A japanese romantic frama ,apparently common , brilliant played, with a very tragic end
Plot summary
Saburo is a student, who first sees Keiko in a bomb shelter during the American air raids on Tokyo in the Second World War. As a close one hits, he shelters her and she lays a gloved hand on his. He sees her again at a railroad crossing, then meets her at a publisher, where he follows her. They talk, and after other meetings, touch hands. Then, in the cold, he places her bare hand inside his jacket. She's an illustrator of war posters, but he convinces her to paint his portrait, and when he leaves, he comes back to see her in the window. Crowding into a corner when a stray bomb lands, he gives her a kiss and tells her he has been called up.
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10/10
Imai's prize-winner resonated with the times.
1950's was a bustling creative period for societal anti-establishment director Imai Tadashi. During this decade many of his films would go on to win awards both in his native Japan and abroad. "Mata au hi made" (Till We Meet Again, 1950),was a good enough start, being named "the best film of the year" by Kinema Junpo, Blue Ribbon and Mainichi Film Concours. Despite the contemporary critical acclaim, it isn't nowadays a particularly famous film. I don't personally view it to be among the director's best works, but he is clearly discovering many of his core themes here.
The reason why the film was so big in 1950 must be that it resonated with the public by offering them a story they could relate to. "Mata au hi made" is a romance set in the war-time, with pacifist tendencies that are aligned with those of many other films of the era. If you want to make comparisons, this does bring to mind several films made by Kinoshita Keisuke either before or after this one. Okada Eiji plays a young man named Saburo, who is the thoughtful type. He hates the war and what its doing to the country. He hasn't been drafted yet, but his brother is in the army, and he knows his time will come too. In the midst of the chaos, Saburo meets Keiko (Kuga Yoshiko),a designer of propaganda posters. They fall in love knowing their time together is limited.
The film mixes the brutality of war to the sentimentality of young love, and this juxtaposition probably worked well with the audiences. For myself, I thought Imai's film made a few compromises too many. He can be a ruthless, angry director pursuing social justice, but this film lacked teeth in a couple of places. The romance is pretty well done though, and the acting is good. The love of the leading couple is very westernized, since Japanese movies didn't have kissing before 1947, and this film packs in several wet ones. Apparently this is part of Imai's subtle resistance.
There is also an autobiographical element in the film, that being Keiko's profession. Imai spent the war-years making propaganda films for the studios: some of the them are among the most notorious propaganda of the war. He greatly regretted doing this, and lets the audience see that Keiko too is only doing whatever she has to, in order to survive. I bet many other Japanese people recognized themselves in this film as well. In that sense, it's a well-thought-out production.