The Eternal Breasts
| The Eternal Breasts | |
|---|---|
 Ryōji Hayama and Yumeji Tsukioka in The Eternal Breasts | |
| Japanese | 乳房よ永遠なれ |
| Directed by | Kinuyo Tanaka |
| Written by | Sumie Tanaka |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Kumenobu Fujioka |
| Edited by | Kimihiko Nakamura |
| Music by | Takanobu Saitō |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Nikkatsu |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes[1] |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
The Eternal Breasts (乳房よ永遠なれ, Chibusa yo eien nare) is a 1955 Japanese drama film and the third film directed by actress Kinuyo Tanaka. It is based on the life of tanka poetess Fumiko Nakajō (1922–1954).[3]
Plot[]
Unhappily married Fumiko, mother of two children, divorces her drug-addicted husband after an incident which she regards as an act of unfaithfulness, and moves back to her mother. At the same time, she tries to find her voice as a poetess, regularly attending a poetry circle, encouraged by her married tutor Hori, whom she loves with a respectful distance. While struggling with the divorce and the fact that she could only take her daughter with her, she is diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. She undergoes a double mastectomy, which she writes about in a series of widely noticed and prize-winning poems, and tries to live her life as freely as possible and as her illness allows. She has a short affair with journalist Ōtsuki, who writes about her in a newspaper series, before she finally dies.
Cast[]
- Yumeji Tsukioka as Fumiko Shimojō, née Nakajō
- Ryōji Hayama as Akira Ōtsuki
- Junkichi Orimoto as Shigeru Anzai
- Hiroko Kawasaki as Tatsuko
- Shirō Ōsaka as Yoshio
- Ikuko Kimuro as Seiko
- Masayuki Mori as Takashi Hori
- Yōko Sugi as Kinuko, Hori's wife
- Chōko Iida as Hide
- Bokuzen Hidari as Hide's husband
- Tōru Abe as Yamagami
- Fumie Kitahara as Kobayashi
- Kinuyo Tanaka as neighbour's wife
- Yoshiko Tsubouchi as Shirakawa
Legacy[]
Unanimously highly regarded for its directorial skills, film scholars differ in their evaluation of the themes addressed in The Eternal Breasts. While Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández calls it "a daring depiction of female sexuality […] as well as a powerful instance of women’s creativity and self-expression",[4] Alexander Jacoby sees the "feminist and progressive" theme of a woman willingly choosing career over marriage obscured by the film's concentration on her illness, thus shying away from the more controversial implications.[5]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The Eternal Breasts in the Japanese Movie Database" (in Japanese). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ "The Eternal Breasts at IMDb". Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ Sato, Hiroaki (2015). Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology. Milton Park and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7656-1783-5.
- ^ "The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now at the British Film Institute website". Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.
External links[]
- The Eternal Breasts at IMDb
- Scanlon, Hayley (6 December 2017). "The Eternal Breasts". Windows on Worlds. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
Bibliography[]
- González-López, Irene; Smith, Michael, eds. (2018). Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-0969-8.
- Berra, John, ed. (2012). Directory of World Cinema: Japan2. Bristol and Chicago: Intellect. ISBN 978-1-84150-551-0.
- 1955 films
- Japanese-language films
- 1955 drama films
- Japanese films
- Japanese drama films
- Films about writers