I really didn't like Uehara's character in REPAST--or his slacker niece, for that matter. Setsuko Hara deserved so much better!
He was memorable in Shimizu's MR. THANK YOU (1937) and played one of _many_ thankless roles in Ozu's THE MUNEKATA SISTERS (1950). In the 1950s, he played a series of feckless husbands in Naruse's films REPAST, WIFE, and SOUND OF THE MOUNTAIN. Thanks to Criterion, I've actually seen 'em!
When all else fails, there's always the AFI Catalog of Feature Films. catalog.afi.com/Film/2580-AM...
In a brand-new post from my BC film history blog, I look at a remarkable #SilentFilmtinyurl.com/3xfenv9c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc8WLa1k2CU Dorothy Fowler doing her thing. Three There is a home movie, sort of . . . but also much more than that. It would be more precise to describe it as an
Clearly we've read the same books! My most recent reading on Japanese cinema was "Chasing Ozu," coupled with Bordwell's "Ozu and the Poetics."
Yes, and for some of the benshi, the transition was devastating. Kurosawa's older brother was one, and he committed suicide.
Wish I could see these somewhere closer to home!
Japan: The appeal of silents here was very strong, especially among the first-ranked directors. Kenji Mizoguchi made his first talkie, "Hometown," in 1930--but then he turned around and made SEVEN more silents in a row, including the classic "The Water Magician" (1933).
In Japan, we had a whole film genre called "haha-mono" devoted to stories about long-suffering mothers. Mikio Naruse made a shitload of them. In the five that survive, there's a recurrent trope driving the plot--kids and young women being hit by cars!