A legend of the Japanese cinema, Kinuyo Tanaka (1909 – 1977) brought her luminous presence and incomparable talents as an actress to an extraordinary number of landmark films, including key works by renowned directors such as Heinosuke Gosho, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse and Yasujiro Ozu. Although Tanaka played a wide range of leading roles during her long and storied career, she is best remembered for portraying women who find courage and dignity in the face of severe adversity.
In this film series, "Kinuyo Tanaka – Actress, Director, Pioneer," the Harvard Film Archive presented all six of Tanaka’s features accompanied by a showcase of her work as an actress from the same years she was also directing, giving the rare opportunity to explore, on the big screen, the rich dialogue active across her work before and behind the camera.
The following films were screened as part of this series.
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Love Letter (Koibumi)
Kinuyo Tanaka, 1953
Flowing (Nagareru)
Mikio Naruse, 1956
With Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine
The Wandering Princess (Ruten no ouhi)
Kinuyo Tanaka, 1960
Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari)
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953
With Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, Kinuyo Tanaka
Forever a Woman (Chibusa yo eien nare)
Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955
The Moon Has Risen (Tsuki wa noborinu)
Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955
Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho dayu)
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954
With Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa
The Life of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna)
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952
With Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune
Equinox Flower (Higanbana)
Yasujiro Ozu, 1958
With Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima
Girls of the Night (Onna bakari no yoru)
Kinuyo Tanaka, 1961
Love Under the Crucifix (Ogin-sama)
Kinuyo Tanaka, 1962
Mother (Okaasan)
Mikio Naruse, 1962
With Kyoko Kagawa, Eiji Okada, Kinuyo Tanaka
Where Chimneys are Seen (Entotsu no mieru basho)
Heinosuke Gosho, 1953
With Kinuyo Tanaka, Ken Uehara, Hideko Takamine
Harvard Film Archive Series co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute