A Japanese Tragedy

This article is about The Japanese drama film. For the 1946 WW2 Japanese documentary film, see Tragedy of Japan.

A Japanese Tragedy
Kanji日本の悲劇
Directed byKeisuke Kinoshita
Written byKeisuke Kinoshota
Starring
CinematographyHiroshi Kusuda
Music byChuji Kinoshita
Production
company
Distributed byShochiku
Release date
  • 17 June 1953 (1953-06-17) (Japan)[1]
Running time
116
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

A Japanese Tragedy (日本の悲劇, Nihon no higeki), 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.[2][3] It was ranked as the 6th best film of the year in 1953 by Kinema Junpo.[4]

The film was experimental for its time, with a complex use of flashbacks that creates continuity between the war and post-war periods.[5] 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.[6]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 (Japanese films about mothers).[7]

  1. ^ "A Japanese Tragedy at the Japanese Movie Database" (in Japanese). Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  2. ^ Richie, D. (2012). A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. Kodansha. pp. 117, 276. ISBN 9781568364391.
  3. ^ "A Japanese Tragedy". Strictly Film School. 23 December 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  4. ^ Coates, Jennifer (2016). Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945–1964. Hong Kong University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-988-8208-99-9.
  5. ^ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (5 June 2018). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-691-18746-4.
  6. ^ Jacoby, A. (2008). A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 9781933330532.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).