...and director Keisuke Kinoshita. The story is a multi-generational look at a family and its relationship to the army and patriotic duty. Beginning in the mid Meiji period (circa 1885) and moving forward to succeeding major military conflicts in China and Russia, the film primarily focuses on Tomosuke Takagi, a callow youth who is taught the value of self-sacrifice and service by his dying father. When Tomosuke comes of age, he (Chishu Ryu) becomes an army officer, but is too sickly for front-line combat. Later in life he hopes to instill his son with the same militaristic drive for the coming conflict with America. Also featuring Kinuyo Tanaka, Ken Uehara, Haruko Sugimura, Shin Saburi, and Eijiro Tono.
This film repeatedly hits on the concept of sacrificing one's own desires in subservience to the Emperor, and the ideal that a noble death is better than a long life. It's easily one of the most strident propaganda movies I've seen from this or any other country. However, it was surprisingly controversial at the time due to the ending. This ending consists of the mother seeing her son off to war, and crying at the sight of him leaving. This was considered terrible by the government censors, as family members, even mothers, were expected to be happy to send off their loved ones to fight. To show someone with some remorse was not just in bad taste, it was almost treasonous. As such, the director was banned from making any more films until after the war.
While the propaganda aspects are both simple-minded and disturbing, I did enjoy the film's cast, including Ozu regular Chishu Ryu and Mizoguchi regular Kinuyo Tanaka as his wife. I was also impressed with the early historical segments.
This film repeatedly hits on the concept of sacrificing one's own desires in subservience to the Emperor, and the ideal that a noble death is better than a long life. It's easily one of the most strident propaganda movies I've seen from this or any other country. However, it was surprisingly controversial at the time due to the ending. This ending consists of the mother seeing her son off to war, and crying at the sight of him leaving. This was considered terrible by the government censors, as family members, even mothers, were expected to be happy to send off their loved ones to fight. To show someone with some remorse was not just in bad taste, it was almost treasonous. As such, the director was banned from making any more films until after the war.
While the propaganda aspects are both simple-minded and disturbing, I did enjoy the film's cast, including Ozu regular Chishu Ryu and Mizoguchi regular Kinuyo Tanaka as his wife. I was also impressed with the early historical segments.