Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
- kinjitsu
- Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:39 pm
- Location: Uffa!
Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Mikio Naruse was one of the most popular directors in Japan, a crafter of exquisite melodramas, mostly about women confined by their social and domestic circumstances. Though often compared with Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi for his style and treatment of characters, Naruse was a unique artist, making heartrending, brilliantly photographed and edited films about the impossible pursuit of happiness. From the outset of his career, with his silent films of the early thirties, Naruse zeroed in on the lives of the kinds of people—geisha, housewives, waitresses—who would continue to fascinate him for the next three decades. Though he made two dozen silent films, only five remain in existence; these works—poignant, dazzlingly made dramas all—are collected here, newly restored and on DVD for the first time, and featuring optional new scores by noted musicians Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz.
Flunky, Work Hard
Mikio Naruse’s earliest film in circulation is a charming, breezy short about an impoverished insurance salesman, Okabe, who is desperate to sell a policy to a wealthy family, and his scrappy young son.
No Blood Relation
An actress returns to Tokyo after a successful stint in Hollywood to reclaim the daughter she abandoned years before—with the help of her gangster brother. Yet the child’s father, and especially her nurturing new stepmother, won’t give in to the mother’s demands so easily.
Apart from You
For Apart from You, Mikio Naruse turned his camera on the lives of working women. This gently devastating evocation of women’s limited options in Depression-era Japan was a critical breakthrough for the director.
Every-Night Dreams
A single mother works tirelessly as a Ginza bar hostess to ensure a better life for her young son in Naruse’s formally ravishing drama about the desperation of daily living.
Street Without End
Mikio Naruse’s final silent film is a gloriously rich portrait of a waitress, Sugiko, whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a suffocatingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.
Mikio Naruse was one of the most popular directors in Japan, a crafter of exquisite melodramas, mostly about women confined by their social and domestic circumstances. Though often compared with Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi for his style and treatment of characters, Naruse was a unique artist, making heartrending, brilliantly photographed and edited films about the impossible pursuit of happiness. From the outset of his career, with his silent films of the early thirties, Naruse zeroed in on the lives of the kinds of people—geisha, housewives, waitresses—who would continue to fascinate him for the next three decades. Though he made two dozen silent films, only five remain in existence; these works—poignant, dazzlingly made dramas all—are collected here, newly restored and on DVD for the first time, and featuring optional new scores by noted musicians Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz.
Flunky, Work Hard
Mikio Naruse’s earliest film in circulation is a charming, breezy short about an impoverished insurance salesman, Okabe, who is desperate to sell a policy to a wealthy family, and his scrappy young son.
No Blood Relation
An actress returns to Tokyo after a successful stint in Hollywood to reclaim the daughter she abandoned years before—with the help of her gangster brother. Yet the child’s father, and especially her nurturing new stepmother, won’t give in to the mother’s demands so easily.
Apart from You
For Apart from You, Mikio Naruse turned his camera on the lives of working women. This gently devastating evocation of women’s limited options in Depression-era Japan was a critical breakthrough for the director.
Every-Night Dreams
A single mother works tirelessly as a Ginza bar hostess to ensure a better life for her young son in Naruse’s formally ravishing drama about the desperation of daily living.
Street Without End
Mikio Naruse’s final silent film is a gloriously rich portrait of a waitress, Sugiko, whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a suffocatingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Anybody who doesn't buy this by at least the next sale should be banned. I mean it's five, admitedly short, movies from one of the best directors of all time for practically nothing.
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Wow, great release. The price is ridiculous. I think I actually did a triple take at "$35.96" with a probable online discount that comes to, let's see, five classic rare films for about the same price as a mid-tier sashimi plate. Every Night Dreams is probably my favorite of the bunch but it's been a while since I've seen them all.
- aox
- Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
- Location: nYc
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
could that price be a typo awaiting correction?
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
The MSRP is $44.95, which is consistent with most other three-disc Eclipse sets. Keep in mind, each movie only averages an hour.
- aox
- Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
- Location: nYc
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Oh, 3 disc! I assumed 5. Makes sense now. Thanks susquehanna wrestling organization.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
All those posts I've made about wrestling must have given me away.
- feckless boy
- Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:38 pm
- Location: Stockholm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Finally! I've seen three of them, ranging from good to excellent. Kinda surprised Wife! Be Like a Rose! isn't part of the set - doubt we'll see it in the main line though.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
It's because that movie is a talkie, not a silent.feckless boy wrote:Finally! I've seen three of them, ranging from good to excellent. Kinda surprised Wife! Be Like a Rose! isn't part of the set - doubt we'll see it in the main line though.
Another surprise is that it seems these 5 films haven't been released in Japan on DVD. The US is getting them first.
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
- Location: New England
- Contact:
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
2 masterpieces here -- Apart From You and Every Night Dreams. The rest are all quite worthwhile. Really an essential set.
I was disappointed that Shochiku never honored Naruse's 100th birthday -- this will have to serve as a belated present.
I was disappointed that Shochiku never honored Naruse's 100th birthday -- this will have to serve as a belated present.
- Yojimbo
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
- Location: Ireland
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Can't wait for the next DD/B&N sale
Of course, I've got to watch the euro/dollar exchange rate, also
Of course, I've got to watch the euro/dollar exchange rate, also
- justeleblanc
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:05 pm
- Location: Connecticut
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
We may get an Naruse's First Talkies set. He was somewhat significant in the transition to sound in Japan as I think he was the only filmmaker to have his own sound recording technology. I think the others either used Western Electric or an RCA rip-off.feckless boy wrote:Finally! I've seen three of them, ranging from good to excellent. Kinda surprised Wife! Be Like a Rose! isn't part of the set - doubt we'll see it in the main line though.
I'm still waiting for my Yamanaka and my Gosho boxset. Will this ever happen?
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
- Location: New England
- Contact:
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Ozu experimented (in Only Son) with a home grown sound system, Naruse was happy to use PCL's (i.e. the future Toho's) more or less state of the art technology.
His early talkies were a mixed bag, some were great (e.g., Wife! Be Like a Rose! and Five Sisters With Maiden Hearts), some are fascinating, even if "lesser" films (e.g., Morning's Tree Lined Streets, Actress and Poet), some are oddities that don't entirely work, but are still of some interest (e.g., 5 Men in a Circus) and some are pretty much clunkers (e.g., The Road I Travel With You, Tochuken Kumoemon). He also has some wonderful films from the war era (late 30s thru mid-40s) and some really wonderful post-war (but pre-Repast) films.
His early talkies were a mixed bag, some were great (e.g., Wife! Be Like a Rose! and Five Sisters With Maiden Hearts), some are fascinating, even if "lesser" films (e.g., Morning's Tree Lined Streets, Actress and Poet), some are oddities that don't entirely work, but are still of some interest (e.g., 5 Men in a Circus) and some are pretty much clunkers (e.g., The Road I Travel With You, Tochuken Kumoemon). He also has some wonderful films from the war era (late 30s thru mid-40s) and some really wonderful post-war (but pre-Repast) films.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Is this all of his surviving silents by the way? The title seems to suggest that, but you never know.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Criterion wrote:Though he made two dozen silent films, only five remain in existence; these works—poignant, dazzlingly made dramas all—are collected here, newly restored and on DVD for the first time
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
You wouldn't really expect me to read the summaries would you? That would just be classless.
- feckless boy
- Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:38 pm
- Location: Stockholm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
What can I say...I just remembered it as being silent, you know because...ah forget it.manicsounds wrote:It's because that movie is a talkie, not a silent.feckless boy wrote:Finally! I've seen three of them, ranging from good to excellent. Kinda surprised Wife! Be Like a Rose! isn't part of the set - doubt we'll see it in the main line though.
- Tommaso
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Completely unexpected, and already competing for Eclipse Set of the Year. All I can say is: YEEEES!
- YnEoS
- Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2010 10:30 am
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
The 2 things I wanted most out of Criterion, more Naruse and more silent films. Combined together in one amazing release. My enthusiasm could not be higher. I've only seen Flunky! Work Hard, and thought it was absolutely wonderful. To hear that this is one of the minor films, is even more exciting.
- ltfontaine
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:34 pm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Only five Naruse silents survive, but they all do so in reasonably good shape. It took me awhile to acclimate to the highly kinetic style of Not Blood Relations, but that is now my favorite among the five. It will be interesting to see what others make of it when the set becomes available.
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
- Location: New England
- Contact:
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
Not "minor". Just not as totally wonderful as my two favorites.;~} It is stylistically adventurous (and heterogeneous) and, in part, points to some directions Naruse did not follow in his later films (even his next surviving silent ones).YnEoS wrote:The 2 things I wanted most out of Criterion, more Naruse and more silent films. Combined together in one amazing release. My enthusiasm could not be higher. I've only seen Flunky! Work Hard, and thought it was absolutely wonderful. To hear that this is one of the minor films, is even more exciting.
And both No Blood Relation (stupid-sounding -- but sort of correct litterally --English title, The Stepmother would be less literal but more true to the spirit, I think) and Street Without End are quite good in their own right.
Just another (perhaps unneeded) reminder -- there never was a "silent film" era in Japan -- as these films were always accompanied not only by music but by narration (that not only read tthe titles, but provided descriptions and added all sorts of dialog beyond the titles -- all of which was scripted and censor-approved by the time Naruse was making films).
-
- Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:47 pm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
This was unexpected. Risky, too. Naruse's probably one of the least-known "major" Japanese directors in the west and releasing him in an all-silent collection to boot sounds like playing with fire sales-wise.
Hopefully everyone here who's even remotely interested will pick it up.
Hopefully everyone here who's even remotely interested will pick it up.
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
- Location: New England
- Contact:
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
I guess the Shimizu set must have sold well enough to encourage them to take another risk with early Japanese classics.
- Jean-Luc Garbo
- Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:55 am
- Contact:
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
I've only seen Naruse's late work. How do these films compare?
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse
I haven't seen these films, but Wife! Be like a Rose which he made immediately afterward may be my favorite Naruse. Story wise there are many familiar elements, but he's exploring his realm in ways different from what he would settle on. He's the same master he always was, but he had yet to do it all.