Cinema
Humanity and Paper Balloons
人情紙風船
Sadao Yamanaka · 1937
Synopsis
In a poor district of Edo, in the eighteenth century, Unno Matajūrō, a masterless samurai, waits in vain for Mōri, his father's former patron, to give him a position; his wife makes paper balloons to keep the household going, and he hides his failures from her. Shinza, a barber, lives off illegal gambling dens and pawning. The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley shows him as a resourceful man who stands up to merchants and lords, among ordinary people and thugs.
Context
The film was released on 25 August 1937, produced by the Zenshin-za troupe and the P.C.L. studio and distributed by Tōhō; the screenplay is attributed to Mimura Shintarō, from his own play. The whole cast comes from this left-wing theatre troupe, with which the director often worked, according to the Berkeley film archive. It is his last film. Donald Richie held its maker to be the most gifted of the period-film directors, and this title to be his best; it was released with subtitles in the United States in 1982.
Who it is for
Eighty-six minutes, in period costume, among the common people of a poor neighbourhood. No release in France.
Prizes and reception
Ranked in 2009 by Kinema Junpō among the best Japanese films of all time, it is regarded as its author's masterpiece.