Friday, March 21, 2014, 7:00 PM
Japan
333 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017
Donald Richie on Muddy River:
“Whether this unsentimental, black-and-white movie about the friendship of two little boys in post-World War II Japan is a harbinger of a renaissance of the once-eminent Japanese film remains to be seen. But without doubt, the success of Muddy River, financed by the film-struck president of an iron-working plant and at first unable to find a distributor, serves to expose the prolonged decline of an industry whose achievements once stirred international praise.” (Excerpted from an article by Richie in The New York Times.)
Kohei Oguri (1945- ) affectionately portrays the friendship of children facing the harsh reality of social discrimination. The protagonist, a nine-year-old boy, grows up in a warm and loving working-class family. He befriends a boy and his sister living on a houseboat where their mother works as a prostitute. Takako Shigemori’s screenplay is based on Teru Miyamoto’s novel and the details of the children’s everyday lives are superbly captured by Shohei Ando’s cinematography.
For more information about the event, please visit:
http://www.japansociety.org/event/muddy-river