The Munekata Sisters (Japan’s Golden Age of Cinema)

In collaboration with the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Embassy in Luxembourg

The Munekata Sisters

Munekata shimai. Japon 1950 | Yasujiro Ozu | vostEN | 112' | digital | Cast : Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Ken Uehara, Chishu Ryu, So Yamamura

► New Restoration

Setsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a drinking habit. She’s always been in love with Hiroshi, but he left for France years ago without proposing. Suddenly, Hiroshi is back and Setsuko’s sister Mariko tries to reunite them, although secretly she loves him too.

« Superb central performances by Kinuyo Tanaka and Hideko Takamine. Takamine is a sprightly comic presence, afforded many lovely funny moments but also appropriately moving in dramatic scenes. And as the film progresses and we learn how trapped Tanaka’s character is in her marriage, how duty drives her daily life, how she is deserving of the happiness constantly denied her, the pain in her performance becomes almost unbearable. » (Movies in the City)

« Retroactively fun as a glimpse into the later years of Japan’s postwar occupation. While no foreigners appear, their influence is plainly visible: an office building rife with English signs for Time, Life, and Bible House; a café with a Coca Cola sign prominently hung from the ceiling. Meantime, the characters reminisce about the war and prewar years: a bartender character is a former pilot, and Mariko attended junior high in Manchuria, infamously annexed by Japan in 1931. And there’s a pleasure consistent across all surviving Ozu works: the exquisite sense of design, the natural flow of images. » (Our Culture Magazine)