Tomorrow never comes

Japanese: 《明日は来らず》 - あすはきたらず

...A 42-year-old man (Charles Laughton) who has been a servant to the core of the British aristocratic class system, is sold to a rancher in the American West after losing a poker game to his master. He is confused by the atmosphere of freedom and independence in a country that is different from his past, but eventually sets out on his own and opens a restaurant. This film is full of laughter and tears as it depicts the "American Dream". Jean Renoir praised McCarey for loving and understanding people more than any other Hollywood director, and this film is said to be the purest and most overflowing of McCarey's humanism, along with Tomorrow Will Not Come (1937, said to have been the basis for Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953)), a tragedy that depicts the joys and sorrows of an elderly couple in the reality of the collapse of the family system. ...

From "Tokyo Story"

...The screenplay was written by Noda Kogo, his famous partner in the director's work, the cinematography was by Atsuta Yuharu, a regular since "Toda Brothers and Sisters" (1941), and the music was by Saito Kojun, who became a regular from this work onwards. The theme of an elderly couple (Ryu Chishu, Higashiyama Chieko) who come to Tokyo from the countryside and are not welcomed by their blood relatives' children, but are instead welcomed by the wife (Hara Setsuko) of their son who died in the war, is said to have been inspired by the American film "Tomorrow Never Comes" (directed by Leo McCarey, 1937), but Ozu had not seen the film while he was drafted, and this only influenced Noda Kogo's screenplay. The relationship between the elderly parents and their adult children could be said to be a postwar version of "Toda Brothers and Sisters" (although "Toda Brothers and Sisters" itself is said to be an adaptation of the American film "Over the Hill" (1931) directed by Henry King...).

*Some of the terminology explanations that mention "Tomorrow never comes" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…イギリス貴族社会の階級制度の中で骨の髄まで召使根性がしみこんだ42歳になる男(チャールズ･ロートン)が，ポーカーのかけに負けた主人の手からアメリカ西部の牧場主の手に渡り，かっての違う自由と独立の国の空気にとまどいながら，やがて一人立ちしてレストランを開くに至るまでの〈アメリカの夢〉を笑いと涙で包んで描く。ジャン･ルノアールは，マッケリーを，ハリウッドの監督のだれよりも人間を愛し理解していると評したが，この作品のあとにつくられた家族制度の崩壊の現実の中で老夫婦の哀歓を描いた悲劇《明日は来らず》(1937。小津安二郎監督の《東京物語》(1953)の原典になったといわれる)とともに，マッケリーのヒューマニズムがもっとも純粋に横溢した作品とされる。…

【東京物語】より

…脚本は監督自身と名コンビの野田高梧，撮影は《戸田家の兄妹》(1941)以来常連の厚田雄春，音楽はこの作品から常連になる斎藤高順。地方から上京した老夫婦(笠智衆，東山千栄子)が血縁の子どもたちの家に快く迎えられず，逆に戦死した息子の嫁(原節子)にもてなされるという題材は，アメリカ映画《明日は来らず》(レオ･マッケリー監督，1937)に想を得たものといわれるが，召集中の小津はその映画を見ておらず，それは野田高梧の脚本に影響を与えたにとどまる。老境を迎えた両親と壮年に達した子どもたちとの関係はむしろ《戸田家の兄妹》の戦後版といえよう(もっとも，《戸田家の兄妹》そのものもヘンリー･キング監督のアメリカ映画《オーバー･ゼ･ヒル》(1931)の翻案といわれているのだが……)。…

※「《明日は来らず》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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