Roslindale Monogatari

Jujiro / Crossroads (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1928) According to JMDB, this was the fifty-fifth film Kinugasa directed (a number he would more than double by the time of his retirement in 1966). This is a somewhat less avant-garde silent film than Kinugasa's Kurutta ippeji (misnamed Page of Madness in English) from a couple of years earlier, but is still reasonably exotic looking. Mostly dark and brooding, with wildly exaggerated acting -- but presented in something approaching a linear fashion, with conventional intertitles. The basic scenario is simple a poor but honest young woman has a younger brother who has gotten himself into trouble due to his hopeless passion for a geisha -- and has also been blinded. Unscrupulous men try to take advantage of our heroine, using her brother's situation as leverage. He recovers his sight, and goes looking for the geisha and runs into more trouble, creating more unhappiness for his sister. The plot is wildly melodramatic and improbable ...

Sasameyuki / Makioka Sisters / Light Snowfall (Yutaka Abe, 1950) Junichiro Tanizaki began publishing his Sasameyuki (literally "light snowfall") in serialized form in 1943. After just two installments, however, government censors informed the magazine serializing it that no further episodes should be published (inconsistent with the self-discipline needed for the war effort). Tanizaki published the complete first volume in 1944; the whole novel was finally published in 1949. The story is set in the latter half of the 1930s. It tells the story of a once very prominent Osaka family -- the Makioka family -- which had to make major adjustments after the death of the family patriarch years before (and the gradual withering away of the family business). The focus is on the four sisters -- Tsuruko (nearing 40 at the outset), Sachiko (mid-30s), Yukiko (near 30) and Taeko (26). The Tsuruko is married to a rather stuffy bank executive; Sachiko to a much more urbane white collar...

Higanbana / Equinox Flower (Yasujio Ozu, 1958) After the crushing rejection of his magnificently bleak Tokyo Twilight , Ozu tried again to present his version of "Father Doesn't Know Best" -- this time as a comedy. While Ineko Arima once again appeared as a daughter at odds with her father, Shin Saburi was given the role of the father. So long as Saburi is talking about other peoples' children, he supports the right of young women to make their own decisions. In particular, he tries to reconcile a friend (chishu Ru) with a daughter (Yoshiko Kuga) who has moved in with her boyfriend without the benefit of marriage. But when his own eldest daughter picks a husband without getting his prior approval, Saburi goes ballistic. Luckily for Arima, in this film she has a supportive mother (Kinuyo Tanaka) and an ingenious friend (Fujiko Yamamoto), who support her cause. The best performances here are all excellent, but those of Tanaka and Saburi are especially wonderful. T...