A Japanese Tragedy
A Japanese Tragedy, also known as Tragedy of Japan, is a 1953 Japanese drama film written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. The film tells the story of a widowed mother who turns to prostitution to raise two children during and after World War II, but her children, ashamed of her, reject her. It was ranked as the 6th best film of the year in 1953 by Kinema Junpo.
The film was experimental for its time, with a complex use of flashbacks that creates continuity between the war and post-war periods. Kinoshita also interspersed newsreel footage and newspaper pages within the film in an attempt to relate the story of the film to the wider context of Japan's post-war difficulties. It is a social problem film, with the director having written that: "No matter what kind of social structure, no matter what form of government, I think humans must not be left in a state of misery;” Kinoshita sought to make the film's narrative more realistic than previous hahamonos.
Plot
War widow Haruke, mother of two children, gets involved in prostitution during and after the Second World War to raise money for the family and secure the children a proper education. Her son Seiichi and daughter Utako, sharing a flat of their own, are embarrassed by their mother's activities and reluctant to her visits. Eager to cut ties with his past and poor upbringing, Seiichi, a medical student, aims at being adopted by an upper-class family. His sister Utako studies dressmaking and attends an English language school, engaging with her married teacher. Eventually, Seiichi's plan is fulfilled, while Utako, who claims that she can't lead a normal relationship after being raped by a cousin as a child, evokes a marital crisis. When Haruke finally realises that she has lost both her children, she commits suicide.Cast
- Yūko Mochizuki as Haruko Inoue
- Yōko Katsuragi as Utako, Haruko's daughter
- Masumi Taura as Seiichi, Haruko's son
- Teiji Takahashi as Sato
- Keiji Sada as Tatsuya, a street musician
- Ken Uehara as Masayuki Akazawa, the English teacher
- Sanae Takasugi as Mrs. Akazawa
- Keiko Awaji as Wakamaru, a geisha
Themes and reception
In Kinoshita's published introduction to the 1953 screenplay of the film he wrote:"A Japanese Tragedy is a familiar tale, of people who, despite their house being burnt down in the war and family members not returning, commit suicide unconscious of the tragedy of their situation. I wanted to portray simple people like that. The war widow, not such a splendid mother as those who have appeared up to now in films made in the "mother"' genre, but I cannot somehow bring myself to despise such simple people. Japanese politicians advocate the building of a civilized nation, but miserable people like this are abundant on the streets. No matter what kind of social structure, no matter what form of government, I think humans must not be left in a state of misery."
According to film critic Donald Richie, A Japanese Tragedy was one of the first post-war films to focus on Japanese mothers, as Mikio Naruse's Repast was one of the first to focus on the plight of Japanese wives.