Japanese Girls at the Harbor (film)
{{Short description|1933 film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Japanese Girls at the Harbor
| image = Minato no Nihon musume (1933).jpg
| caption = Michiko Oikawa and Yukiko Inoue in
Japanese Girls at the Harbor
| native_name = {{Infobox Japanese| kanji = 港の日本娘}}
| director = Hiroshi Shimizu
| producer = Takeshi Sato
| writer = {{ubl|Mitsu Suyama|Toma Kitabayashi (novel)}}
| starring = {{ubl|Michiko Oikawa|Yukiko Inoue|Ureo Egawa|Ranko Sawa|Yumeko Aizome}}
| music =
| cinematography = Tarō Sasaki
| editing =
| studio = Shochiku
| distributor = Shochiku
| released = {{Film date|1933|06|01|df=y}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1933/bi002150.htm |title=港の日本娘 (Japanese Girls at the Harbor) |website=Japanese Movie Database |access-date=21 February 2021 |language=ja}}
| country = Japan
| language = Japanese
}}
File:Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933) by Hiroshi Shimizu.webm
{{Nihongo|Japanese Girls at the Harbor|港の日本娘|Minato no nihon musume}} is a 1933 Japanese silent drama film directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. It is based on the novel of the same name by Toma Kitabayashi.{{cite web |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b79bac74c |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112131016/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b79bac74c |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 January 2018 |title=Japanese Girls at the Harbor |website=British Film Institute |access-date=26 December 2020 }}{{cite web|url=https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/122752.html |title=Jeunes filles Japonaises sur le port |website=La cinémathèque française |language=fr |access-date=26 December 2020 }} Film historians have called Japanese Girls at the Harbor an "electrifying masterpiece of Japanese silent cinema",{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/best-japanese-film-every-year-from-1925-now |title=The Best Japanese Film of Every Year – From 1925 to Now |website=British Film Institute |access-date=26 December 2020 }} and "visually flamboyant and emotionally intense".{{cite book |last=Jacoby |first=Alexander |date=2008 |title=Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day |location=Berkeley |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |isbn=978-1-933330-53-2}}
Plot
The friendship of Sunako and Dora, both mixed-race teenagers attending a Catholic school in Yokohama, is at stake with the appearance of careless playboy Henry. After a short-lived affair, Henry leaves Sunako for a third girl, Yoko. In an outburst of jealousy, Sunako shoots Yoko with Henry's revolver in a church's prayer room.
A few years later, Sunako, whom according to the intertitles "God hasn't forgiven", lives with unsuccessful painter Miura and works as a prostitute in a bar, while Henry and Dora are married and expecting a child. When Sunako is re-united with Henry and Dora, new tensions arise, while Miura is acquainted with a young woman from the neighbourhood who turns out to be Yoko, who survived the shooting. Sunako decides not to interfere with Dora's marriage and convinces Henry to stay with his wife and become a responsible father. After Yoko dies of illness, Sunako and Miura decide to start anew elsewhere and leave Yokohama by ship.
Cast
- Michiko Oikawa as Sunako Kurokawa
- Yukiko Inoue as Dora Kennel
- Ureo Egawa as Henry
- Ranko Sawa as Yōko Sheridan
- Yumeko Aizome as Masumi
- Tatsuo Saitō as Miura, the painter
- Yasuo Nanjō as Harada
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last=Richie |first=Donald |date=2005 |title=A Hundred Years of Japanese Film |location=Tokyo, New York, London |publisher=Kodansha International |isbn=978-4-7700-2995-9|edition=Revised }}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0160535}}
- {{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=64624 |title=港の日本娘 (Japanese Girls at the Harbor) |website=Kinenote |access-date=21 February 2021 |language=ja}}
{{Hiroshi Shimizu}}
Category:1930s Japanese-language films
Category:Japanese black-and-white films
Category:Films based on Japanese novels
Category:Films directed by Hiroshi Shimizu
Category:Films with screenplays by Hiroshi Shimizu