"Okoto and Sasuke" - Okoto and Sasuke

...The film focuses on the works of director Gosho Heinosuke, from his breakthrough film "Shameful Dream" (1927) to the hit "The Tale of Kinuyo" (1930), which gained him huge popularity among fans, to the first full-scale talkie in Japanese cinema, "Madame and Wife" (1931), and the first film adaptation of "The Izu Dancer" (1933), based on the novel by Yasunari Kawabata. It also includes the youth sports stories starring Denmei Suzuki, directed by Ushihara Kyohiko, from "The Emotional Age" (1928) to "The Triumph of the Mountain" (1929), and "The University Through her work with director Ozu Yasujiro, from "I Did a Good Job, But..." (1929) to "I Failed, But..." (1930), and through the first talkies, "Konjiki Yasha" and "Chushingura" (both 1932), as well as her collaborations with Hayashi Chojiro on "My Big Brother" (1933), she became a symbol of Kamata films that "looked brightly and warmly to the future," and was even praised as "the pride of Kamata." She surpassed the first star actress, Kurishima Sumiko, to become the leading star of Shochiku Kamata. She was praised for her romance with Mizuhara Shigeru, the famous third baseman at Keio University and star player in the Waseda-Keio game, and then she "discovered acting" and broke new ground in "Okoto and Sasuke" (1935), the first film adaptation of Tanizaki Junichiro's novel "Shunkinsho" directed by Shimazu Yasujiro, and she reached the peak of her popularity with the smash hit "Aizen Katsura" trilogy (1938-39), which even gave birth to the term "missing contact melodrama." She later ceded stardom to three "modern girls" who "looked good in Western clothing," Takamine Mieko, Kuwano Michiko, and Takasugi Sanae, but after World War II she continued to play an active role as a "talented actress," leaving behind many masterpieces, mainly in the films of Mizoguchi Kenji, from "Women of the Night" (1948) to "The Life of Saikaku" (1952), "Tales of Ugetsu" (1953), and "Sansho Dayu" (1954), as well as in Naruse Mikio's "Mother" (1952), in which she played a Japanese mother, Gosho Heinosuke's "Where the Chimney Can Be Seen" (1953), in which she played a middle-aged woman, and Kinoshita Keisuke's "The Ballad of Narayama" (1958), in which she played an elderly mother abandoned on a mountain where women are abandoned.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Okoto and Sasuke" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…出世作《恥しい夢》(1927)からファンの人気を一身に集めたヒット作《絹代物語》(1930)をへて，日本映画における最初の本格的トーキー《マダムと女房》(1931)，川端康成原作の《伊豆の踊子》の最初の映画化(1933)等々に至る五所平之助監督作品を中心に，《感激時代》(1928)から《山の凱歌》(1929)に至る鈴木伝明主演，牛原虚彦監督による青春スポーツ編や，《大学は出たけれど》(1929)から《落第はしたけれど》(1930)に至る小津安二郎監督作品，トーキー最初の《金色夜叉》や《忠臣蔵》(ともに1932)をへて《私の兄さん》(1933)に至る林長二郎とのコンビ作品などを通して，〈明るくあたたかく未来を見つめる〉蒲田映画のシンボルとなり，〈蒲田の誇り〉とまでたたえられ，スター女優第1号の栗島すみ子を抜いて松竹蒲田の看板スターになる。早慶戦の花形選手だった慶応の名三塁手･水原茂とのロマンスをうたわれ，次いで谷崎潤一郎の小説《春琴抄》の最初の映画化で島津保次郎監督による《お琴と佐助》(1935)で〈演技開眼〉して新境地をひらき，〈すれちがいメロドラマ〉ということばまで生み出した大ヒット作《愛染かつら》三部作(1938‐39)で人気の頂点に達した。その後，〈洋装の似合う〉高峰三枝子，桑野通子，高杉早苗の〈近代娘〉三人にスターの座を譲るが，第2次世界大戦後は《夜の女たち》(1948)から《西鶴一代女》(1952)，《雨月物語》(1953)，《山椒太夫》(1954)等々に至る溝口健二監督作品を中心に，日本の母親を演じた成瀬巳喜男監督《おかあさん》(1952)や，中年女の役を演じた五所平之助監督《煙突の見える場所》(1953)や姥捨山に捨てられる老母を演じた木下恵介監督《楢山節考》(1958)等々を通して，〈演技派女優〉として活躍し，数々の名作を残した。…

※「《お琴と佐助》」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。

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