Mikio Naruse Retrospective

From 12 to 29 January EYE Amsterdam runs a Mikio Naruse Retrospective. 

“Neither in his early experimental period nor in the mature postwar films did Naruse achieve a mastery of a specific visual style to merit comparison with the work of Mizoguchi or Ozu. Nevertheless, he commands respect as the architect of subtle and profound realist dramas, distinguished by careful observation and superb acting. His genre is the shomin-geki – the film about the lower middle classes – within which his specialities are the precise delineation of social milieux, of material hardship and practical responsibilities, and ‘the compassionate portrayal of courageous women faced with great adversity.’ While nothing in Naruse’s oeuvre matches the radical feminism of My Love Has Been Burning (1949), his heroines are generally more independent and practical, less prone to romantic self-oppression, than Mizoguchi’s suffering women. Yet independence and practicality are virtues of limited significance in Naruse’s treacherous and unhappy world, which tends to crush its inhabitants regardless. His characters lack the hope and good humour of Ozu’s in the face of disappointment, and, unlike Mizoguchi’s protagonists, they are usually denied the luxury of death.”

Alexander Jacoby1

• 1Alexander Jacoby, “Mikio Naruse”.