Capital Celluloid 2023 — Day 2: Mon Jan 2

No Regrets for Our Youth (Kurosawa, 1946): BFI Southhbank, NFT1, 12.45pm

This 35mm presentation, also screening on January 10th, is part of the Akira Kurosawa season. You can find the full details here.

BFI introduction to 10 essential Kurosawa films:
Inspired by several real-life incidents, No Regrets for Our Youth is an intelligent and balanced drama about wavering ideologies and personal allegiances set between 1933-46, the years of imperial Japan’s increasing militarisation through to its wartime defeat. Yukie is the privileged daughter of a Kyoto University law professor who is controversially removed from his post for his leftist beliefs. The film portrays her relationships over the years with 2 of his former students, both rival for her affections, and her love affair and ensuing marriage to one of them, who is arrested for his anti-government activities and subsequently disappears from public view. Kurosawa’s oeuvre is not particularly regarded for its focus on sympathetic female characters, but the central turn by Setsuko Hara (better known for her work with Yasujiro Ozu) in his fifth feature (and first of the postwar period) showcases another side to the director, and also counts as his most overtly political work.
Jasper Sharp

Here (and above) is a video of extracts from the film.

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