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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2005 |
Light from the East: Celebrating Japanese Cinema
Shochiku 110 - Naruse 100 -- Prog. 8 |
| Film Title |
FUE NO SHIRATAMA |
| Alternative Title 1 |
[UN CUORE ETERNO] |
| Alternative Title 2 |
[ETERNAL HEART] |
| Alternative Title 3 |
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| Country |
Japan |
| Release Date |
17 October 1929 |
| Production Co. |
Shochiku |
| Director |
Hiroshi Shimizu |
| Format |
|
Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
24 |
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| Footage |
|
Time |
| 9127 ft. |
|
101' |
| Archive Source |
National Film Center, Tokyo |
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| Print Notes |
imbibito/tinted
Didascalie in giapponese sottotitolate in inglese / Japanese intertitles, English subtitles |
| Cast |
| Emiko Yakumo, Minoru Takada, Michiko Oikawa, Atsushi Arai, Shinichiro Komura, Utako Suzuki, Satoko Date, Mitsuko Takao, Shoichi Kotoda, Yoko Fujita, Shintaro Takiguchi, Ryuko Tanizaki |
| |
| Other Credits |
| sogg./story: Kan Kikuchi; scen: Tokusaburo Murakami; f./ph: Taro Sasaki, Rin Masutani, Toshimi Saisho |
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| Program Notes |
Toshie has a crush on Narita, but he marries her younger sister Reiko. Heartbroken, Toshie finds herself gradually being attracted to her boss, who is a widower. Reiko and Narita’s marriage does not go well, mainly because of Reiko, who is wonderfully cheerful but tends to have affairs. Eventually Narita decides to leave and go abroad. Among the group of people seeing him off he finds Toshie.
This film adaptation of Kan Kikuchi’s serialized newspaper novel had extremely high built-in box-office potential at the time. Director Shimizu lived up to the Shochiku company’s expectations by making a film that was a huge success. Shimizu took the risk of employing many new actors, and despite a plot that was full of ups and downs he made a film that he described as “artistically integral as a film while respecting the atmosphere of the original novel”.
When the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed Tokyo and the surrounding area in 1923, both Nikkatsu and Shochiku evacuated their studios to Kyoto. Unlike Nikkatsu, which stayed in Kyoto, Shochiku returned to Kamata, Tokyo, after a short period of time, thus becoming effectively the only studio in Tokyo throughout the silent era. Shochiku Kamata productions are known for their so-called “Kamata Modernism” style, which was developed by absorbing the sophisticated and urban atmosphere of Tokyo in the era after the Great Kanto Earthquake, while the city was quickly recovering from the damage. Shimizu was one of the key directors of “Kamata Modernism”. This film marked the debut of the actress Michiko Oikawa, later an important talent, who was indispensable in Shimizu’s urban films such as Renai daiikka (Love, Part One; 1929) and Minato no Nippon musume (Japanese Girls at the Harbour; 1933). – FUMIKO TSUNEISHI
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