finds devastating power in its tragic underpinnings as Takamine’s expressions convey multitudes — desire, melancholy, and a swell of confusion in the wake of newfound longing. Japanese title: 乱れる (Midareru)
$12 members, $17 general
Series co-presented by The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles and The Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities. Prints courtesy of The National Film Archive of Japan.
Info/tickets: www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/