The Wandering Princess (Kinuyo Tanaka)

The Wandering Princess (Kinuyo Tanaka)

The Wandering Princess

Ruten no ohi Japon 1960 | Kinuyo Tanaka | vostFR+EN | 102’ | Cast : Machiko Kyo, Eiji Funakoshi, Yomei Ryu, Sadako Sawamura

An epic drama based on the autobiography of Japanese noblewoman Hiro Saga. She became known as Aishinkakura Hiro after her marriage to Fuketsu, the younger brother of Chinese Emperor Puyi of Manchukuo (controlled by the Japanese), better known as the Last Emperor.

« The project transformed into Tanaka’s own version of War and Peace, told from a woman’s perspective, by adapting the best-selling autobiography of a Japanese aristocrat engulfed in the colonial politics of Manchuria. An expensive production for the time — it was also Tanaka’s first film in color and in Cinemascope — The Wandering Princess revealed an entirely new artistic vision from the director: an exquisite historical fresco bound up in a war melodrama.. » (Film at Lincoln Center)