Forever a Woman (Kinuyo Tanaka)

Forever a Woman (Kinuyo Tanaka)

Forever a Woman

Chibusa yo einen nare Japon 1955 | Kinuyo Tanaka | vostFR+EN | 110’ | digital | Cast : Yumeji Tsukioka, Ryoji Hayama, Junkichi Orimoto, Hiroko Kawasaki

In this true story, Fumiko Nakajo divorces her husband and tries to find her voice as a poet. She’s encouraged by her married tutor Hori, whom she loves with a respectful distance. She is diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. Fumiko writes about her ordeals in a series of widely noticed poems and tries to live as freely as possible.

« Résolument du côté du point de vue des femmes, le film nous montre des choses qu’un cinéaste homme ne filmera jamais. Le drame est puissant, extrêmement fort. L’interprétation de Yumeji Tsukioka est parfaite. » (L’Œil sur l’écran)

« Renowned female screenwriter Sumie Tanaka (who also wrote Tanaka’s Girls of Night) fashions Nakajo’s ill-fated story with the same raw energy evident in the poet’s verses. Together with its director’s frank depiction of sickness, desire, and sexuality, the film evinces an audacity rare in Japanese cinema of the time, and still surprises to this day. » (Film at Lincoln Center)