Mikio Naruse Retrospective

Yet, to average film aficionados in America and Europe even his name does not get much of a reaction. His movies are not available on video or DVD, except for one or two titles still circulating around public libraries. My knowlege is limited to New York, but it does not seem to be easier anywhere else.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Mikio Naruse’s birth and many retrospective venues all over the world are showing the master’s films, often for the first time in about 30 years. If you cannot make it to New York to see subtitled versions of a large selection of his work (as I wish I could) the National Film Center in Tokyo has over 50 of Naruse’s films being played now.

I’ve made it to couple of screenings that take place three times a day in a 300 seat room that is always full. Due to the language barrier, I could mostly only enjoy the beauty of the images and music filling what seemed like much longer films than I’m used to. It’s hard to sit through a work in a foreign language which one has only a bare-bones knowledge of without falling asleep, especially when slightly jetlagged. Despite this hindrance, I keep returning to the Film Center. Each new “awakening” I experience bringing me beautiful images and I ask myself each time whether the French director Eric Rohmer copied the idea of walking his characters around the city from Mikio Naruse, or if that is just a coincidence. For 300 yen it’s worth seeing every waking minute of Naruse’s beautiful and sometimes disturbing pictures of the Japan of the 1930s through the early 60s.