Popular reviews

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★

  tears and anguish elided with the elliptical passage of time. by utilizing the conventions of melodrama, but rarely executing them with conventional conclusions, naruse is able to successfully portray a realism that feels intimate while still being carefully structured on a formal level in a way that the viewer is meant not to notice (the relaxed match cuts here are the height of this). mother has plenty in common with john ford's depictions of communities beset by historical processes as well as the magnificent ambersons' ellucidation of class identity, but unlike ford and welles, who contain an american spirit of grandiosity and tragedy, naruse's picture is quintessentially humble, with the most devastating events happening within the first 30 minutes and…

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  Review by ༺ ⋅₊˚⋅ ୨ moon ୧ ‧˚₊⋅ ༻ ★★★★

  "the silent night comes again, and tomorrow, the sparrows will again sing their happy morning melody. dear mother, my dearest mother, are you happy? i'd like to know. oh, mother... my dearest mother i wish you a long, happy life. my mother."

  a sensitive work that carries a monstrous and touching weight due to its approach to post-war japan, mikio naruse is a name that continues to surprise me.

  the story of a poor, hard-working mother, living in the suburbs of tokyo, with a sick husband, who finds herself in a constant struggle and sacrifices herself to provide for the whole family. it's moving to see masako's fight for her family

  i was also touched by mikio's direction, which is tremendously sensitive and carries hope for better days. it's impossible not to be moved. 🤍

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  Review by Ben ★★★½

  Japanuary 2022: Mikio Naruse

  My first Naruse, and I am already craving more. While it may have dipped a tad heavy into oversentimentality for my usual liking, I cannot deny the effect the film had on me. We only have one life, and we can never be sure when it will end. We can also never predict when bad things will happen to our loved ones or us. Many of us are lucky, though, and have that one person who is the glue that keeps everything together. I am sure you can guess who that person is in this film.

  My mom is the glue that keeps everything together in my life, too. Whether it was school, getting into trouble,…

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  Review by KYK ★★★★

  masterclass of lived-in drama. i remember thinking this the first time i watched it too but it's funny watching the dye job mishap unfold in a black and white film.

  35mm.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★

  A film told through shifting perspectives that complement how the drama, often off-screen, plays around the options and lack there of allowed to its women as well as a very rich give and take between the careful imagined family dynamics and the social forces around it.

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  Review by Grillo ★★★★★ 1

  Naruse's Shimizu film in that it shifts perspective from child to adult has a bucolic getaway scene and a kids day at the park scene and even sets up three gags that play incredibly well and are really funny all include Eiji Okada (Hiroshima Mon Amour) part of a dream team cast, he is incredible as a comic actor almost ahead of his time. So in other words I laughed and I cried. A user much smarter than I once said and I'm paraphrasing here, if Ozu is the love for life and Naruse the cynic, Gosho (Heinosuke Gosho) lies somewhere in-between and is a balance to life's ups and downs, I believe in this film Naruse does all three.

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  Review by mike_sabathia ★★★★½

  The upbeat tone of the first half of Mother, not to mention its elliptical nature, may fool some viewers into believing that this is a sunny, positive film, but after all it's directed by Naruse whose films often turned out to be quite bleak. Typically for Naruse, its milieu is witnessed through the eyes of women who are forced to consider suffering and hardship a normal aspect of living. But they quietly rebel in their own ways. Mother belongs to a genre called "shomin geki" or home drama involving the commoners.

  The film's protagonist is a wife and mother of four during the tough postwar years. She's played by the wonderful Kinuyo Tanaka, but the narrator and our surrogate of…

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  Review by Shea ★★★★★

  The gloomy weather has been hanging around frequently enough this month that I've been able to get all cosy to watch Naruse films - in this one I cried into my hot chocolate even though in many ways it is a less sombre affair, with its share of laughter and joy. So many of Naruse's works break your heart but sometimes they also fill you with a different kind of aching feeling, when the world's trials weigh heavily on the characters but they still act with immense love and kindness. Mother is a testament to lives driven by these acts, whether they take the form of a great sacrifice or a gentle smile.

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  Review by Maldone ★★★½

  Not my favorite Naruse. Yet another grandiose performance by Kinuyo Tanaka elevates what would otherwise be a bit too melodramatic and broadly sentimental, if occasionally touching, bittersweet chronicle of one woman's struggle to pull her family through all the terrible blows that life in post-war Japan inflicts. There's also no denying Naruse's ever-present mastery of structuring a narrative that flows perfectly despite its episodic nature and shifting perspectives.

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  Review by VonBergundy ★★★★½ 7

  There has always been little bits of humor here and there in Naruse's films that I've seen up to this point, but in Okaasan the humor is crucial to the film. It highlights the bittersweet, youthful joy running through the film without losing any of the power one comes to expect from Naruse. This is a film immersed in post-war poverty, death, and the relentless ticking of life's clock, but, ultimately, it's an optimistic outlook. Most of the tragedy comes near the beginning of the film, leaving the titular mother and her family on their own to survive and find happiness. The conclusion we come to is: with love and a good faith effort the loneliness can never completely consume…

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  Review by Grant McLanaghan ★★★★

  A feel-good melodrama – if such a thing is possible – mainly concerned with Masako (played by Kinuyo Tanaka), who puts others first: her children, her sister and her brother-in-law, chiefly. For Masako, married life is full of compromises and sacrifices. And sometimes, she’s required to make unpopular decisions, which are always made with the best of intentions. And since this is a melodrama, she lives through tragic events, which she bears with gentle forbearance. It makes for a very emotional viewing experience but nevertheless, it's a film full of charm and humour.

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  Review by Carla 🔻 4

  Cuando era chica, jugaba a marearme; me encerraba a oscuras en un distribuidor muy pequeño que había en nuestro departamento y giraba, giraba, a toda la velocidad que podía para, al detenerme, no saber bien dónde estaba, o qué puerta del distribuidor daba a qué ambiente de la casa. Los niños de Okaasan -que son dos, una niña, Hisako, la hermanita menor de la familia, y el primo más chiquito, que vive con ellos, Tetsuo- también tienen sus juegos; aunque no son tanto juegos como travesuras, o riñas entre los dos, o simplemente hacer cosas de niños. Mientras los veía, en vez de darme la impresión de que jugaban, me parecía que más bien trabajaban de ser niños. La película…