This account of the troubled romantic lives of the two sons of a former geisha is set in prosperous Kamakura, and unfolds in a Westernised milieu filled with modern technology and fashionable pastimes. Its story, however, is structured according to the melodramatic conventions characteristic of shinpa theatre, a fact that testifies to its basis in Shunshuki (Spring Sorrows), the last work by author and playwright Yukiko Miyake (1906-37), who died a year after this film adaptation was made. Star Tamae Kiyokawa (1903-69) had played the same role in the stage version, for which she had been acclaimed. The stage origins are apparent in the numerous interior scenes, which Catherine Russell criticises as “setbound”. She notes, however, the contrasting “dynamic energy” of the scene on a train in which younger son Yuji meets the woman he will fall in love with, and the scene of older brother Asaji’s “crazed driving along a seaside highway (in a convertible sports car)”, with its snappy editing and rapid pans. These are in a sense typical of the director, since dramatic scenes involving cars and other vehicles form a recurrent motif in his output right up to his last work, Midaregumo (Scattered Clouds, 1967).

Masumi Tanaka notes that “although Naruse’s craftsmanship was highly regarded, criticism of his lack of a strong, independent artistic personality began to appear” at this time. For instance, “Kinema Junpo” critic Tadashi Murakami praised Kimi to yuku michi as “a stylish film that has a considerable expressive power”, but complained that Naruse “sympathised with the superficial sentimentalism of the story rather than viewing it from a deeply critical standpoint”. Naruse himself did not remember the film fondly, and Susanne Schermann suggests that “the melodramatic elements of the story may not have been to his liking”. Still, although not one of the director’s most personal projects, Kimi to yuku michi illustrates his talents as a commercial metteur-en-scène.

Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström