Repast (film)

Repast (めし, Meshi) is a 1951 Japanese drama and shomin-geki film directed by Mikio Naruse and starring Setsuko Hara.[2] It is based on the final unfinished novel by Fumiko Hayashi[3] and was the first in a series of adaptations of her work by the director.

Meshi
Japanese theatrical release poster
Japaneseめし
Directed byMikio Naruse
Written by
Produced bySanezumi Fujimoto
Starring
CinematographyMasao Tamai
Music byFumio Hayasaka
Production
company
Distributed byToho
Release date
November 23, 1951[1]
Running time
98 minutes[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

Michiyo has moved from Tokyo to settle down in Osaka with her salaryman husband, whom she married against her parents' wishes. A few years later into the marriage, her husband treats her carelessly, and she is slowly worn down by domestic drudgery. The situation worsens when her pretty niece, fleeing from her parents' plans for an arranged marriage, comes to stay and the husband responds to her flirtatious behaviour. Dissatisfied with his efforts to improve their household life, she leaves with her niece for Tokyo to stay with her family for a time, but finally returns, resigning to marital conventions.

Cast
Actor Role
Ken Uehara Hatsunosuke Okamoto
Setsuko Hara Michiyo Okamoto
Yukiko Shimazaki Satoko Okamoto
Yoko Sugi Mitsuko Murata, Michiyo's sister-in-law
Akiko Kazami Seiko Tomiyasu
Haruko Sugimura Matsu Murata, Michiyo's mother
Ranko Hanai Koyoshi Dohya
Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi Kazuo Takenaka
Keiju Kobayashi Shinzo Murata, Michiyo's brother
Akira Oizumi Yoshitaro Taniguchi
Ichiro Shimizu Hatsunosuke's colleague
Haruo Tanaka Jihei Maruyama
So Yamamura Ryuichiro Okamoto

Production

Repast was the first of a series of six films directed by Naruse based on works by Fumiko Hayashi, "a novelist whose pessimistic outlook matched his own" (Alexander Jacoby).[4] It also marked a successful return for Naruse, whose films of the preceding 15 years were regarded as lesser works by critics.[2][5] According to screenwriter Toshirō Ide, he and his co-writer Sumie Tanaka had wanted to finish the story with the couple's divorce, but this was vetoed by the studio in favour of a conclusion with, as contemporary critic Takao Toda put it, "mass appeal".[3]

Awards

References
  1. "Repast at the Japanese Movie Database" (in Japanese). Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
  3. Russell, Catherine (2011). Classical Japanese Cinema Revisited. New York and London: Continuum International. pp. 106f. ISBN 978-1-4411-1681-9.
  4. Jacoby, Alexander (2008). A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press. pp. 268–273. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.
  5. Thrift, Matthew. "Repast in The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now". British Film Institute. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  6. "2nd Blue Ribbon Awards" (in Japanese). Cinema Hochi. Archived from the original on 2009-02-07. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  7. "6th Mainichi Film Awards" (in Japanese). Retrieved 28 January 2021.
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