Fuefukigawa (1960)

Director:

Keisuke Kinoshita

Writers:

Shichirô Fukazawa (based upon the novel by), Keisuke Kinoshita

Stars:

Takahiro Tamura, Hideko Takamine, Kôshirô Matsumoto

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Takahiro Tamura	...	Sadahei
Hideko Takamine	...	Okei
Kôshirô Matsumoto	...	Sozo, 1st son (as Somegoro Ichikawa)
Kichiemon Nakamura	...	Yasuzo, 2nd son (as Mannosuke Nakamura)
Shinji Tanaka	...	Heikichi, 3rd son
Shima Iwashita	...	Ume, daughter
Kuniko Igawa
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tôru Abe	...	Katsuyan
Michiko Araki	...	Tatsu
Sen Hara	...	Old woman
Etsuko Ichihara	...	Kurokoma's wife
Yoshi Katô	...	Ojii
Yûsuke Kawazu	...	Jiro
Tokuji Kobayashi	...	Gensan
Toshiko Kobayashi	...	Hisa (grown up)

Storyline

---

Plot Keywords:

river bank | saga | cripple | baby born | color element in black and white film | 

---

Genres:

Drama | History | War

---

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

19 October 1960 (Japan)

Also Known As:

La rivière fuefuki

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku Ofuna

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

the eternal battle

There's a rare sense of epic artistry in this unusual and striking medieval saga, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita as more of an aesthetic experience than a conventional drama. The film was designed to resemble a decorative 16th century Japanese scroll, painting spare brushstrokes of vivid color across each panoramic, wide-screen black and white image. It can be difficult (and not really worth the effort) to follow the endless progression of characters, and the manner in which the film unfolds is often more involving than the story it presents. Each leap forward in time approximates the turning of another page, usually to the next in a series of pointless, bloody battles between feudal warlords, with each conflict properly labeled beforehand, identifying the date, location, and principals involved. The battle scenes serve as punctuation, following successive generations of peasant soldiers to their doom, with the repetition suggesting that war is the only eternal aspect of the human condition, and passive resistance is futile.