alr

The Munekata Sisters
(Munekata Shimai)

Screening on Film
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
With Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Ken Uehara.
Japan, 1950, 35mm, black & white, 116 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.

Two of Japan’s greatest actresses and several leading actors were assembled for this stunning “prestige production,” which Ozu was commissioned to direct. The Munekata sisters—Setsuko (played by Mizoguchi veteran Kinuyo Tanaka) and Mariko (Naruse star Hideko Takamine)—reveal the two poles of postwar Japanese society. Feisty and modern Mariko dresses in western attire and represents the liberated woman, while the placid and traditional Setsuko dresses in kimonos. To emphasize the tensions between modernity and tradition, between the old Japan and the new, Ozu employs a series of picturesque settings such as the Moss Temple in Kyoto, a mountain villa in Hakone, and the Yakushiji Temple near Nara. Though more linear and elaborately mounted than any other Ozu film, The Munekata Sisters is typically rigorous and exquisitely composed. In the end Ozu manages to wrest profound emotion from convention.

Part of film series

Read more

Yasujiro Ozu.
A Centennial Celebration

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Floating Clouds… The Cinema of Naruse Mikio

Read more

Karpo Godina – Frames for Living

Read more

The Seasons of Hong Sangsoo Part I, Summer & Fall

Read more

Small Axe by Steve McQueen 2025-2026 Norton Professor of Poetry

Read more

Gore Vidal Goes to the Movies

Read more

New Dog, New Tricks: Youth in Cinema

Read more

A Terra! The Cinema of Marta Mateus

Read more

Jordan Belson by Raymond Foye