Yearning

There are a number of very good reviews here, and so not very much that I can add that hasn't already been said, although I do find the absence of a father figure in this film telling, as it upsets the traditional family balance in a world which is already in flux. One wonders if we aren't to infer that Koji's dissolute lifestyle is a consequence of the war and the loss of his older brother and father. The mother is largely ineffectual, and while Reiko chastens him, it's always mildly maternal and not very effective. I suspect this would have been a salient theme in post war Japan, when so many men failed to return from the war. Reiko, for her part is the only character who really possesses the dignity of character that might have characterized pre-war Japan, helping to explain why the hapless Koji is drawn to her. In a sense, then, she epitomizes the virtues of Japan before the war, cheerfully going about her duties, serving her family without complaint even as most people around her slide into selfishness and desire. That she ultimately gives way to expedience says much about the shifting mores that Japan experienced in the post-war environment. Koji's fate too, seems sealed when at last any chance of being with her disappears. It's interesting that Naruse's last film Floating Clouds revisits some of the same themes of a woman who is emotionally more mature than her suitor, and who likewise walks away. It's a rewarding experience to see both films.

I was really astonished to see so few reviews on such a great movie.

Yearning (A woman in upheaval in its French title, Midareru in Japanese - being disturbed) is a movie that deserves your attention. And not only if you like Japan. Of course, it is really characteristic of Japanese culture at that time and the change that proceeds in this country at that time, beginning to shift from tradition to modernity. But it is also the wonderful tale a the relationship between two people and how the social constraint applies to them. And how this relationship begin to shift (yes, like the country itself, however not in the same way).

Emotion, society, money, this movies addresses a lot of topics but do not forget to follow its story. Helped with a great acting, with a beautiful female lead characer, it is a successful movie in every aspects. Do take your time to enjoy it!

I have all the respect in the world for Mikio Naruse, I really do. His films always touch on things that are still relevant- he's good at exploring timeless themes. His films always have good acting, and are also always nice to look at. They're also tremendously empathetic, and focus far more on female characters than many films from the 1950s and 60s. In that way, they also feel forward-thinking and maybe even radical.

But at the same time, I do always find them slow-going and a little hard to really get into it. There's a certain distance I feel every time I watch one of his movies, even while I recognise they're very well-made. And there's no proper criticisms I can make about it; not more than saying I just find his films a little boring.

It's a me problem. I still respect what he did as a filmmaker, and I do understand why he's so highly regarded. His movies just aren't really for me - not any I've seen yet, at least.

Mikio Naruse is of the same generation as Kurosawa, Ozu and Mitzoguchi, but he is less well known. His films have much in common with those of Yasujiro Ozu. His main themes are family relations and the tension between tradition and modernisation in Japan after World War II. His female characters are on average stronger than the women in Ozu films.

"Yearning" is one of his latest and highly rated films. It is typical of his whole oeuvre. Tradition versus modernisation is represented by the mom and dad stores threatened by the rise of supermarkets. The strong woman is the young widow who has build up the mom and dad store of her parents in law after her husband died in World War II. Family complications arise when the family (mostly the daughters) plans to sell the premise of the store to a supermarket and wants to get rid of their sister in law. That they rap up this message in the form of concern (isn't it time for their sister in law to remarry?) makes is no less selfish.

With the widowed sister in law as the only likeable character in the film one almost has has to think of "Tokyo story" (1953, Yasujiro Ozu).

I have binge watching Naruse films and have liked all but one. Yearning may be the moving both as a love story and as a story of social change. The theme of small businesses being run out by large corporations is as timely today in the US as it was in 1964 Japan. The two leads are terrific and have great chemistry. Highly recommended