Mikio Naruse Collection

[dad1153]

From the sales thread (posted by manicsounds):

BFI Naruse 3 DVD set is £7.93 at amazon, and a few pence cheaper at Zaavi or The Hut.

What are you waiting for?

Nothing. Having just watched "Repast" (very good), "Flowing" (masterpiece... the movie's last 20 minutes crushed me like only "Late Spring" has done before) and "Yearning" (very good) at Film Forum in NYC I'm jonesing bad for more Naruse. I'm making this my first official first import of a non-R1 movie, which puts me on a bind because I don't have a region-free DVD player (just a laptop).

[doc mccoy]

You could grab the MoC Naruse boxset while you're at it: that contains Repast, Sound of the Mountain and Flowing.

[Alphonse Doinel]

I'm making this my first official first import of a non-R1 movie, which puts me on a bind because I don't have a region-free DVD player (just a laptop).

Most cheapo dvd players can be easily hacked and can be found for like $20. Or you can try thrift stores, which usually have plenty on their shelves. Or you could just buy that Insignia player at Best-Buy, and be both dvd and blu region free for $100.

+1 on the MOC set. One of the favorites in my collection.

This site will help you find out which players can be hacked.

[dad1153]

Thanks. I'd rather not get a new player though (my small studio apartment is cramped enough as it is) but I don't want to hack my two DVD players either (a Toshiba HD-DVD A20 and a Panasonic DVD recorder from 2002). I mostly watch movies using the high-def playback of my XBox 360 (HD-DVD & DVD) and PS3 (Blu-ray) so adding a fifth player to the equation would be a huge change. Not sure I'm ready for that yet.

And yes, I'll get to the MOC Naruse Box Set when I can get as screaming a good deal as I got with this BFI Naruse one. I mean, $16 with shipping for three unseen-by-me acknowledged classics from a new-to-me director that blew me away three times in a row with new-to-me movies caught on the big screen? This could be the beginning of a beautiful (and expensive) cinematic addiction... what have I done? :-)

[domino harvey]

You don't want to enter five numbers into a remote?

[dad1153]

^^^ I don't know what that means (I've never broken the law before, remember? :-P).

[domino harvey]

I mean, okay, have your moral objections, that's your right, but there is nothing illegal about an American consumer making their domestic player region-free. Most "hacks" are just codes you enter into your player's remote. There's no heist movie intrigue involved

[manicsounds]

Seriously, from 2 players made back in 2002, I doubt warranty would be an issue.
Just go to the videohelp site, see if your players are region hackable.

There are 2 ways: the most common is entering a secret password via remote, which is the easiest.

The other way is burning a CD with firmware on it, which is a lot more tedious, but again, depends on the player.

[Der Spieler]

"Flowing" (masterpiece... the movie's last 20 minutes crushed me like only "Late Spring" has done before)

I loved Repast and Sound of the Mountain, but found Flowing overlong and tedious. What did you find so great about it? I'm opened to reconsider my first opinion.

[dad1153]

I was actually hating "Flowing" through most of its running time. This was the third Naruse movie in a row that I saw at the Film Forum retrospective (and last as it turned out; ran out of money and couldn't see "Floating Clouds" and "When A Woman Ascends the Stairs") so the 'new car smell' wasn't happening with "Flowing" like it did with "Repast" and "Yearning." The first hour and a half to me felt like a tedious 'fly on the wall' look at just how average and boring it was to be a geisha (or, in Kinoyu Tanaka's case, working for/under them) in 1950's post-WWII Japan. We've all had to borrow money to make ends meet, ask the landlord to wait for the rent, goofed off when tipsy (the little impromptu dance/singing Haruko Sugimura and the other geisha perform had me and the entire theater laughing like school children), etc. Through the boredom though I could feel just how important for Naruse it was for me to see these women and how dedicated to her profession Isuzu Yamada's Otsuta is.

Then, when the landlady tells Oharu that she'll evict Otsuta and her geishas from her property and wants Oharu to come work for her, my own personal reality became embedded with the movie's. The company I've been working at since I got out of college is about to close its doors and move to another State. Another company may or may not buy the assets of what's left of my employer's assets. These new guys asked me to come and work with them to keep the clients from the old company feeling comfortable as they're transitioned into the new company. My old bosses also want me to continue working with them but they can't guarantee either full-time employment nor a steady salary for the long-term (plus out-of-state commuting would eat what little money I'd make). In "Flowing" Oharu chooses to stick with the geisha women rather than betray them, thus ensuring short-term poverty for her own peace of mind at knowing she didn't betray Otsuta's kindness. I wish I could have the conviction to do the same: stay working with the people I've known and worked with since 1996... but this is the real world, and a chance to move to a new job with the same salary I make now in this economy is too good to pass. Even today, almost two weeks later, my job situation is up in the air with less than a week to go before someone's decision (along with mine) will permanently alter the life I've gotten used to for 16+ years.

When we (as Oharu) know that Otsuta and her girls' days as geishas (including the young trainees and little girls that won't even get the chance to try it) are numbered, and that many will likely end as prostitutes in the neighborhood across the river we see in the last shot, every action and little incident takes on a heightened significance that wasn't there before. That Oharu knows what's coming to them but can't tell these women they're about to be unemployed and probably condemned to a life of struggle makes her longing looks and sad face even more heartbreaking than if she were covered with tears and emoting. That's when it hit me that Naruse had spent the bulk of "Flowing" familiarizing us with the everyday life of the geishas and Oharu working with them so we would feel the weight of their world ending through the eyes of Oharu looking at every little thing (music practice, future plans that will never pan out, Otsuta's life-long struggles amounting to nothing, etc.) with the foreboding knowledge they won't be there soon. It's such a powerfully devastating conclusion (the end of a way of life, a profession, someone's lifelong passion for her work) that's carefully constructed on an unassuming build-up, one that was literally making me feel small afterwards for hating the movie earlier. I was in a packed theater watching "Flowing" but I literally felt alone in my own mind, as if Naruse had made a movie just for me and he was squeezing me like silly potty in his skilled storytelling hands.

I want to believe that the ending of "Flowing" would have affected me regardless of my current job situation (the movie's status as a beloved Naruse classic backs that up). I'm not getting married or have a daughter about to get married, but the final scenes of "Late Spring" when Noriko is in her wedding dress (smiling on the outside but clearly dying of sadness on the inside) hit me like a ton of bricks just out my ability to relate to her and her dad as human beings. But movies don't happen in a vacuum, everybody (the filmmakers at the time the movie is made and the viewers that see it afterwards) brings their own baggage with them that affects how they perceive other people's cinematic work. That a Japanese movie from the 1950's could affect me by virtue of mirroring the turmoil in my own professional life happens to be gravy. That it can show, without histrionics or melodrama tricks like forced tears or a cue-the-audience soundtrack, the dying days of a profession that fed and fulfilled the lives of many women without any other skill (victims of the society that devalued them for centuries) is a dramatic achievement I've seldom seen being pulled off so achingly well despite the movie's first 90 minutes being a set-up for the quietly devastating last 20.

Unlike "Repast" and "Yearning," the moment "Flowing" ended I knew I'd have to start importing Naruse movies from overseas because there's no fucking way I don't want to experience more of this man's work (the Silent Naruse Eclipse set is in the mail from amazon).

[Der Spieler]

Well you've made a pretty convincing case, even though part of your appreciation comes from the fact that you can relate with the characters. I couldn't. I felt completely removed. I understood the sad implications going on at the end but it didn't really hit me in the guts. Maybe a second viewing will reveal a different perspective. Thanks for answering!

[Michael Kerpan]

Some Flowing meta-information.

Isuzu Yamada had a full musical education (prior to her movie career) and was quite expert at playing the shamisen in reality. You can see a real difference between her "playing" and that of some of the others (Haruko Sugimura, for instance, who was a major stage actress -- and was not trained in traditional arts). Sumiko Kurishima also had an extensive training in tradition music and dance. When she made this film (after almost 20 years of retirment form film), her real job was being the director of an almost 400 year old school of traditional dance.

I hope you give Flowing a second chance. I've found that some films that I only sort of liked on first viewing eventually became well-loved favorites on second or third visits.

[knives]

Well you've made a pretty convincing case, even though part of your appreciation comes from the fact that you can relate with the characters. I couldn't. I felt completely removed. I understood the sad implications going on at the end but it didn't really hit me in the guts. Maybe a second viewing will reveal a different perspective. Thanks for answering!

Maybe it's because of my anthropological personality, but Flowing is actually the most powerful Naruse for me. It's just so fascinating to see these often time extreme personalities interact and so much of the movie is interaction rather than simple action. It's about how these different people co-exist and that too is very important to me.

[zedz]

Flowing is my favourite Naruse so far as well. I find the characters very well-shaded and - as is the case with a lot of Naruse films - their situations and dilemmas have the heft of real life, and I too find a lot in the film that I can relate to on a personal level (though that's just a bonus). It's also a chance to see an amazing cast of great Japanese actresses bounce off one another - with no grandstanding.

[dad1153]

I placed several orders with amazon US yesterday (first day of their current Criterion sale) and today I got the first package with "Silent Naruse." Then, 10 minutes later, my BFI Naruse movies from the UK arrived by mail. I went from owning zero Naruse movies to having eight (although "Flunky, Work Hard" isn't technically a full-blown movie) in one day, all of them new to me. Yippee! :D

[dad1153]

Broke open the BFI Box Set and started with "Lady Chrysanthemums" (love it, love it, love it!). There's a multi-standard Pioneer DVD player at the office I work at and I've decided to watch the PAL Naruse movies there (on a 14" tube TV) instead of taking the player home on weekends. It's either that or buying an $80 Pio multi-standard player that I, frankly, am not ready to commit to because I don't see myself becoming a frequent DVD/BD importer (except for the MOC Naruse Box Set when it goes on sale). I have enough R1 Criterion BD's and DVDs on my kevyip pile to keep me off the importing temptation wagon for quite a while.

Naruse is quickly skyrocketing to the top of my list of favorite directors (4-0 so far). The characters and situations in "Late Chrysanthemums" feel like the aftermath of what happened to the geishas in "Flowing" (even though the former came out two years before the latter) after 'the profession' was outlawed. Haruko Sugimura being in both movies solidified this bond between their stories (in my mind anyway). As good as she was in "Flowing" though Haruko just shines in "LC" (the first movie I've seen where she's the lead). Okin is a deceivingly-simple-but-tricky role that could have easily been a villain caricature (which she almost became in "Tokyo Story" until Ozu pulled her character back a bit) but which ends up on a very human (and unexpected) note. Chikako Hosokawa, Yûko Mochizuki and their grown-up kids are also excellent as geishas and offsprings from geishas with the lifetime of regrets and rewards that come from such a family unit. The scene when Tamae and Otomi drown their sorrows over sake about their grown-up children disappointing them, then acknowledging how these kids saved them from falling down ever further, is flat-out incredible. But, when Naruse switches to Okin dealing with her deaf-mute maid or the men from her past trying to intrude back in her life, "LC" came alive. Loved the symbolic pointing to the maid of young Tabe's picture as the person Okin actually expected to walk through her door; what happens afterward to the picture (after Okin learns why her former suitors have come back) seals the circle of nostalgia giving way to reality perfectly and without histrionics. Ironically, despite looking as restrained as an Ozu movie (don't recall any show-off camera angles/dollies), the editing in "LC" gave me some serious Nic Roeg vibes. There's an obvious rhythm and pattern to the editing (dust sweeping, women/men getting drunk, etc.) that, although not chronologically-jumbled or show-off as Roeg's style (hearing Okin's voice-over thoughts for a couple of scenes is as fancy as Naruse gets), fills the simplicity of the story/characters an understated emotional power it wouldn't otherwise have if different hands (perhaps Ozu's) were in charge. It's no "Late Spring," but "LC" packs quite an emotional wallop on its own terms.

Friendship/family bonds been tested or frayed by the circle of life in Japan's post-World War II economy. It's such a fertile ground for melodrama that I already knew Ozu, Kurosawa (so sue me, I love "Ikiru") and Mizoguchi had mined for cinematic gold. What I didn't know until seeing "Repast/Flowing/Lady Chrysanthemums" is that Naruse is their equal, and Sugimura can not only carry a picture but make it memorable. The ending (after a much-needed good laugh with the 'Monroe waggle') left me speechless at its totally accurate display of Okin's priorities in life. Much like any movie in which the hero walks toward the sunset with his gal pal in his arms or the reunited couple share a passionate kiss as the clouds part for a heavenly choir to sing ("Snow White") seeing Okin walking side-by-side with her accountant, the only man in her life that matters (and whose honesty-by-necessity kindness is all that binds them), is both sad (she'll never have what Tamae and Otomi have inside) but also truthful to the character we've met and spent time with for 95+ minutes. Being financially solid but lonely is what Okin wants, and in Haruko Sugimura's portrayal of this character Naruse has made her not only sympathetic but also funny (as she was as the 'comic relief' character in "Tokyo Story" to original Japanese audiences) and a genuine alternative to the easy-to-relate to class struggles that in other movies would have been portrayed as saintly at the expense of the rich woman's humanity. A masterpiece... again!

[Michael Kerpan]

The marvelous screen play for Late Chrysanthemum was woven together out of four separate short stories by Fumiko Hayashi. Really a screen writing/directing/editing tour de force.

(BTW -- Geishas have never been outlawed, nor have bar hostesses, for that matter).

[dad1153]

I know, I know (prostitution was outlawed)... cultural brain fart!

[Michael Kerpan]

You really do need the indispensable MOC naruse set as well (the best of a very fine lot of options).

[dad1153]

Guess I'm hoping against hope that Criterion will announce they're bringing these (and more) Naruse titles Stateside in R1 DVD. But I doubt Criterion will have a 100+ page booklet dedicated to Naruse discussion/analysis, and I could use something to read now that I just finished my "Dexter by Design" paperback.

Just checked Amazon UK... $30 w/shipping total isn't a bad deal (especially for the included thick book I can take with me to the crapper). Ordered.

[dad1153]

Naruse's "Mother" is the 'TCM Import' feature Sunday overnight at 2:30AM ET (11:30PM PT) on TCM (US).

[Miguel M Santos]

Has the BFI ever mentioned a possible second box, or were the sales not strong enough for that?

[MichaelB]

I'd be very very surprised.

[swo17]

Does anyone know if this collection has gone out of print?

[Ogre Kovacs]

Does anyone know if this collection has gone out of print?

I was wondering this as well. I finally was getting around to purchasing this and noticed that almost no one was listing it in stock (Amazon, The Hut, Zavvi). The BFI directly and Moviemail were it and Moviemail listed it as "Usually dispatches in 2 weeks". I ordered a copy through them a little over 2 weeks ago and that status remains open. I will post when I hear further info. Hopefully they are just between prints.