Takekurabe (1955 film)
Takekurabe | |
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Directed by | Heinosuke Gosho |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | Kazuo Kubo |
Cinematography | Joji Ohara |
Music by | Yasushi Akutagawa |
Distributed by | Shintoho |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Takekurabe (たけくらべ, Takekurabe) (English titles include: Growing Up, Adolescence, Growing Up Twice, and Child's Play) is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Heinosuke Gosho. It is based on Higuchi Ichiyō's 1895-1896 novella Takekurabe.[2]
Plot[]
In a downtown area of Meiji era Edo, in the Yoshiwara red light district, teenage boy Shinnyo, son of a buddhist priest, helplessly witnesses not only his sister Ohana being sold as a concubine by his money-loving father, but also the fate of Midori, a neighbourhood girl to whom he has an unspoken affection, who is destined to become a courtesan like her older sister Omaki.
Cast[]
Actor | Role | Notes |
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Hibari Misora | Midori | |
Keiko Kishi | Omaki | |
Mitsuko Yoshikawa | Orin, Midori's mother | |
Zeko Nakamura | Gosuke, Midori's father | |
Eijirō Yanagi | owner of the Daikokuya | |
Takashi Kitahara | Shinnyo | |
Setsuko Shinobu | Shinnyo's mother | |
Takamaru Sasaki | Shinnyo's father | |
Kurayoshi Nakamura | Sangoro | |
Yūko Mochizuki | Sangoro's mother | |
Takeshi Sakamoto | Sangoro's father | |
Akira Hattori | Chokichi | |
Kyū Sazanka | Tatsugoro, Chokichi's father | |
Matsumoto Kōshirō | Shōtarō | credited Somegorō Ichikawa |
Kikue Mouri | Shōtarō's grandmother | |
Atsuko Ichinomiya | messenger | |
Iida Chōko | Baayaotoki | |
Isuzu Yamada | Okichi | |
Hatae Kishi | ||
Kyū Sakamoto | uncredited |
Production and legacy[]
Takekurabe was independently produced by Tsūjin Fukushima's company "New Art Productions", which resulted in budgetary constraints and compromises in the filming. It received mixed reviews during its initial run for being "overliterary" and the casting of pop star Hibari Misora.[3] Film scholar Donald Richie and Gosho biographer Arthur Nolletti later called Takekurabe an "outstanding example" (Nolletti)[3] of the Meiji-mono (Meiji period film) and "one of the finest due to its excellent sets" (by Kubo Kazuo), "its superb photography and the nearly perfect performances" (Richie).[4]
Awards[]
- Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress Isuzu Yamada in Takekurabe and Ishigassen[5]
References[]
- ^ "たけくらべ (Takekurabe)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 18 January 2021.
- ^ "たけくらべ (Takekurabe)" (in Japanese). Kinenote. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Nolletti Jr., Arthur (2008). The Cinema of Gosho Heinosuke: Laughter through Tears. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 214–225. ISBN 978-0-253-34484-7.
- ^ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
- ^ "6th Blue Ribbon Awards" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
External links[]
- Takekurabe at IMDb
- 1955 films
- Japanese-language films
- 1955 drama films
- Japanese films
- Japanese drama films
- Japanese black-and-white films
- Films based on short fiction
- Films directed by Heinosuke Gosho
- Shintoho films
- Films scored by Yasushi Akutagawa