Aki tachinu (1960)

Aki tachinu: Directed by Mikio Naruse. With Nobuko Otowa, Jun Fujimaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Yôsuke Natsuki. Single mum (father of child dead) from the country with 6th grade boy comes to Tokyo, leaves the boy to live with his uncle’s family – wife, male, female teens, run a struggling greengrocer – and lives/ works in local inn. He gets bullied/ fights with local boys, goes to the baths, plays basketball, is befriended by his male cousin and becomes friendly with grade 4 girl who’s the daughter of the innkeeper, who employs his mum and is the longterm mistress of a businessman from another town, who’s the girl’s father and who brings her half sister and brother to meet her but they’re mean to her. Meanwhile the boy’s mother gets friendly with one of the inn’s clients and chucks her job for a trip or something more permanent with him. The young girl takes him shopping, and wants the boy to live with her and her mother, but mother and father refuse so the two kids go to a seaside where he sprains his ankle and they’re late back even though the police get them and they’re in trouble. The boy loses his beetle and tries to get another for the girl for a school project but when he does, she’s moved house with her mother at the urging of her father. Clear? It’s better in the film.

“A recurring theme in Naruseu0026#39;s films is how people are driven by circumstance rather than will. Several of his stories are about single women trying to get by in patriarchal postwar Japan, and the choices they have to make to survive. This movie focuses on those who are even less powerful to determine their own fate; the children of these women.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe main protagonist is a boy of around 12 years old who is moved to the city to stay with family while his widowed mother gets a job as a hostess. The mother seems to shun the boy and initially doesnu0026#39;t even mention him to her employer, who herself is the single mother of an illegitimate daughter, a sweet but somewhat spoilt girl of about 10. The two children meet and befriend each other.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film offers a simple and childlike perspective, which is incredibly effective in conveying the experiences and feelings of the children; it is at times very emotional but it never gets melodramatic. At the same time, the adult world and its complications are presented to the viewer, providing another layer to the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story, while beautiful, is quite sad and has a very unsatisfactory ending. But this ending is perfect for the film, it filled me with great yearning and a feeling of powerlessness, and of humanity.”