72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Agenda
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Mikio Naruse
Films
Films
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
86 min.
In a village not far from Tokyo, Akaza and his wife Riki worry about their childrens' future. The eldest, Inokichi, is a gambler and a womaniser. The elder of the two sisters, Mon, has gone to Tokyo, and the parents are in the process of trying to marry off their younger daughter, San, to a local shopowner. When Mon comes home one day with the news that she is pregnant, Inokichi loses control and fights violently with the sister to whom he had always been so close.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
108 min.
Although famous novelist Heishiro Hirayama's daughter Anzukko is at the marrying age, she rejects one suitor after another. When she finally finds one she likes, the would-be writer and local bookshop attendant Ryokichi steps in to spread rumours that the man behaved dishonourably while serving in the army. Ryokichi finally gets his way and marries Anzukko in the hope that some of his father-in-law's literary career will rub off on him.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
101 min.
Retired geisha Kin's obnoxiously persistent demands for repayment are often a source of friction with the other ex-geishas to whom she lends money. Hearing that one of her ex-lovers, Tabe, is planning a visit, Kin looks out her best clothes and gets all excited at the prospect, only to be brought straight back down to earth when the only thing he wants is money.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
87 min.
Nakahara and his young wife Kikuko have to move out of their in-laws house to leave room for one of the brothers who is about to get married. They rent the ground floor of a place owned by one of Nakahara's colleagues, the widower Takemura. Nakahara soon suspects something is amiss between his wife and Takemura, and things get no better when Kikuko tells him about her pregnancy and her husband asks her to have an abortion.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
87 min.
Yukiko leads a hard life as a barmaid to bring up her son after having been left by the boy's father, Fujimura, who only puts in an appearance every now and again to ask for money. But her friend Shizue has a much easier life thanks to the rich sugar daddy who keeps her out of debt. Shizue urges Yukiko to follow her example and take a financial turn for the better.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
65 min.
Ishimura and his wife have nine children whom they struggle to raise on his meagre salary. Encouraged by his teacher Ogawa, their eldest son Kiichi is met with accusations of selfishness when he reveals that he wants to go on studying instead of working in a factory. Fearful that his family will fall apart, Kiichi changes his plans.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
54 min.
Okoma collects tickets from customers on a dilapidated old bus that takes on passengers all over the place with all sorts of luggage, from chickens to baskets of vegetables. She and the driver, Sonoda, watch enviously as their competitors' modern buses glide by. Okoma comes up with an idea to improve their service: to offer the passengers historical information about the places they pass on their journey.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
94 min.
Widow Kuniko's whole life revolves around her six-year-old son, Takeshi. When the boy is killed by a hit-and-run driver, the police arrest a man who admits to having committed the crime, although he is really acting as a cover for his female employer who was at the wheel. A woman who saw the accident tells Kuniko the truth and she decides to take revenge.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
123 min.
A coffee-shop waitress with dreams of becoming a writer, Fumiko meets and falls in love with the handsome poet Date who invites her to join his literary circle, even moving in with him before making the devastating discovery of his engagement to another woman. She soon starts mixing with a group of proletarian intellectuals where she meets her husband-to-be Fukuchi. But things aren't quite so rosy when Fumiko succeeds in publishing her work and her husband is ridden with envy.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
87 min.
Young bus conductress Kiyoko lives with her mother, stepbrothers and sisters. Her half-sister Mitsuko is married to a fabric shopowner who dies suddenly, leaving her a juicy insurance policy. When the family misfits all fight for their piece of the dead man's inheritance, Kiyoko can't take it any more and leaves home.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
128 min.
A young Tokyo newspaperman, Okawa, heads for the countryside in search of human interest stories. There he meets the war-widowed Yae, who works on a farm while caring for her son and mother-in-law and who tells him about the trials and tribulations of her brother Wasuke and his nine children. Taking it upon themselves to find a wife for the stuggling Wasuke, Yae and Okawa wind up spending the night together in a hotel - but the journalist has a family waiting for him back in Tokyo.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
60 min.
While working as a geisha to support her family, Terukiku falls in love with her fellow companion's son, Yoshio. Ashamed of his mother's work, Yoshio starts running around with a rough crowd and Terukiku is accidentally injured by the group during a fight. On her recovery, she tells Yoshio that she is leaving to find a better job in order to prevent her younger sister from having to become a geisha too.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
69 min.
Brothers Asaji and Yuji have an ex-geisha mother who gets by on the bit of money left to her by a former patron. Asaji's love for the wealthy Kasumi has one major setback: the girl's parents are pressuring her to marry a rich husband to help the family business out of its rut.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
67 min.
In spite of the vast difference in their social backgrounds, rich Nobuko and poor Tomiko are close friends. Nobuko's poor school marks cause an argument between her parents, during which Nobuko's mother reads the riot act to her father, Kei, for his erstwhile relationship with Tomiko's now-widowed, kimono-making mother, Otsuta. Nobuko tells her friend what she has heard and the girl goes off to quiz her mother, only to be met by firm denial.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
96 min.
Five years of childless marriage is putting tedious strain on Michiyo and Hatsunosuke's relationship. But the arrival of Hatsunosuke's niece soon perks up their boring lives as she flirts with one of the local boys and makes eyes at her uncle, putting Michiyo on the alert. When Satoko goes back to Tokyo, Michiyo decides to take some time off from her marriage and go with her.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
107 min.
Hiroshi is hit and killed by a car, leaving behind a promising professional career and widowing his pregnant wife, Yumiko, into the bargain. Although the driver, Mishima, is declared innocent, his conscience bothers him deeply and he offers to give Yumiko assistance. But the girl refuses in spite of her poor financial situation, preferring to have an abortion instead. Not about to give up easily, Mishima puts all his strength into winning Yumiko's forgiveness, and her love.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
97 min.
After her husband dies in the war, Reiko struggles to look after the family business as it loses ground against the big supermarkets. When her brother-in-law Koji reappears, theoretically to help in the shop, he actually spends more of his time drinking and gambling before eventually telling Reiko how much he loves her. Meanwhile, the sister-in-laws scheme behind Reiko's back to sell the business and get her out of the family.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
121 min.
Several generations of the Sakanishi family live in a comfortable house on the outskirts of Tokyo. The head of the family, Yuichiro, mortgages the house in order to be able to lend money to a factory-owning uncle and his wife. But the business doesn't work and the Sakanishi are in danger of losing their home. Yuichiro's eldest daughter, Sanae, comes to the rescue by accepting a marriage of convenience.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
59 min.
A year of marriage and Goro is still miserable in his loveless relationship with Fukiko. Worse yet, he's head over heels with the still single Yayoi; but their secret meetings are leading nowhere. Fukiko senses her husband's unhappiness and pledges to do anything he wants to make him feel better. Goro answers that the only solution is to commit double suicide by taking poison together.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
116 min.
Needing work, the recently widowed Rika tries her luck in a geisha house where they're looking for someone to clean the kitchen. The madam, Tsutayako, agrees to take her on as long as she changes her name. Renamed Oharu, she goes out to do the shopping and realises that Tsutayako owes money to just about everyone. Even worse, the house is mortgaged to the hilt and the future of the business and the girls whose lives depend on it is uncertain.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
73 min.
Young Hiroko leads an unhappy existence in the rich Horie household after her marriage to Shin'ichi. Her young sister-in-law, on the other hand, has a kindhearted but penniless lover, Toshio, who is far too poor to propose to her and who tries to improve his fortune by pilfering from the family business. Furious, the Hories decide to report the boy to the police - causing an unexpected reaction from Hiroko in the doing.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
97 min.
The strain of re-opening the Fukuhara laundry business after it was destroyed by shelling during the war is too much for the head of the family, Ryosuke, who can't take the strain and dies. Just out of a Siberian prisoner-of-war camp, his brother Kumura turns up to lend a hand. But the family's eldest daughter, Toshiko, is uneasy about rumours that her mother and uncle are having an affair.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
90 min.
Although samurai Tomonojo has been courting the wealthy Okuni, the girl eventually chooses to marry another man, Iori. Heartbroken, Tomonojo kills Iori, and Okuni finds herself bound by the samurai code of honour to avenge her husband's death. Accompanied by her faithful servant, Gohei, the woman sets off on a five-year journey throughout the country in search of her husband's murderer.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
110 min.
Recently-widowed Keiko works in a bar in Ginza, Tokyo's elegant singles' suburb, to pay for her flat and help her family out with money. While the other girls make a fairly comfortable living by hooking up with their wealthy patrons, and some of them are even able to open their own places; Keiko adamantly refuses to do so out of respect for her dead husband's memory. But an unfortunate love affair drives her to drink and the arms of a bank manager.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
74 min.
Still single Osome plays in her mother's shamisen group, while her elder and younger sisters, Oren and Chieko, live with their respective partners. When she has to find money to help her sick husband, Oren plans a robbery with some of her old sidekicks. Realising that the victim is Chieko's lover, Osome tries to stop them and gets badly hurt in the process. Not noticing what has happened to her sister, Oren scarpers with the booty.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
82 min.
Shinzo is a young actor with a brilliant professional future. The company's director, Yamatoya, convinces Shinzo's lover, Omitsu, to leave him so that he can prosper as an artist. Shinzo moves to Tokyo and makes a name for himself, but only as a result of hard work and dedication. Coming back to help the Yamatoya troupe, and still convinced that Omitsu was the one responsible for their break-up, Shinzo gives the girl the cold shoulder.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
90 min.
After four years of marriage, the banality of everyday life is getting the better of Ryotaro and his wife Fumiko, a situation which is anything but improved when youngsters Nenkichi and Hinako move into the vicinity and the former takes a shine to Fumiko. But others have their problems too, like Fumiko's niece, Ayako, whose husband went out on the town with some friends on their wedding night and didn't come back till the following morning.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
70 min.
Two actors play the part of a horse. While the more experienced Hyoroku is in charge of the front legs, the hind quarters are embodied by the younger Senbei. Although Hyoroku is proud of the fact that their performance is so lifelike, the barber who's paying for the show doesn't seem to be quite of the same opinion and kicks them out in favour of a live animal.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
79 min.
A mysterious man and his two daughters move into a quiet, run-down village. The townspeople are suspicious of the newcomers, until they gradually start having a positive effect on the locals, who find themselves behaving like a real community. But before they can show their gratitude, they discover that the strange family has left as quietly as it came.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
73 min.
After an eight-year acting tour of the country, Kumoemon falls in love with a geisha, becomes famous and leaves the wife who had stood by him through all the hard times. Falling suddenly seriously ill and about to die, his wife mumbles bitter criticisms about his betrayal. Realising the pain he has caused her, Kumoemon pays the woman a posthumous tribute.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
106 min.
University professor Keijiro Kono and his wife Ayako have two children whose real mother is the father's mistress, Miho, an employee in the bar owned by Kono and run by Ayako. As Keijiro and Miho get on less and less well, the latter asks for the bar as compensation for their break-up. When Ayako steadfastly opposes the transaction, Miho demands custody of her children.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
75 min.
Office girl Kimiko looks for the father who abandoned herself and her slightly eccentric poet mother. She discovers that it is his hard-working mistress who has been regularly sending the money on which she and her mother live. Kimiko tries to make her father come home on the pretext that she needs his blessing to get married.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
89 min.
Though young, shamisen player Tsuruhachi and ballad singer Tsurujiro set themselves up as a highly successful duo. But the end of each show triggers off bickering about each other's performances and they finally split up. One of the couple's patrons, Matsuzaki, tries to get them back together again and eventually marries Tsuruhachi.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
123 min.
Tomioka assures his mistress, Yukiko, that he's going to get a divorce from his wife. However, not only does he fail to keep his word, but he refuses to have anything to do with her when she becomes pregnant, preferring to find himself another lover in the young Osei. In spite of this terrible humiliation, Yukiko follows the newly widowed Tomioka to his new job on a far-off jungle-covered island where she soon falls ill.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
93 min.
The adopted son of reputable actor Genzaburo Onchi, Kitahachi, is called upon to take his father's place when the latter retires. On tour, Kitahachi goes to the residence of the legendary actor, Sozan, where he mistakes his beautiful daughter, Osode, for a concubine. Kitahachi insults Sozan and he, humiliated, commits suicide.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
74 min.
Kimiko and Kunie are two sisters with very different natures. Their mother is dead and their father wants to bring the woman who has been his mistress for years home to live. Kunie is on her father's side, partly because she doesn't think her mother was caring enough; but Kimiko puts all her strength into opposing the idea.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
94 min.
Tokyo businessman's son Shuichi lives in his parent's house with his wife Kikuko. His father, Shingo, is an executive of the company for which he works, and they set out together every morning; but while Shingo comes straight home every evening and Kikuko patiently goes about her household chores, Shuichi heads off to have fun with his war widow mistress.
MIKIO NARUSE
Japan
64 min.
Abandoned by her husband Mizuhara, young Omitsu works in a bar to bring up her son, Ayabo. However Mizuhara reappears, declaring that he's turned over a new leaf, that he'll find a job and that she'll soon be able to stop working. But Ayabo is hit by a car and Omitsu realises that there's nothing for it but to continue working as a barmaid to pay the bills. Mizuhara tries to rob a safe, but is caught by the police with a tragical ending.
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