Mikio Naruse is known to the world as the fourth master of classical Japanese cinema, alongside Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa. Yet with the exception of one or two canonical titles, his pre-war films have been neglected. This programme focuses on a crucial five-year period in his career (1935-39), when he worked at the newly established P.C.L. film studio and its successor, Toho. There, he made use of the most advanced studio technology available in Japan, as well as novel styles of lighting and cinematography adapted from Hollywood, to create brilliant explorations of Japanese modernity. He engaged with metropolitan life, and developed his sustained interest in the place and role of women in Japanese society. Audiences accustomed to the sombre, resigned tone and stylistic understatement of Naruse’s postwar cinema will be startled by the passion, vitality and experimentation of his earlier work. Filled with rare gems, this programme seeks to reposition Naruse as one of his country’s most important auteurs, both pre- and post-war.

Curated by Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström