Between then and when I watched it a second time, I read the novel on which the movie … During World War II, a serialization of the novel was canceled by the Japanese government as it was regarded as too 'soft' and 'effeminate', with Tanizaki also accused of not being appreciative enough of the war effort. Slow movements like a Swedish slopera canape bamboo opera. We just wish we knew if and when it will ever be made available on DVD or videotape. Subtitles = one (1) star. One should first read The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki to better understand this film. The way one guy even just swinged his arms in as he entered the room . However, the story itself seemed awfully flat overall. Kishi and Sakuma are the older siblings, now married, who are determined to see the final As an adaptation this film is something of a hack job, and taken on its own merits borders on melodrama. Structured around the changing of the seasons, The Makioka Sisters (Sasame-yuki) follows the lives of four siblings who have taken on their family’s kimono manufacturing business, in the years leading up to the Pacific War. The glorious Japanese kimonos are worn by most women, and they are truly beautiful. We had read the book and found the film followed it faithfully and was gorgeously photographed. It is a very moving film that depicts a post war Japan in a sudden class change and change in general, with the conservative upper class feeling isolated from everyone else. But no matter what fortune has in store, the four sisters always gather in Kyoto, Japan, to view the cherry blossoms, the ritual marking the changes in their lives from year to year. In abridging the material, Ichikawa pares back the story by eliminating all…. But its emotions are just as fake as its aesthetic. The sprawling narrative follows four sisters living in Osaka in the years leading up to World War II and is a film about the generation gap between siblings, and the reluctance of some to acknowledge that the times and traditions are changing. Even with such a disconnection of time and culture, it's grotesquely apparent that clinging to to wealth and oppressive traditions doesn't leave room for the mountains and valleys of human complexity. Their parents are dead, and the oldest sister is responsible for the family name and the family honor. We saw this beautiful movie several years ago at a Pacific Film Archive showing. A decent film, but that's all. I can handle the truth. The once-prominent Makioka family undergoes a decline over the years, partially as a result of the Allied Occupation during the '40s. A dying businessman intends to will two hundred million yen to his three illegitimate children, but his associates scheme to take advantage of the situation. This…, Constantly updating. I think it's essential to get from A to B in this case having hit every speed bump along the way. The Japanese movie entitled Sasameyuki (Light Snow) (1983) was shown in the U.S. with the title The Makioka Sisters. Title: Directed by Kon Ichikawa. The women are rendered feminine stereotypes via almost constant tears (totally absent from the novel), and the men tend to just shout and lust. All the dialog is spoken in "Osaka-ben" or Osaka dialect, which has a softer sound than Tokyo dialect. Beautiful movie and very different from other Japanese movies, I think it is a perfect adaptation from the book, Surprisingly, this didn't feel as long as it is to me somehow. beautiful film but damn this adaptation did teinosuke real dirty. We have a deeper understanding of what it…, A classy soap opera that made my brain hurt while trying to process all the characters and their various stories. Japanese Cries and Whispers with haute giallo melodrama/ or Keeping up with the Kardashians: Pre-War Japan. Takes some time to set up the characters and their individual situations, but it's surprisingly well paced once it gets going. There's an even greater deception in this film which I'll get to in the 4th paragraph, but let's start with the plot first. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 9. By balancing, the comic and the serious within the story, Ichikawa creates a realistic ambience, one enhanced by the collective talents of a fine ensemble. | On the positive side all the technical aspects blah blah. For Toho's 50th Anniversary production, the studio chose a third adaptation of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's famous novel and entrusted it to the veteran Kon Ichikawa, a director who by the time the film went into production - 1983 - was approaching forty years' service behind the camera. Download the TV Guide app for iPhone, iPad and Android! I know nothing of the other two, but this one is a sly masterpiece that demonstrates how great literature can become great film. His ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival. TMDb Most of the characters would have surely benefited from a massive dose of this, as the way they were portrayed it was, at times, hard to for me to care about them or sustain my interest in the film. Right now the major crisis for them is finding a husband for Yukiko, the third eldest, so that the youngest sibling, Taeko, can get married herself Edit Translation. But don't get the wrong idea, this isn't some taught social drama, it's a highly aesthetic film and incredibly beautiful. A pot boiler with sumptuous production values. It's not that it's really complicated, it's just that they're very important. It is a very great novel about the life of four middle-class sisters in Osaka, Japan in the 1930's. The first 13 minutes during the credits is my favorite scene, filmed in Kyoto in Springtime. Yukinojo, a Kabuki actor, seeks revenge by destroying the three men who caused the deaths of his parents. The novel begins in 1938, shortly before it was actually written. And the two older sisters were very domineering but needed to be softened a little more--lest they seem too one-dimensional. The film was made for the 50th anniversary of the Toho film company and who knows to what extent the production company's executives constrained Ichikawa, in being faithful to the novel's original storyline. You can't convince me that this isn't Japanese Little Women. Kishi and Sakuma are the older siblings, now married, who are determined to see the final, two, Yoshinaga and Kotegawa, betrothed as well. In 1983, director Kon Ichikawa made this film adaptation of the epic 1948 postwar novel "Sasameyuki" ("light snow"). The once-prominent Makioka family undergoes a decline over the years, partially as a result of the Allied Occupation during the '40s. The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The Makioka Sisters is a Whartonian work of compassionate nostalgia tinctured with irony. Think Brighter Summer Day but with no gang violence. Constantly fussing with their godlike kimonos. It's interesting to say the least, and at times comes off comedic - an intentional byproduct I think, - in seeing a man compare his marital prospect to a fish, and her family as the bountiful nurturing stream around her. ***Warning: Some spoilers from both the movie and book on which it’s based ahead***, I’ve seen “The Makioka Sisters” twice. The consequences of a father and son's violent act reverberate through three generations of their family. Every detail a pearl. A family drama, every person has its own distinct personality and everyone is trying their hardest to find a suitor to the youngest sister but completely forgets what she wants and her own emotions in hindsight of all this and she of course wants to do well by her family too. | The movie was co-written and directed by Kon Ichikawa. FAQ Essential viewing. there's a special place in my heart for movies that simultaneously are of their time and anachronistic: the luxuriousness and traditionalism of the well-off matriarchal family's existence (kimonos, elaborate meals with suitors in restaurants, long walks in the park to chat and take in the cherry blossoms) juxtaposed with the austerity of wartime japan, all set to the synthiest possible 80s score. "Each sister is engaged in their own affairs, but Ichikawa's film (its Japanese title can be literally translated as "light snow") allots the lion's share to Sachiko and Yukiko, and the matchmaking arrangement preceded by precise calculation of all the conceivable conditions ("background" should be investigated through and through, no mentally disturbed mother-in-law lurking in the dark), the sheer canniness and the business-like action is astounding (death certificates of diseased wife and children are tossed over the dinner table), and Yukiko, played by beloved Japanese actress Yoshinaga with a comely reticence, extraordinarily wears down the mounting pressure and grinding process, to claim her hard-won victory, a good match is worth the wait, especially when eligible ones are few and far between during the wartime; whereas Sakuma, so adroitly embodies Sachiko's diligence and tenuous discomposure under a painstakingly maintained graciousness that comes naturally with age and savoir faire.". The Most Comprehensive List of Japanese Movies Ever...Maybe, Every Film Available on The Criterion Channel, The Criterion Channel: The Permanent Streaming Library, The Completely Complete Criterion Collection, Kinema Junpo's Best Ten Japanese Films (1926-2019). Luckily, Kon Ichikawa's potent film-making can withstand the technical flaws, for his deft understanding of the nuanced story of Jun'ichirô Tanizaki's novel is, in all other respects, esteemable by the deft use of film-makers' tools, cinematography, production design, costumes and editing--all seemingly pointed toward purity of affect. ", Find the full review here: wp.me/p3waMl-3io, 影片里的空镜是真的美啊。人物行为和表达也很克制，有那个时候的美丽。全片以雪子的相亲为主线，讲述了四姐妹各自的生活。有日本上个世纪的文化里一如既往的欲言又止。大姐的自矜，二姐的柔善，三姐表面的羞涩和内在的不羁和小妹的勇敢。形式上有点形式化，但还是美的。战争在片里似乎只是陪衬。. This graceful study of a family at a turning point in history is a poignant evocation of changing times and fading customs, shot in rich, vivid colors. I was laughing quite a bit at the dramatics too. The Makioka Sisters, the movie I've just watched (again) the Criterion Collection's high-definition DVD restoration of The Makioka Sisters . The two oldest have been married for some time, but according to tradition, the rebellious youngest sister cannot wed until the third, conservative and terribly shy, finds a husband. His An Obsession (1959) was the first and the best out of, as far as I can make out, five adaptations of the author's The … Written by The Makioka Sisters is based on the classic Japanese novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. Three Sisters with Laden Hearts: Hirokazu Koreeda and the Non-traditional Family. Two of the sisters are married and spend most of the three books trying to get the other two sisters married. When the movie was released in 1983, Japan was at the height of economic prosperity and according to the film's notable director, Kon Ichikawa, the Japanese public was not interested in watching anything that could be construed as depressing. Tsuruko and Sachiko, the eldest, have to balance their personal lives and marriages as they try to find the best candidate to marry timid Yukiko, and deal with young and rebellious Taeko. What I've read about the novel is that it's a rather slow-moving but painstakingly detailed chronicle of a formerly successful Osaka merchant family, now in decline. However, Kishi and...read more, This familial drama, from the respected Japanese director Ichikawa, chronicles the intertwining lives of four wealthy sisters who have inherited money from their late parents' shipbuilding business. She starred in over 100 films. It is an exquisitely photographed melodrama, with beautiful costumes and production design, and touching moments of joy or sadness. The Makioka Sisters shows Ichikawa going back to one of the greatest 20th Century Japanese writers, Junichiro Tanizaki. This is a gorgeous film to watch--you probably will never see a more beautiful view of Japan as you see of the wonderful cherry blossoms or Japanese Maples around Kyoto and Osaka. Exterior location and interior sets look/are authentic. Was this review helpful to you? Three men case a small town very carefully, with plans to rob the bank on the upcoming Saturday, which turns violent and deadly.