Thursday, April 5, 2012
Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)- full length
Those brought up on the energetic diet of American cinema may find it
hard to appreciate the quietist art of the great Japanese director
Yasujiro Ozu. He has been called the poet of family life, capable of
taking the seemingly trivial and making great drama of it. Nothing was
too small to be significant.
Ozu steadfastly peers into the
hearts and minds of his characters until we feel we know them
intimately. And the loyalty of those who love his work is as absolute as
his own conviction. The number of film-makers who have made pilgrimages
to his grave (marked simply by the Japanese word for nothing) runs into
dozens.
Ozu started making films in 1927 and was one of the
last to forsake the silent cinema. Much of this early work has been lost
or destroyed. But we know from examples that he wasn't always as calmly
contemplative as he was in his late work, which reached the west only
in the 60s. He could make boisterous comedies and earthy chronicles of
family life, containing outrageous sight gags. In the last stretch of
his life, however, he had refined his art so much that it hardly seemed
like art at all.
His most famous film, and certainly one of his
masterpieces, is Tokyo Story. In it an elderly couple are taken to visit
their grown-up children in Tokyo. Too busy to entertain them, the
children pack them off to a noisy resort. Returning to Tokyo, the old
woman visits the widow of another son, who treats her better, while the
old man gets drunk with some old companions. They seem to realise they
are a burden, and simply try to smooth things over as best they can.
By now the children have, albeit guiltily, given up on them; even when
their mother is taken ill and dies, they rush back to Tokyo after
attending the funeral. A simple proverb expresses their failure: "Be
kind to your parents while they are alive. Filial piety cannot reach
beyond the grave." The last sequence is of the old man alone in his
seaside home, followed by an outside shot of the rooftops of the town
and a boat passing by on the water. Life goes on.
The film
condemns no one and its sense of inevitability carries with it only a
certain resigned sadness. "Isn't life disappointing," someone says at
one point. Yet the simple observations are so acute that you feel that
no other film could express its subject matter much better.
Ozu
shoots his story with as little movement of the camera as possible. We
view scenes almost always from the floor, lower than the eye level of a
seated character. He insisted that no actor was to dominate a scene.
The balance of every scene had to be perfect. Chishu Ryu, who often
played the father in Ozu's films about family life, once had to complete
two dozen devoted to raising a tea cup.
Tokyo Story was
followed by eight other films, all of them as masterful, and a group
named after the seasons, including Early Spring and An Autumn Afternoon.
Each was about the problems of ordinary family life. While their
conservative nature made younger more polemical Japanese directors, such
as Imamura and Oshima, impatient, their universality has come to be
recognised the world over. Ozu was the most Japanese of film-makers, but
his work can still cross most cultural barriers.
Derek Malcolm
The Guardian,
Ainu, First People of Japan, The Original & First Japanese
The Ainu People
"Ainu" means "human". The Ainu people regard things
useful to them or beyond their control as "kamuy"(gods). In daily life,
they prayed to and performed various ceremonies for the gods. These
gods include : "nature" gods, such as of fire, water, wind and thunder ;
"animal" gods, such as of bears, foxes, spotted owls and gram-puses ;
"plant" gods, such as of aconite, mush-room and mugwort ; "object" gods,
such as of boats and pots ; and gods which protect houses, gods of
mountains and gods of lakes. The word "Ainu" refers to the opposite of
these gods.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Expo de KATAGAMI (pochoirs japonais)
KATAGAMI Style - Paper stencils and Japonisme
About the Exhibition
In the late 19th century, a huge number of Japanese katagami, a traditional type of stencil used for dyeing cloth, were exported to the West along with ukiyo-e prints, leading to the rise of Japonisme. Katagami had fervently embraced a wide range of modernization efforts.
It is a well-established fact that Western artists and designers discovered the charm of ukiyo-e on their journeys to Japan and were greatly influenced by the innovative compositions and colors of the woodblock prints, but katagami
were similarly eye-catching, and also served as a source of
inspiration. This influence can be detected in a variety of genres
including Charles Rennie Mackintosh's furniture in the U.K., René
Lalique's jewelry in France, Koloman Moser's textiles in Austria, and
Louis Comfort Tiffany's glassworks in the U.S. Also, like ukiyo-e,
the paper stencils helped spawn the trend of Japonisme as evidenced in
the Art Nouveau and Jugendstil movements. And even today, katagami designs continue to appear in contemporary products.
Along with actual katagami, in the exhibition we present kimono that were dyed with the patterns and ukiyo-e
prints in which they are depicted as well as glass- and metalwork,
ceramics, posters, furniture, and textiles that were produced in the
West between the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition to items
from noteworthy Japanese collections, a number of the many katagami that were taken abroad in the 19th century will be returning to Japan for the first time in over a century.
Viewers will have a special opportunity to see just how enamored Western artists of the period were of the charming katagami through a diverse selection of works from both domestic and foreign museums.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Expo Otomo Katsuhiro (le papa d'AKIRA)
As Hollywood attempts to butcher his most famous work, Katsuhiro Otomo
is looking back at a career in manga that's spanned nearly four decades.
The Miyagi native is best known for Akira, the dystopian
sci-fi epic whose 1988 anime adaptation – also by Otomo – is one of the
all-time classics of the genre. But that's just a small part of his
oeuvre, which stretched from early masterpieces like Domu to later, less successful works like the 2004 Steamboy anime and live-action film Mushishi. Though his work rate has slowed in the past decade, Otomo returned to prominence at the start of 2012 with the release of Kaba 2,
a new collection of colour illustrations, some of which will be on
display in this large-scale retrospective exhibition. 'Genga' promises
to feature original artwork from throughout Otomo's career – and, true
to his Tohoku roots, the artist will be donating 30% of proceeds to
quake relief.
source: Time Out Tokyo
Enquête sur une super catastrophe nucléaire (Arte)
Enquête sur une super catastrophe nucléaire
La catastrophe de Fukushima a ébranlé les croyances de citoyens japonais qui, jusqu'ici, se fiaient à leurs installations nucléaires. Le début de l'ère du soupçon ?
La crise identitaitre de Hello Kitty
Si Hello Kitty est adulée dans le monde entier, elle n’est nulle
part plus vénérée qu’au Japon. Le pays du Soleil Levant n’a jamais
manqué une occasion de la célébrer allant jusqu’à la nommer ambassadrice du tourisme national en Chine et à Hong Kong en 2008.
Vêtement, déco, vaisselle, jeux vidéo et même chewing-gum ou
grille-pain… Avant de conquérir le monde Kitty a imposé son minois si
mignon sur chaque mètre carré du Japon.
Les inconditionnels nippons n’ignorent pourtant pas que Kitty White est aussi anglaise que son nom de famille le laisse penser.
La maman du chaton, la société Sanrio
est formelle : Kitty est née à Londres le 1er novembre 1974 sous le
signe du scorpion et du tigre. Signe du temps, à 38 ans, elle vit
toujours chez ses parents occupant ses journées à manger de délicieux
gâteaux ou à collectionner des barrettes à cheveux comme le raconte sa
biographie officielle. La vie banale d’une Anglaise pure souche se
dit-on à Tokyo.
Et pourtant la joyeuse
communauté des fans de Kitty est troublée depuis quelques temps. La
parution d’un nouveau guide dans l’archipel sème le doute quant à la
nationalité de Kitty.
Un récit ambigu
Comme le rapporte The Atlantic Wire,
dans le Guide du Japon d’Hello Kitty publié par Natsume Publications,
Kitty tient plus de la Nippone que de la Britannique. Les journalistes
du magazine américain n’ont pas hésiter à mener l’enquête afin de
découvrir la véritable nationalité du personnage aux 22 000 produits
dérivés.
Dans ce récit, Kitty fait découvrir le Japon à son petit ami
américain Dear Daniel. Telle une encyclopédie, elle dévoile l’étendue de
son savoir sur la culture et les traditions de l’archipel. De l’argot
tokyoïte aux rites funéraires ancestraux, le chaton haut de 5 pommes et
lourd de 3 a des connaissances que seule une véritable nipponne pourrait
avoir.
Kitty, pâtissière hors pair, avrilopisciophile de la première heure
et ambassadrice de l’UNICEF entre deux jours d’école aurait donc trouvé
le temps d’acquérir un savoir encyclopédique sur le Japon .
Difficile à croire. Sans compter qu’à son arrivée dans le pays,
Daniel découvre son amoureuse et sa famille entière dans une maison traditionnelle et qu’ils maîtrisent tous la langue locale à la perfection !
L’enquête est dure, les reporters rament, ni les coups de fils passés
à l’ambassade britannique ni les entretiens avec la société Sanrio ne
lèvent le doute aux journalistes américains. Il faudra sans doute
attendre la parution d’un nouvel ouvrage pour lever les tourments des
fans désespérés.
Pas de doute au Japon
Pas de doute au Japon
Les mauvaises langues résoudront l’énigme en regardant au dos des
produits Hello Kitty : que cela plaise ou non, le personnage est
estampillé « made in China ». Mais gare au blasphème.
Au Japon où à l’instar d’Haribo, il a conquis le cœur des grands et des petits, Kitty est un emblème nippon et le restera.
« Je pense que vous aurez du mal à trouver quelqu’un dans ce pays ou ailleurs qui ne croit pas que Kitty-chan est japonaise » explique Sandra Barron sur un blog du Japan Times.
Même discours du côté de la classe politique. Tatsuya Nakajima, l’un des dirigeants du Junshinkai, parti de droite a ainsi trouvé « scandaleux » et « impardonnable » que certains ose envisager que Kitty ne soit pas japonaise.
Même discours du côté de la classe politique. Tatsuya Nakajima, l’un des dirigeants du Junshinkai, parti de droite a ainsi trouvé « scandaleux » et « impardonnable » que certains ose envisager que Kitty ne soit pas japonaise.
source : Aujourd'hui le Japon
A Straightforward Boy part. 1 (突貫小僧 Tokkan kozō, Yasujiro Ozu, 1929 )
Synopsis
A romp about a hapless crook who gets more than he's bargained for when he kidnaps a brat with an insatiable appetite for sweets. Unable to keep him under control, the kidnapper returns him to his father, who refuses to take him back. He tries to dump him on his playmates, but he incites them to demand toys and other goodies from him, making him run a mile.er control, the kidnapper returns him to his father, who refuses to take him back. He tries to dump him on his playmates, but he incites them to demand toys and other goodies from him, making him run a mile.
A romp about a hapless crook who gets more than he's bargained for when he kidnaps a brat with an insatiable appetite for sweets. Unable to keep him under control, the kidnapper returns him to his father, who refuses to take him back. He tries to dump him on his playmates, but he incites them to demand toys and other goodies from him, making him run a mile.er control, the kidnapper returns him to his father, who refuses to take him back. He tries to dump him on his playmates, but he incites them to demand toys and other goodies from him, making him run a mile.
...
La suite sur Ozu-san.com
I love peanuts
The Peanuts (ザ・ピーナッツ Za Pīnattsu) is a Japanese vocal group consisting of twin sisters Emi Itō (伊藤エミ, Itō Emi) and Yumi Itō (伊藤ユミ, Itō Yumi). They were born in Tokoname, Aichi, (Japan) on April 1, 1941; soon after their birth, the family moved to Nagoya.
In the first years they sang Japanese covers of standards, foreign
hits, and Japanese folk songs, then they began singing originals,
written by their producer, Hiroshi Miyagawa, and such songwriters as Koichi Sugiyama and Rei Nakanishi. Later they embarked on a brief acting career, notably in the 1961 film Mothra. The pair retired from performance in 1975.
They are remembered most for their versions of European songs and for
a handful of Japanese pop songs, such as "Furimukanaide" ("Don't Turn
Around"). Their performing style played heavily on their being nearly
identical twins with voices only slightly apart in pitch (making a duet
sound like a solo artist using reverb).
source
MUSEE DE L'UKIYO-E (estampes japonaises)
The average citizen's mood of Edo period (1603-1867) was
an extremely buoyant and joyful one --not the transitory, heavy atmosphere
characteristic of the troubled middle age. The word "ukiyo-e" means
"the picture of buoyant world" and incorporates in its meaning the common
man 's daily pleasures , such as Kabuki plays, Geisha houses, and so
on. The forerunner of Edo period prints were simple drawings that gradually
developed into a wood-block, thus satisfying the growth of the demand.
Printmaking is composed of the division of labor of many
craftsmen, such as painters. engravers and printers, and need at least
the same number of different wood blocks as colors. often more than
twenty wood-blocks. At first. there was just a one-color wood block
prints with brush-added color in the 1710s, then two or three colors
wood-block prints evolved in the 1740s, and finally in the 1760s the
multi-color wood-block prints-called "nishiki-e"(brocade picture) was
invented and continued to the early Meiji period in 1890s. Through ukiyo-e
we can see and learn images of the customs, history, and manner of
the past Japan.
Le film de Koji Wakamatsu sur Mishima
Le vétéran Koji Wakamatsu, toujours en forme pour raconter des histoires
subversives dans un Japon cinématographiquement formaté. Il nous parlait de
l’échec des mouvements gauchistes japonais dans United Red Army, des conséquences de la guerre impériale
dans Le Soldat Dieu.
Et désormais, Wakamatsu s’attaque à la figure controversée de l’écrivain Yukio
Mishima, qui s’est suicidé après une tentative ratée de coup d’état en Novembre
1970.
11.25 Jiketsu no Hi: Mishima Yukio
to Wakamonotachi se concentre sur les derniers jours de Yukio
Mishima, sa tentative de coup d’Etat, la création de sa milice Tatenokai
– d’ailleurs dans le titre japonais, wakamonotachi – la jeunesse, semble être
une référence à cette milice en même temps qu’une possible note d’intention sur
la jeunesse actuelle du Japon ?).
À l’inverse de Mishima,
biopic étrange mais poétique réalisé par Paul Schrader, Koji Wakamatsu compte
placer politique et tabous au coeur de son film. S’interessant aux dernières
années de la vie de l’écrivain, tout en explorant l’état du Japon des années
1960. Une période mouvementée pendant laquelle la société nippone a connu
plusieurs transformations. La décennie s’ouvrait par l’assassinat du leader
socialiste Asanuma, continuant avec les manifestations d’étudiants contre la
présence de l’armée américaine sur le sol japonais. Le pays devenant aussi une
superpuissance économique, à cela se rajoute la libération sexuelle…
Wakamatsu s’est déjà penché sur la plupart de ces sujets dans ses premiers
films. Après tout, c’est durant les années 1960 qu’il est devenu réalisateur
indépendant, utilisant le film érotique soft pour commenter politiquement la
situation d’alors ; c’était la jeunesse sans repère dans Va, va, vierge pour la deuxième fois, les
révoltes estudiantines vaines dans Sex Jack…
Par rapport au suicide de Mishima, Wakamatsu s’en inspira directement pour
réaliser La Femme qui voulait mourir,
tourné seulement quelques semaines après l’évènement.
source: asiafilm.fr
Les chansons anti-nucléaires censurées sur les ondes nippones
Ce n’était qu’une question de temps. Depuis toujours, la musique a
été un objet employé pour faire passer des messages de protestation. Les
chansons anti-nucléaires sont nombreuses et au Japon, on souhaiterait
les entendre davantage.
Une chanson qui dérange
A commencer par un air du rocker Kazuyoshi Saito qui vient de
modifier les paroles d’un de ses titres pour faire passer son propre
message anti-nucléaire. Sa chanson « Zutto Suki Datta » (Je t’ai toujours aimé), est maintenant devenue « Zutto Uso Datta », C’était un mensonge.
L’auteur s’est filmé en train de reprendre ce titre, en acoustique, et a posté la vidéo sur le net. Les paroles critiquent ouvertement le gouvernement et les mensonges qui ont circulé par rapport au nucléaire :
« Dans ce pays où se trouvent 54 centrales
nucléaires / Les manuels et les pubs disaient « il n’y a rien à
craindre » / Ils nous ont menti et leur excuse est que c’était «
inattendu ». Les paroles enchainent sur la déception quant au
gouvernement et sur un avenir incertain. Il exprime par ailleurs sa
volonté de « Manger des épinards »…
Le label qui représente le rocker, Victor Entertainment, a cependant demandé que la vidéo soit supprimée car « c’est une vidéo privée », rapporte le journal Asahi.
Réclamations de tubes
Si cette chanson ne passera manifestement pas sur les ondes, cela
n’empêche pas que les auditeurs réclament des tubes plus anciens qui
parlent du nucléaire. Et notamment deux chansons qui avaient été reprises par « le Roi du Rock japonais », Kiyoshiro Imawano, décédé en 2009.
Sur son album « Covers » sorti en 1988, le groupe du King nippon, RC Succession, avait repris « Summertime Blues », d’Eddie Cochran et « Love me Tender » d’Elvis Presley en changeant quelque peu les paroles, afin de dénoncer la catastrophe de Tchernobyl.
Ces deux chansons ont reçu leur plus grand nombre de demande de l’histoire du show de Peter Barakan sur InterFM.
Il a fini par céder et passer sur les ondes « Summertime Blues » mais a refusé de passer la chanson d’Elvis car les paroles réinventées « Je ne veux pas de radiation / Je veux boire du lait » pouvaient être mal interprétées et pourraient créer une panique alimentaire…
source: Aujourd'hui le Japon
めがね 予告編
“Megane”
Last year
Naoko Ogigami had a surprise hit with "Kamome Shokudo (Seagull Diner),"
a film about three Japanese women who end up running a restaurant together in
Helsinki. It was a surprise because stars Satomi Kobayashi and Masako Motai
were hardly marquee names, while the plot offered little in the way of high
drama. The heroine's big moment came — mild spoiler alert — when her restaurant
finally filled up. Nonetheless, the film had a charming setting, likable,
quirky characters and shot after shot of scrumptious-looking food, including
the heroine's down-home specialty: onigiri (rice balls). Most of all, it
told a story of personal realization that many in the audience could identify with
— and dream about living themselves (in Chiba if not Helsinki).
Ogigami
wisely resisted the temptation to make "Kamome Shokudo 2," but her
followup, "Megane (Glasses)," has many of the elements that made
"Kamome" a success, including Kobayashi and Motai. This
same-but-different formula is not new — the "Road" films of Bob Hope
and Bing Crosby used it as well — but it is unusual for the Japanese film
industry, which prefers safe sequels over chancy creative tangents.
The biggest
departure in the new film is the character of Kobayashi's heroine. In
"Kamome" she was a striver in a foreign land, trying to make good
against stiff odds. In "Megane" she escapes from a high-stress
lifestyle to an unnamed Okinawa-like island, where she learns to chill like the
natives. Ogigami gets laughs with this situation, but as in "Kamome"
her main purpose is to create a possible miniature paradise — that is, another
invitation for her fan-base to dream.
As the story
progressed, however, I was reminded of George Orwell's famous essay on Charles
Dickens — and his observation that for Dickens, as for many Victorians, the
ideal life was one in which "nothing ever happens, except the yearly
childbirth." Though modern-day Japanese, the inhabitants of Ogigami's
island are likewise devotees of idleness, whose entire existence revolves
around mealtime, playtime and staring out to sea. The question of how the
pin-neat inn where the heroine stays is maintained and how its well-stocked
larder is supplied remain unanswered, save for the inn-master's apparently
magical skill with a fishing rod.
Ogigami
holds up this life as a model for emulation — though it is a fantasy the way
the life of the restaurant owner in "Kamome" was not. Also, in this
age of rapid environmental destruction of even remote island paradises, I
wondered at the natives' utter complacency. Sitting on your bum sucking on kaki-gori
(shaved ice) is not going to going to ensure your future fish supply, is it?
And though
Ogigami gives us shot after tempting shot of crystalline tropical waters, no
one in the entire film goes swimming, snorkeling or even wading. What a waste.
The first
person we see in "Megane" is Sakura (Motai), who deboards an ancient
prop plane one beautiful spring day on the aforementioned island and makes a
beeline for a small beach house, smiling and bowing with elaborate politeness
to all she meets on the way. She is the same blithely single middle-aged woman
as the one she played in "Kamome," but this time she has come not as
a tourist, but to work at the beach house as a kaki-gori seller and at the
nearby Hanada Inn as a maid.
Next comes
Taeko (Kobayashi), who was on the same flight, but is a first-timer to the
island. With a dubious look on her face, she drags her suitcase over the sand
with one hand, while clutching the map to the Hamada Inn with the other.
Arriving at her destination, she finds the smiling master, Yuji (Ken
Mitsuishi), who greets her with an odd compliment: "You have talent — the
talent to be here." He whips up a delicious supper that Taeko devours with
hungry eyes, but he casually wraps it up and, telling her she can find food in
the fridge, walks out with it.
The
strangeness continues: In the morning Taeko is awakened by Sakura's
polite-but-firm "ohayo gozaimasu (good morning)," delivered at
her bedside. Then Yuji invites her to join him, Sakura and Haruna (Mikako
Ichikawa), a geeky, blunt-speaking high-school teacher, for breakfast. A guest
eating with the help — not done! Soon after, she happens upon Sakura at the
beach, leading a group of locals in a cross between radio taiso
(exercises of antique vintage broadcast daily on NHK radio) and moves
apparently inspired by "The Rite of Spring" and "I'm a Little
Teapot." Yuji urges her to join in, but she flees instead — mixing with
the natives in such an outre way is not her idea of a vacation.
The
accumulating craziness prompts Taeko to move out, but worse is waiting for her
at the island's other inn, the misnamed Marine Palace. Fleeing, she finds her
way back to the Hamada, with the provident aid of the unflappable Sakura. Taeko
begins to realize that these folks are not so much mad as different — or,
rather, indifferent to the ways of conventional society. Instead, they've made
their own world, and Taeko decides to live in it. There isn't much more to the
story than that, though there is a lot more sucking of kaki-gori.
This
go-with-the-flow message will no doubt resound with "Megane' "s
target audience — Taeko's overworked urban sisters. But where are they going to
find a Hamada Inn, not to mention Taeko's endless vacation time? This movie is
a bit of a sell, if you ask me. And when can I book my ticket to Okinawa?
By MARK SCHILLING
Friday, Sept. 21, 2007
高峰秀子 「女が階段を上がる時」予告篇
Keiko, a young widow, becomes a bar hostess in Ginza to make ends meet. The story recounts the struggles to maintain her independence in a male-dominated society. She projects ease and grace but the audience knows how tormented she really is – they also know how much rent she has to pay and the cost of her nephew's operation.
Plot:
Keiko (called Mama by the other characters), a young widow approaching 30, is a hostess at a bar in Ginza.
Realizing she is losing her looks, she decides after talking to her bar
manager, Komatsu, that she wants to open her own bar rather than
remarrying and dishonoring her late husband to whose memory she is still
devoted. To accomplish this, she must secure loans from some of the
affluent patrons who frequent her bar, but is unwilling to lead them on
for the sake of money.Meanwhile, a former employee, Yuri, has opened up a bar of her own nearby, subsequently taking away most of Keiko's former customers. She scouts locations for her own bar with a confidant of her bar, Junko, undecided as to where she will open up. While Keiko is having lunch with Yuri and thinking she is doing well in her enterprise, she reveals that she is deep in debt, and cannot afford to pay off her creditors. She tells Keiko of a plan to fake a suicide to keep her creditors at bay. Keiko is shocked to learn the next day that Yuri has died, and that she had either planned her death all along, or had merely misjudged the amount of sleeping pills to take. She is again shocked to see Yuri's creditors dunning her family for money while still in mourning.
After Keiko suffers an unnamed bout of sickness, she retreats to the home of her family to recover. It is revealed that she must give them money to keep her brother out of jail, while also paying for an operation that her nephew needs (who is suffering from polio) in order to walk again. After telling them she can not afford to give them money as she must keep up appearances with an expensive apartment and kimonos, Keiko reluctantly agrees, realizing this will forestall any plan to open her own bar.
After returning to her bar to work, she is made a proposal to by a heavy-set man, who Keiko entertains briefly. When he turns out to be a fraud, she sets her sights on Fujisaki, a businessman who is interested in her. While promising to give her money after sleeping with her, he tells her he has been transferred to Osaka for work, and cannot abandon his family. Feeling jilted, Keiko is given a stern lecture by Komatsu, previously infatuated with Keiko for her resolve and reluctance to give in to the men. Losing his interest in her, he quits the bar. Keiko is then shown returning again for work, pretending to be happy.
Other source of info: www.cinemastrikesback.com
高峰秀子 「放浪記」予告篇 - Hōrōki (Kimura Sotoji)
A Wanderer's Notebook (放浪記 Hourou-ki), also known as Her Lonely Lane is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese film drama directed by Mikio Naruse, starring Hideko Takamine. The film is based on the autobiography of author Fumiko Hayashi, whose work the director often adapted for the screen.
Plot:
Fumiko Hayashi (Hideko Takamine)
is a young woman can't find a decent job, meanwhile being dumped by her
boyfriend and writing on the side. People say her writing on poverty is
good, but she can't sell it and continues with dead end factory and bar
hostess jobs and occasional heavy drinking. She gets together with
another aspiring writer Fukuya (Akira Takarada) who can't sell his work either. Despite she doing all she can for him and his disease tuberculosis, he abuses her verbally and eventually physically. She walks out, comes back, walks out again. A kind man, Nobuo Sadaoka (Daisuke Katō) helps her occasionally, but she rejects his proposal. After these struggles, the film ends up with her literary success.
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