Ruten no ôhi

Machiko Kyô is a member of a branch of the Meiji family, and so is chosen by the army to wed the brother of the puppet emperor of Manchuria. Her husband, Eiji Funakoshi, is a well-meaning man who cherishes their daughter and treats her well. But with the ending of the Second World War and the dissolution of Manchuria as its own nominal country, she finds herself and her daughter in a whirlwind of chaos.

Kinuyo Tanaka's movie strikes me as the Japanese equivalent of the suffering-in-mink tearjerker of Hollywood that I don't care for, but turns into actual, degrading suffering at the end, and a fervent hope for peace and friendship. Nonetheless, Miss Tanaka does not neglect the beauty of Manchuria, nor the sumptuous loveliness of court life. Cinematographer Kimio Watanabe is to be commended for his strong lighting, particularly his choice of filters for the mountains of northern China.