Today, it is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a Japanese actress, Hara Setsuko (born June 17, 1920).
She is known as the "Virgin Of Eternity" and is one of the most memorable actresses of the Showa era. Imatoshi's "Millennium Actress" is a reference to her image.
Millennium Actress, Toshi Imabari, 2001
She is best known and talked about for her role in Yasujiro Ozu's films. When Ozu died in 1963, she also retired from the film industry and lived in seclusion in Kamakura, and since then, she has not appeared for more than half a century, adding mystery to her legendary life.
Yasujiro Ozu Yohara
It wasn't until her death in September 2015 that people learned that she had actually been alive.
Just like a pair of bright eyes, quietly watching for more than half a century, human beings have been living and dying again and again, gathering and dispersing.
Tonight, I specially translated a famous American Japanese pass, and a beautiful article by film critic Donald Richie, which I miss. The original CC edition of "Late Spring" DVD comes with a manual.
Note: Donald Ritchie died in 2013, and when he wrote this article, he probably didn't know that the original setsuko who retired from the circle was still alive.
<h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Ozu and Hara</h2>
<h3 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">By Donald Richie</h3>
Setsuko Hara has been tied to her role in Ozu Yasujiro's films, so much so that she is often seen as the prototype for female characters in Ozu films, and her other roles have been forgotten by the world.
However, her career is as colorful as any actress.
Setsuko Hara was born in 1920. In 1935, she was introduced to the Nissho Film Company by her brother-in-law and director Kumagaya Hisahu, but she became popular after being selected by Arnold Fanck to star in the German-Japanese co-production Shinji (1937).
In the film, she plays a pure-hearted Japanese girl who tries (unsuccessfully) to set herself on fire in an active volcano.
After becoming a model of Japanese women in this crisis (in "Shinto"), she appeared as a poor victim in several wartime films.
It wasn't until she starred in Akira Kurosawa's first post-war film, I Have No Regrets about Youth (1946), that she was encouraged to show independence and individuality, which marked her many later roles.
In films such as Konzaburo Yoshimura's Ball at the Anjo Family (1947) and Keisuke Kinoshita's Cheers to The Big Miss (1949), she portrayed a "new Japanese woman" who optimistically envisioned a better future.
Cheers to Big Miss, Keisuke Kinoshita, 1949
However, the role she plays is often typical of a long-term Japanese woman, supporting the men in her life, whether fathers, husbands, or sons.
She made many of these "women's films", the best of which was Naruse's films, the most brilliant of which was in Inagaki's Birth of Japan (1959), the motherly goddess of the sun, Amaterasu.
Hara's collaboration with Ozu began in 1949 and lasted until 1961 – for 12 years.
With her different portrayals in Ozu's films, Hara's career can probably be divided in this way— between roles that allow individuality to be expressed, and traditional family personification. This inspired the character she played in his films to some extent.
Of course, her role in the first late spring (1949) is an illustration of this dramatic duality.
Noriko is a conflicted daughter who is terrified of marriage and adult adventures and prefers to stay with her father's sense of security.
On the one hand, the demands of society, and on the other hand, her own emotional needs, fully reveal her character, complicating her character, thus making her typical predicament interesting.
In Mai Qiu (1951), we see that Noriko (Ozu and his royal screenwriter Takao Noda gave the character of Hara Setsuko by this name in these films, so that the connection between the characters became apparent) is now older, more experienced, and wants to get married, so he plucks up the courage to marry without the consent of his family.
In Mai Qiu, Noriko finds herself more conservative than her 1951 role, focusing on her own independence — but conflict is conflict, and that's exactly what Ozu is interested in.
And it is these contradictory emotions that Hara has learned to perform flawlessly. So much so that without her, Ozu's film would probably be a little different.
Ozu himself has said that he doesn't know who will play the script, just like an artist doesn't know what colors to use when painting.
Hara's subtle tones and radiant tones not only match the characters created by Ozu, but also, to some extent, the characters created by Ozu.
In Setsuko Hara's next Ozu film, Tokyo Story (1953), Noriko is married and now widowed, thus completely severed from her family relationship — but she is the only child who adheres to tradition and respects her parents.
The filming scene of "Tokyo Story"
Once again, the film portrays the confrontation between social demands and personal tendencies.
In Twilight in Tokyo (1957), the heroine leaves her husband and is once again detached from her social status. In the end, she was determined to come back and try to make the marriage a success.
In Autumn And (1960), Setsuko Hara is the mother of a daughter who does not want to leave her daughter, does not want to get married, and does not want to have her own family. It's just that the mature Noriko is the parent now. She knows that children have their own lives, have considerable self-sacrifice, and she is willing to stick with it.
Akira Hayakawa (1961) was setsuko Hara's last film with Ozu, and her role, like Tokyo Story, was that of a widowed daughter-in-law.
But now, despite her age, she is considering remarriage and still insists on her right to choose a partner. The conflict between expectations and tendencies continues.
Of course, it is comical to reduce this delicate balance in Ozu's films and replace it with an outdated paradigm between social obligations and individual will. At the same time, however, Hara's career and Ozu film were also shaped by this idea, which can be said to reflect this idea.
In any case, "Autumn of the Hayakawa Family" marked the end of their collaboration.
Within two years, Ozu died, and Setsuko Hara gave up her career.
She was only 43 years old at the time, and suddenly announced, there seemed to be no reason. In any case, her choice of such an abrupt approach was not good for her. This is not the performance that Ozu's character should have.
For her studio, she represented the most important investment, which was perverse; critics expressed their disappointment; and even rumors that she was "not like a woman" – a serious insult.
However, Hara Setsuko has her own reasons. She is not Hara Setsuko, but Aida Changjiang. The stage name she used over the years was the pseudonym she had when the studio was first established. Now she says she wants to be herself again.
The reason for this "original knot style" is quite quite the style of the original knot, although there is some hesitation, and then suddenly break the doubt with a smile, but it is such a performance of the original knot that people cannot appreciate.
For the first time since her debut in 1935, she has come under heavy criticism, not so much as an attempt to retire as an expression of that desire. There is no polite fictional bad health, no spiritual imperative, and no urgent desire to engage in charity work.
She simply retired and moved to a small house in Kamakura (where many of her films and Ozu's films were shot) and never appeared again.
The Hara Setsuko we know and love, the Eternal Virgin whom the Japanese themselves worship, now exist only on the screen, and the old girl under Kamakura is basically forgotten, and although it has been talked about by idlers for many years, it has dissipated for a long time.
In retrospect, the reasons for her decision seem obvious.
Our Noriko has been bothered by social requirements and self-needs for so many years, and finally made up her mind. She wanted to do what she wanted to do, and then she did it.
Over the years, all attempts to bring her back have been rejected. She refused to appear on camera while filming Ozu's documentary, just as she didn't attend his funeral when he died.
Setsuko Hara finally became herself.
This article was first published in the Adventure Movie: Cinematik
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