Street Without End

Street Without End
Akio Isono and Setsuko Shinobu in
Street Without End
Japanese name
Kanji限りなき舗道
Directed byMikio Naruse
Written by
  • Tomizō Ikeda
  • Komatsu Kitamura (story)
Starring
  • Setsuko Shinobu
  • Akio Isono
  • Sozo Okada
CinematographySuketaro Inokai
Production
company
Distributed byShochiku
Release date
  • 26 April 1934 (1934-04-26) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
88 minutes[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Street Without End (限りなき舗道, Kagirinaki hodō) is a 1934 Japanese silent drama film directed by Mikio Naruse, based on a newspaper serial by Komatsu Kitamura.[3] It was Naruse's last silent film and his final film for the Shochiku studio.[3][4]

Plot

Sugiko works as a waitress in a café in Tokyo's Ginza district. Her boyfriend Machio proposes to her, although his family has arranged a marriage with a woman from a wealthy family for him. She is also approached by Yukihiko, a talent scout for a film studio which is looking for a new star actress. When she steps onto the street absent-mindedly, she is hit by the car of Hiroshi, the heir of the Yamanouchi family. Machio sees her being taken away in Hiroshi's car, believing that she is dating Hiroshi and has decided against his proposal, and leaves town. Hiroshi starts dating Sugiko, despite his mother's and sister's objections against his liaison with a girl of lower class descent, but when he insists on marrying her, they eventually give in. Meanwhile, Sugiko's friend and colleague Kesako has successfully applied for the job at the film studio, which puts the relationship to her boyfriend Shinkichi to the test. Sugiko soon feels uncomfortable in her new home, and Hiroshi, unhappy with his family's overt reluctance to his wife, starts drinking frequently. After Sugiko leaves him, Hiroshi has a car accident and is hospitalised. At the hospital, Sugiko blames Hiroshi's mother and sister for never having accepted her. Hiroshi dies soon after, and Sugiko returns to her job in the Ginza café, reunited with Kesako and Shinkichi who quit the film studio.

Cast

  • Setsuko Shinobu as Sugiko Shima
  • Akio Isono as Koichi, Sugiko's brother
  • Sozo Okada as Hiroshi Yamanouchi
  • Nobuko Wakaba as Takako, Hiroshi's sister
  • Fumiko Katsuragi as Hiroshi's mother
  • Shin'ichi Himori as Shinkichi
  • Chiyoko Katori as Kesako
  • Ichirō Yūki as Machio Harada, Sugiko's boyfriend
  • Yukiko Inoue as Yoshiko Hisayama
  • Shōzaburō Abe as barman
  • Chishū Ryū as Yukihiko Chiba
  • Tomio Aoki as boy on the telephone
  • Takeshi Sakamoto
  • Kōji Mitsui as café customer (credited as Hideo Mitsui)

Release

Street Without End premiered in Japan on 26 April 1934.[1][2] It was shown in the U.S. as part of a Naruse retrospective in 1985, organised by the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute and film scholar Audie Bock.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c "限りなき舗道 (Street Without End)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b "限りなき舗道 (Street Without End)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.
  4. ^ Yamamoto, Satsuo (2017). My Life as a Filmmaker. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-07333-7.
  5. ^ "Mikio Naruse: a master of the Japanese cinema". CineFiles. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  6. ^ "Mikio Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema Opens at MoMA September 23" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 19 July 2023.