Kanzashi (1941)

Kanzashi: Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. With Shin’ichi Himori, Kanji Kawahara, Hiroko Kawasaki, Koji Matsumoto. At a rural spa, a soldier accidentally cuts his foot on a hairpin. Soon enough he tracks down its lovely owner and finds himself smitten.

“Viewed on DVD. Poor restoration. Warm, engaging, funny, and often hilarious! Yet another (u0026quot;restoredu0026quot;) film by director Hiroshi Shimizu that leaves the viewer wishing that things could have gone on a bit longer. The measure of not only a great director, but also a master showman! The extremes to which a group (including the u0026quot;victimu0026quot; of the hat pin u0026quot;attacku0026quot;–he stepped on it in a shallow pool) at a summer spa (all guests seem to be there because of discounted rates) will go to in order to see what the owner of the pin looks like are something to behold. And what the victim does to court the hair pin owner (even resorting to crutches to generate symphony) is fall-down funny. A typical Shimizu slice of life movie with many possible outcomes all left, as usual, to the vieweru0026#39;s imagination/contemplation. Cinematography is OK except for out-of-focus and over-exposed outdoor scenes that start the film off (given the jerky camera movements, it looks like tracking was not used, and the scenes were simply shot from a car trunk or the back of a truck). End-to-end dubbing is primitive with effects sounds especially artificial. Why the juvenile actors are dubbed as always SHOUTING their lines remains a distracting/grating mystery. Continuity suffers when characters say something has taken place, but subsequent scenes show otherwise. Score is written and performed at the level of, say, a grade school band–itu0026#39;s simply terrible and an embarrassing distraction. Acting is fine as are the subtitles. Restoration remains a work in progress as far as cleaning up over exposures, visible deterioration, and especially the audio. Sound artifacts are ever present. A fine film that rises above the primitive techniques employed in its manufacture and the marginal restoration presented on this disc. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.”