The Harvard Film Archive celebrates and showcases the latest additions to the Shochiku Centennial Collection: two newly struck 35mm prints of seminal films from the pioneering studio: the historic landmark Carmen Comes Home, one of Japan’s first color features, and Where Spring Comes Late, a little-known classic of Seventies cinema that ambitiously set out to capture a sweeping portrait of the Japanese nation from the point of view of a displaced Kyushu family making the long voyage to northernmost Hokkaido. – Haden Guest
Carmen Comes Home (Karumen kokyo ni kaeru)
Directed by Kinoshita Keisuke.
With Takamine Hideko, Sano Shuji, Ryu Chishu.
Japan, 1951, 35mm, color, 86 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA
(Image: courtesy Shochiku Co., Ltd.)
Details on HFA website
When Spring Comes Late (Kazoku)
Andrew Gordon in Conversation with Alex Zahlten
Directed by Yamada Yoji.
With Baisho Chieko, Igawa Hisashi, Ryu Chishu.
Japan, 1970, 35mm, color, 106 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA
(Image: courtesy Shochiku Co., Ltd.)
Details on HFA website