Mikio Naruse

Film director
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroFilm director
PlacesJapan
wasFilm director Writer Film producer Screenwriter
Work fieldFilm, TV, Stage & Radio Literature
Gender
Male
Birth20 August 1905, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Death2 July 1969Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (aged 63 years)
Star signLeo
The details

Biography

Mikio Naruse (成瀬 巳喜男, Naruse Mikio, August 20, 1905 – July 2, 1969) was a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 (towards the end of the silent period in Japan) to 1967.

Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki (working-class drama) films with female protagonists, portrayed by actresses such as Hideko Takamine, Kinuyo Tanaka, and Setsuko Hara. Because of his focus on family drama and the intersection of traditional and modern Japanese culture, his films are frequently compared with the works of Yasujirō Ozu. His reputation is just behind Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Ozu in Japan and internationally; his work remains less well known outside Japan than theirs.

Among Naruse's most revered films are Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955), and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960). Akira Kurosawa called Naruse's style of melodrama, "like a great river with a calm surface and a raging current in its depths".

Life

Mikio Naruse was born in Tokyo in 1905. For a number of years he worked at the Shochiku film company under Shiro Kido as a property manager and later as an assistant director. He was not permitted to direct a film at Shochiku until 1930, when he made his debut film, Mr. and Mrs. Swordplay (Chanbara fūfū).

Naruse's earliest extant work is Flunky, Work Hard (Koshiben gambare, also known as Little Man Do Your Best) from 1931, where he combined melodrama with slapstick, trying to meet the demands set by Shochiku's Kamata studio, who wanted a mix of laughter and tears. In 1933, he quit Shochiku, and began working for Photo-Chemical Laboratories (later known as Toho).

His first major film was Wife! Be Like a Rose! (1935) (Tsuma yo Bara no Yo ni). It won the Kinema Junpo, and was the first Japanese film to receive theatrical release in the United States (where it was not well received). The film concerns a young woman whose father deserted his family many years before for a geisha. As so often in Naruse's films, the portrait of the "other woman" is nuanced and sympathetic: It turns out, when the daughter visits her father in a remote mountain village, that the second wife is far more suitable for him than the first. The daughter brings her father back with her in order to smooth the way for her own marriage, but the reunion with the first wife – a melancholy poet – is disastrous: They have nothing in common, and the father returns to wife number two.

In the war years, Naruse went through a slow breakup with his wife Sachiko Chiba (who had starred in Wife! Be Like a Rose!). Naruse himself claimed to have entered a period of severe depression as a result of this. In the postwar period he collaborated with others more often, less frequently writing his own scripts. Notable successes included Mother (1952) (Okasan), a realistic look at family life in the postwar period, which received theatrical distribution in France, and 1955's Floating Clouds (Ukigumo), a doomed love story based (like many of Naruse's films) on a novel by Fumiko Hayashi.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) (Onna ga kaidan o agaru toki) tells the story of an aging bar hostess trying to adapt to modern times. Scattered Clouds (1967) (Midaregumo) (a.k.a. Two in the Shadow) was his last film, and is regarded as one of his greatest works. A tale of impossible love between a widow and the driver who accidentally killed her husband, it was made two years before his death.

Film style

Naruse is known as particularly exemplifying the Japanese concept of mono no aware, the awareness of the transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing. Naruse was shy and few of his closest collaborators knew him well. Hideko Takamine, who starred in a dozen of his films remembered "[e]ven during the shooting of a picture, he would never say if anything was good, or bad, interesting or trite. He was a completely unresponsive director. I appeared in about 20 of his films, and yet there was never an instance in which he gave me any acting instructions."

Naruse's films contain simple screenplays, with minimal dialogue, unobtrusive camera work, and low-key production design. Earlier films employ a more experimental, expressionist style, but he is best known for the style of his later work: deliberately slow and leisurely, designed to magnify the everyday drama of ordinary Japanese people’s trials and tribulations, and leaving maximum scope for his actors to portray psychological nuances in every glance, gesture, and movement.

His protagonists were usually women and his studies of female experience spanned a wide range of social milieux, professions and situations. A number of such films were adaptations of a single novelist, Fumiko Hayashi, whose pessimistic outlook seemed to match his own. From her work he made films about unrequited passion (Floating Clouds 1955), unhappy families and stale marriages (Repast 1951, Wife 1953, Lightning 1952) and one about the struggle against material hardship and social oppression (Late Chrysanthemums 1954).

Naruse filmed economically, using money- and time-saving techniques that other directors shunned, such as shooting each actor delivering his or her lines of dialogue separately, and then splicing them together into chronological order in post-production (this reduced the amount of film wasted with each retake, and allowed a dialogue scene to be filmed with a single camera). Perhaps unsurprisingly, money is itself a major theme in these films, possibly reflecting Naruse's own childhood experience of poverty: Naruse is an especially mordant observer of the financial struggles within the family (as in Ginza Cosmetics, 1951, where the female protagonist ends up supporting all her relatives by working in a bar, or A Wife's Heart, 1956, where a couple is swindled out of a bank loan by the in-laws).

Filmography

Filmography of Mikio Naruse
YearJapanese TitleRōmaji TitleEnglish TitleNotes
Silent Films in the 1930s
1930チャンバラ夫婦Chambara fufuMr. and Mrs. SwordplayNaruse's first film; Lost. Also entitled Intimate Love
純情JunjoPure LoveLost
不景気時代Fukeiki jidaiHard TimesLost
愛は力だAi ha chikara daLove Is StrengthLost
押切新婚記Oshikiri shinkonkiA Record of Shameless NewlywedsLost
1931ねえ興奮しちゃいやよNee kofun shicha iya yoNow Don't Get ExcitedLost
二階の悲鳴Nikai no himeiScreams from the Second FloorLost
腰弁頑張れKoshiben gambareFlunky, Work Hard!Short film; Naruse's earliest surviving work
浮気は汽車に乗ってUwaki wa kisha ni notteFickleness Gets on the TrainLost
髭の力Hige no chikaraThe Strength of a MoustacheLost
隣の屋根の下Tonare no yani no shitaUnder the Neighbours' RoofLost
1932女は袂を御用心Onna wa tamoto o goyojinLadies, Be Careful of Your SleevesLost
青空に泣くAozora ni nakuCrying to the Blue SkyLost
偉くなれEraku nareBe Great!Lost
チョコレートガールChokoreito garuChocolate GirlLost
生さぬ仲Nasanu nakaNo Blood Relation
菓子のある東京風景Kashi no aru Tokyo no fûkeiThe Scenery of Tokyo with CakeShort advertisement film; Lost
蝕める春Mushibameru haruMoth-eaten SpringLost
1933君と別れてKimi to wakareteApart From You
夜ごとの夢Yogoto no yumeEvery-Night Dreams
僕の丸髷Boku no marumageA Married Woman's HairstyleLost
双眸SoboTwo EyesLost
謹賀新年KingashinnenHappy New Year!Lost
1934限りなき舗道Kagirinaki hodoStreet Without EndNaruse's final silent film
Sound films in the 1930s
1935乙女ごころ三人姉妹Otome-gokoro – Sannin-shimaiThree Sisters with Maiden Hearts
女優と詩人Joyu to shijinThe Actress and the Poet
妻よ薔薇のやうにTsuma yo bara no yo niWife! Be Like a Rose!Also entitled Kimiko
サーカス五人組Saakasu goningumiFive Men in the Circus
噂の娘Uwase no musumeThe Girl in the Rumor
1936桃中軒雲右衛門Tochuken KumoemonMan of the HouseBiopic of Tochuken Kumoemon
君と行く路Kimi to yuku michiThe Road I Travel with You
朝の並木路Asa no namikimichiMorning's Tree-Lined Street
1937女人哀愁Nyonin aishuA Woman's Sorrows
雪崩NadareAvalanche
禍福 前篇Kafuku zempenLearn from Experience, Part I
禍福 後篇Kafuku kôhenLearn from Experience, Part II
1938鶴八鶴次郎Tsuruhachi TsurujiroTsuruhachi and Tsurujiro
1939はたらく一家Hatarakku ikkaThe Whole Family Works
まごころMagokoroSincerity
Films in the 1940s
1940旅役者Tabi yakushaTravelling Actors
1941なつかしの顔Natsukashi no kaoA Face from the Past
上海の月Shanhai no tsukiShanghai MoonIncomplete footage survives
秀子の車掌さんHideki no Shasho-SanHideko the Bus-Conductor
1942母は死なずHaha wa shinazuMother Never Dies
1943歌行燈Uta andonThe Song Lantern
1944楽しき哉人生Tanoshiki kana jinseiThis Happy Life
芝居道ShibaidoThe Way of Drama
1945勝利の日までShori no hi madeUntil Victory DayLost
三十三間堂通し矢物語Sanjusangendo toshiya monogatariA Tale of Archery at the Sanjusangendo
1946浦島太郎の後裔Urashima Taro no koeiThe Descendents of Taro Urashima
俺もお前もOre mo omae moBoth You and I
1947別れも愉しWakare mo tanoshiEven Parting is EnjoyablePart of anthology film, Yottsu no kai no monogatari (四つの恋の物語, Four Love Stories)
春のめざめHaru no mezameSpring Awakens
1949不良少女Furyo shojoThe Delinquent GirlLost
Films in the 1950s
1950石中先生行状記Ishinaka Sensei gyojokiConduct Report on Professor Ishinaka
怒りの街Ikari no machiAngry Street
白い野獣Shiroi yajuWhite Beast
薔薇合戦Bara kassenBattle of Roses
1951銀座化粧Ginza geshoGinza Cosmetics
舞姫MaihimeDancing Girl
めしMeshiRepast
1952お国と五平Okuni to GoheiOkuni and Gohei
おかあさんOkasanMother
稲妻InazumaLightning
1953夫婦FufuHusband and Wife
TsumaWife
あにいもうとAni ImotoOlder Brother, Younger Sister
1954山の音Yama no otoSound of the MountainAlso entitled The Thunder of the Mountain
晩菊BangikuLate Chrysanthemums
1955浮雲UkigumoFloating Clouds
くちづけKuchizukeThe KissPart of anthology film, Onna Doshi (Women's Ways)
1956驟雨ShūuSudden Rain
妻の心Tsuma no kokoroA Wife's Heart
流れるNagareruFlowing
1957あらくれArakureUntamed
1958杏っ子Anzukko
鰯雲IwashigumoHerringbone CloudsColor film
1959コタンの口笛Kotan no kuchibueWhistling in KotanColor film; also entitled Whistle in My Heart
Films in the 1960s
1960女が階段を上る時Onna ga kaidan o agaru tokiWhen a Woman Ascends the Stairs
娘・妻・母Musume tsuma hahaDaughters, Wives, and a MotherColor film
夜の流れYoru no nagareThe Flow of EveningColor film; co-directed with Yuzo Kawashima.
秋立ちぬAki tachinuThe Approach of AutumnAlso entitled Autumn Has Already Started
1961妻として女としてTsuma toshite onna toshiteAs a Wife, As a WomanColor film
1962女の座Onna no zaA Woman's PlaceAlso entitled The Wiser Age
放浪記HorokiA Wanderer's NotebookAlso entitled Her Lonely Lane
1963女の歴史Onna no rekishiA Woman's Story
1964乱れるMidareruYearning
1966女の中にいる他人Onna no naka ni iru taninThe Stranger Within a WomanAlso entitled The Thin Line
ひき逃げHikinigeHit and RunAlso entitled Moment of Terror
1967乱れ雲MidaregumoScattered CloudsColor film; also entitled Two in the Shadow. Naruse's final film.

DVD releases (English subtitled)

  • Flunky, Work Hard (1931) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC)
  • No Blood Relation (1932) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC)
  • Apart From You (1933) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC)
  • Every-Night Dreams (1933) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC)
  • Street Without End (1934) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC)
  • Repast (1951) (Eureka! Masters of Cinema, region 2 NTSC)
  • Sound of the Mountain (1954) (Eureka! Masters of Cinema, region 2 NTSC)
  • Late Chrysanthemums (1954) (BFI, region 2 PAL)
  • Floating Clouds (1955) (BFI, region 2 PAL)
  • Flowing (1956) (Eureka! Masters of Cinema, region 2 NTSC)
  • When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) (The Criterion Collection, region 1 NTSC; BFI, region 2 PAL)
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