This adaptation of a novel by the proletarian author Sunao Tokunaka (1899-1958) was a bold project for 1939, when the Japanese government moved to formalise state control of the cinema through the draconian Film Law. Naruse himself, understandably cautious of acknowledging the film’s political inclinations, declared that he chose the source material because “I have always had a deep interest in human beings […] I have always wanted to depict the joys, pains, sorrows and various human emotions that accompany true human life and working life.” The central premise of the film is the dilemma posedwhen two of the sons of a poor printer’s family wish to pursue their education, although the family’s financial stability depends on “the whole family working”.

Naruse, who was himself from an underprivileged background, said that he felt at home with the depiction of poverty, and proclaimed the film one of his favourites. Certainly, he crafted a work of newly understated realism, moving away from the flamboyance of his early sound films towards an idiom more reminiscent of his postwar style.

“Kinema Junpo” critic Tatsuhiko Shigeno, despite minor reservations, perceived the film as marking Naruse’s emergence from a slump; he claimed that the director had recaptured the energy of his outstanding silent films, and that the film augured well for his future work. More recently, Masumi Tanaka praised its “solid technique”, but dismissed the ambiguous conclusion as a cop-out. Audie Bock, however, celebrates the film as a subversive work in which “the required patriotic slogans […] appear almost ironic”, while Peter High also notes with approval Naruse’s “sleight-of-hand” in sneaking a socially critical narrative past the increasingly assertive censors.

Musei Tokugawa (1894-1971), who plays the central role of the father of the family, had been a celebrated benshi narrator in the Japanese silent cinema; after the coming of sound, he performed on radio and stage as well as acting in a number of films at P.C.L.

Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström