Underplayed Gems

A Japanese Tragedy (1953)

A Japanese Tragedy poster
Original title
日本の悲劇
Directed by
Keisuke Kinoshita
Genre
drama film
Country
Japan
Runtime
1h 56m
Rating
5.8 of 10 from 16 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A widowed mother turns to prostitution to support her two children during and after World War II. Her children eventually reject her out of shame. The film uses flashbacks and newsreel footage to connect their personal story to Japan's post-war struggles.

bleakmelancholicemotionally heavysocially consciousexperimentalreflectivedownbeatrealisticpost-war trauma

What happens

A Japanese Tragedy (日本の悲劇, Nihon no higeki), also known as Tragedy of Japan, is a 1953 Japanese drama film written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. The film tells the story of a widowed mother who turns to prostitution to raise two children during and after World War II, but her children, ashamed of her, reject her. It was ranked as the 6th best film of the year in 1953 by Kinema Junpo. The film was experimental for its time, with a complex use of flashbacks that creates continuity between the war and post-war periods. Kinoshita also interspersed newsreel footage and newspaper pages within the film in an attempt to relate the story of the film to the wider context of Japan's post-war difficulties. It is a social problem film, with the director having written that: "No matter what kind of social structure, no matter what form of government, I think humans must not be left in a state of misery;” Kinoshita sought to make the film's narrative more realistic than previous hahamonos (Japanese films about mothers). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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