Takekurabe (1955 film)
{{short description|1955 Japanese film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Takekurabe
| image = Takekurabe poster.jpg
| caption = Japanese movie poster
| director = Heinosuke Gosho
| producer = {{ubl|Tsūjin Fukushima|Sadao Sugihara|Ippei Hata}}
| writer = {{ubl|Toshio Yasumi (screenplay)|Higuchi Ichiyō (novella)}}
| starring = {{ubl|Hibari Misora|Takashi Kitahara|Keiko Kishi}}
| music = Yasushi Akutagawa
| cinematography = Joji Ohara
| editing =
| studio =
| distributor = Shintoho
| released = {{Film date|1955|08|28|Japan|df=y|ref1={{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1955/ce003010.htm |title=たけくらべ (Takekurabe) |website=Japanese Movie Database |language=ja |access-date=2021-01-18}}{{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=24479 |title=たけくらべ (Takekurabe) |language=ja |publisher=Kinenote |access-date=27 December 2020}}}}
| runtime = 95 minutes
| country = Japan
| language = Japanese
}}
{{nihongo|Takekurabe|たけくらべ|Takekurabe|lit. "Comparing heights"}}, English titles Growing Up, Adolescence, or Daughters of Yoshiwara, is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Heinosuke Gosho. It is based on Higuchi Ichiyō's 1895-1896 novella Takekurabe.
Plot
Growing up in the Yoshiwara red light district of Meiji era Edo, teenage boy Shinnyo, son of a buddhist priest, helplessly witnesses not only his sister Ohana being sold as a concubine by his money-loving father, but also the fate of Midori, a neighbourhood girl to whom he has an unspoken affection, who is destined to become a courtesan like her older sister Omaki.
Cast
- Hibari Misora as Midori
- Keiko Kishi as Omaki
- Mitsuko Yoshikawa as Orin, Midori's mother
- Zeko Nakamura as Gosuke, Midori's father
- Eijirō Yanagi as owner of the Daikokuya
- Takashi Kitahara as Shinnyo
- Setsuko Shinobu as Shinnyo's mother
- Takamaru Sasaki as Shinnyo's father
- Kurayoshi Nakamura as Sangoro
- Yūko Mochizuki as Sangoro's mother
- Takeshi Sakamoto as Sangoro's father
- Akira Hattori as Chokichi
- Kyū Sazanka as Tatsugoro, Chokichi's father
- Matsumoto Hakuō II (credited Somegorō Ichikawa) as Shōtarō
- Kikue Mōri as Shōtarō's grandmother
- Atsuko Ichinomiya as messenger
- Iida Chōko as Baayaotoki
- Isuzu Yamada as Okichi
- Hatae Kishi
- Kyū Sakamoto (uncredited)
Production and reception
Takekurabe was independently produced by Tsūjin Fukushima's company {{nihongo|New Art Productions|新芸術プロダクション|Shin Geijutsu Purodakushon}}, which resulted in budgetary constraints and compromises in the filming. It received mixed reviews during its initial run for being "overliterary" and the casting of pop star Hibari Misora.{{cite book |last1=Nolletti Jr. |first1=Arthur |author-link= |date=2008 |title=The Cinema of Gosho Heinosuke: Laughter through Tears |url= |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=214–225, 303 |isbn=978-0-253-34484-7}} Film scholar Donald Richie and Gosho biographer Arthur Nolletti later called Takekurabe an "outstanding example" (Nolletti) of the Meiji-mono (Meiji period film) and "one of the finest due to its excellent sets" (by Kazuo Kubo), "its superb photography and the nearly perfect performances" (Richie).{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Joseph L. |last2=Richie |first2=Donald |author-link= |date=1959 |title=The Japanese Film – Art & Industry |url= |location=Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo |publisher=Charles E. Tuttle Company |page= |isbn=}}
Awards
- Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress Isuzu Yamada in Takekurabe and Ishigassen{{cite web|url=http://cinemahochi.yomiuri.co.jp/b_award/1955/ |title=6th Blue Ribbon Awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130211031mp_/http://cinemahochi.yomiuri.co.jp/b_award/1955/ |archive-date=2012-11-30 |language=ja |access-date=2021-01-18}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0048689}}
{{Heinosuke Gosho}}
Category:Japanese black-and-white films
Category:Films based on short fiction
Category:Films directed by Heinosuke Gosho