Sincerity
(Magokoro)
With Irie Takako, Kato Teruko, Etchan.
Japan, 1939, 35mm, black & white, 67 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: National Film Archive of Japan
The heart of this film is the friendship between two elementary-school girls, Tomiko and Nobuko, who discover that, prior to both their births, the father of the latter was in love with the former’s mother. The rambunctious Nobuko is played by Etchan, who was something of a manufactured child star of the period (though she certainly doesn’t lack talent). Naruse’s stronger affinity is with Tomiko (played by the less well-known Kato Teruko), who is retiring and serious and feels things deeply. For the adults in the film, life is nothing but a tragedy that is never acknowledged. Sincerity is set during Japan’s late-thirties militarization, which places a larger framework of impending disaster around the personal story. Only the two girls offer some hope of getting through all the grimness—remaking the world in accordance with justice and personal desire. The scenes between them, in which Naruse’s style is at its most lyrical, offer a sun-drenched image of utopia. – Chris Fujiwara
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Sound of the Mountain
Anzukko
Mother
Sincerity
Summer Clouds
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Summer Clouds
The Stranger within a Woman
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Traveling Actors
Scattered Clouds
Scattered Clouds
Flowing
A Wanderer’s Notebook
Repast
Every-Night Dreams
Apart From You
No Blood Relation
Street Without End
The Road I Travel with You / Avalanche
Every-Night Dreams
