A Fond Face from the Past

Synopsis

A Fond Face from the Past is also set in a rural community, specifically a village outside Kameoka, near Kyoto. In some ways this short, thirty-six-minute film is Naruse's most moving negotiation of the militarist restrictions of the time, perhaps because it is also his most direct engagement with the culture of war. When a newsreel comes to Kameoka featuring a local man named Yoichi, it causes some excitement in the community and, of course, in Yoichi's own family. First of all his mother makes the newsreel (Nippon News, no. 14), which begins with the same marching music that opens his own film, followed by a curious baby judging context in Los Angeles featuring two hundred Japanese babies. Released in January 1941, almost a year before the pacific war begins, this “found footage” is indicative of Japanese imperialist ambitions beyond Asia long before Pearl Harbor.

Main Cast

Ranko Hanai

Osumi

Age : 42 | Popularity : 3%

Takashi Kodaka

Age : N/A | Popularity : 3%

Tsuruko Mano

Age : N/A | Popularity : 6%

Kinji Fujiwa

Age : N/A | Popularity : 3%

Taizō Fukami

Schoolteacher

Age : N/A | Popularity : 3%

Masaru Kodaka

Shin-chan

Age : 95 | Popularity : 7%

Sumihiko Hara

Ken-chan

Age : N/A | Popularity : 3%

Makoto Matsuzaki

Masa-chan

Age : 92 | Popularity : 3%

Crew

Department	Role	Name
Writing	Screenplay	Mikio Naruse
	Writer	Mikio Naruse
Directing	Director	Mikio Naruse
Camera	Director of Photography	Seiichi Kizuka
Production	Executive Producer	Teppei Himuro
Sound	Original Music Composer	Tadashi Ota
Crew	Sound Recordist	Shin Ebara
Lighting	Lighting Technician	Takero Marukawa
Editing	Editor	Shigeru Matsuura
Department	Role	Name

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