Cinema
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
乙女ごころ三人姉妹
Mikio Naruse · 1935
Synopsis
In Asakusa, a hard mother runs a small business of shamisen players who tour the bars every evening. The eldest of her three daughters, O-Ren, has left this night world to try for a settled life with Kosugi; the middle one, O-Some, still works for her mother; the youngest, Chieko, dances in a cabaret. O-Ren needs money. Il Cinema Ritrovato stresses that the story moves forward through flashbacks and follows the trials of the three sisters in this working-class district.
Context
The film, based on a short story by a writer who later received the Nobel, was released on 1 March 1935: it was its director's first talkie and his first film for his new studio. Il Cinema Ritrovato notes the voice-over, then new, and the sequences carried by music alone, as well as views of the Sensō-ji temple from before the 1945 bombings. The censors cut about three minutes, judged too suggestive about prostitution, and Kinema Junpō held it to be the best Japanese talkie seen by its critics.
Who it is for
Seventy-five minutes, in Japanese with subtitles, built on flashbacks. No release in France.
Prizes and reception
Shown in the United States in 1985 during a retrospective, then in Bologna in 2025 in a restored print.