Anata kaimasu (1956)

Anata kaimasu: Directed by Masaki Kobayashi. With Keiji Sada, Keiko Kishi, Minoru Ôki, Yûnosuke Itô. A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising athlete to his team.

“One of the most cynical sports movies ever made. Baseball is the metaphor for imported American capitalism in post-war Japan. Professional sports, much like u0026quot;capitalist democracyu0026quot; is legally sanctioned human trafficking. The irony here is that the trafficked u0026quot;productu0026quot; is one of the worst predators. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEveryone in this film assumes everyone else is lying and acts accordingly. The, almost optimistic in its way, ending affirms that sometimes someone really is suffering without manipulative affectation. Illness and death are real and seem like the most affirmational forces in the movie. Maybe, just maybe, suffering can even inspire actual love and tenderness even in the age of capitalism.”