YEARNING (MIDARERU). Viewed on Streaming. Restoration/preservation = seven (7) stars; cinematography = seven (7) stars; subtitles = five (5) stars; music = two (2) stars. Director Mikio Naruse (credited with writing the story) delivers a photo-play packed with passion/irony (bitterness, suffering, perseverance, and unrequited love to name a few), humor, red herrings (the ending is pretty much a total surprise!), and strong women (Japanese business women are depicted to be as ruthless as their male counterparts) all the while demonstrating mastery of the then-new wide-screen format. It's quite a show! Typically Naruse's stories take place during times of societal change. In this case it examines how war widows deal with their fates and the challenges faced by traditional small family business from emerging large-scale chain stores (in this case food supermarkets). Stunning lead actress Hideko Takamine (a bit on the chubby side?) headlines a strong cast, but easily steals (or is allowed to steal) every scene she is in (she was one of Naruse's favorites). The explicit courtship of Takamine's character by the younger brother of her long deceased (killed in the Pacific War) husband (they have lived in the same household and been secretly in love for quite some time) is cleverly depicted by the Director during a long train ride (towards the film's end). Another classic train-themed movie sequence! Cinematography (2.35:1, black and white) and lighting are understated, but excellent. Subtitles need some grammatical adult supervision, since they often fail to summarize the dialog (and, instead, resort to speed-of-light flash rates!). Text/signage is usually translated. Music is end-to-end terrible. It consists of an impoverished riff on contemporary Italian film scores with a very short theme (maybe 3-4 bars?) repeated ad nausea. And it never fails to distract from every scene in which it is heard! Restoration/preservation is very good (except for a few seconds of noise artifacts as the movie begins). Takamine's character finally lets her hair down (or at least a few strands) in the closing shots. Here her body language and facial expressions seem to summarize the film's plot line in a few seconds. Sagoi Desune! (Amazing!) Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Yearning
