Masao Hayama

  • Minoru Shibuya – Haha to ko AKA Mother and Child (1938)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaJapanMinoru Shibuya

    This is an early film from the career of Shibuya Minoru and according to Donald Richie in The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, “One of his best, the 1939 [actally 1938] Mother and Child (Haha to ko), was taken from a onvel by Tsuneko Yada. This story of a young daughter, her businessman father, and his mistress was slightly overloaded with sentiment and burdened with the confused social criticism apparent in some of the director’s postwar work, but was nonetheless representative of the period.Read More »

  • Heinosuke Gosho – Jinsei no onimotsu aka Burden of Life (1935)

    1931-1940AsianDramaHeinosuke GoshoJapan

    Quote:
    “Rooted in “salaryman” comedy and family drama, Burden of Life represents a marked advance over Gosho’s previous three shomin comedies. It placed sixth in the 1935 Kinema Jumpo polling, and has been praised by Burch for its seriousness and slice-of-life quality. Concurring with this judgment, John Gillett finds the film “imbued with a naturalistic tone and ‘lived in’ visual texture quite beyond American and European cinema.” David Owens is similarly enthusiastic, adding, “As is typical of the best Japanese directors, Gosho concentrates on developing characters rather than plot. Each of the family members is carefully drawn and each grows before us as an individual, surpassing the sort of character typing that was usual for family melodramas.” These comments effectively sum up the film’s most notable achievement.”Read More »

  • Hiroshi Shimizu – Kaze no naka no kodomo AKA Children in the Wind (1937)

    1931-1940DramaHiroshi ShimizuJapan

    Two young boys are usurped from being the head of their gang of children. Their father is fired and arrested for this, and they are sent to live with their uncle, only to spend their time thinking of ways to escape back home.Read More »

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