PROFILPELAJAR.COM

No Blood Relation
No Blood Relation
	Jōji Oka and Yoshiko Okada
Japanese name
Kanji	生さぬ仲
Directed by	Mikio Naruse
Written by	Kogo Noda; Shunyo Yanagawa (novel);
Starring	Yoshiko Okada; Shin'yō Nara; Yukiko Tsukuba;
Cinematography	Suketaro Inokai
Production; company	Shochiku
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	16 December 1932 (Japan);
Running time	79 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

No Blood Relation (生さぬ仲, Nasanu naka) is a 1932 Japanese silent drama film directed by Mikio Naruse, based on a novel by Shunyo Yanagawa.^[1]^[2]^[3] It is the first surviving feature-length film by the director.

Plot

After five years overseas, star actress Tamae returns to Japan to reunite with her daughter Shigeko, whom she left behind with her then husband Atsumi in favour of her career. In her absence, Atsumi has married again, and the bond between Shigeko and her stepmother Masako has grown as strong as between a blood-related child and mother. When Atsumi's company goes bankrupt and his family is forced to move to lower-class surroundings, Tamae sees her chance to lure Shigeko away, but eventually has to accept that her wealth can't compensate for Shigeko's and Masako's mutual love.

Cast

Yoshiko Okada as Tamae Kiyooka
Shin'yō Nara as Shunsaku Atsumi
Yukiko Tsukuba as Masako, Atsumi's wife
Toshiko Kojima as Shigeko, Atsumi's daughter
Fumiko Katsuragi as Kishiyo, Atsumi's mother
Jōji Oka as Masaya Kusakabe
Ichirō Yūki as Keiji Makino
Shozaburo Abe as "Gen the Pelican"

Analysis

Naruse biographer Catherine Russell linked No Blood Relation to other Naruse films of the same era like Three Sisters With Maiden Hearts, Wife! Be Like a Rose! and The Girl in the Rumor, by using the popular but controversial figure of the moga (modern Japanese girl with Western values and Western fashion style), who contrasted with another woman or sister.^[4]

Legacy

No Blood Relation was screened at the Cinémathèque Française in 2006^[5] and at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007 in its "Retrospektive" program.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "No Blood Relation". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 19 February 2021.
^ "生さぬ仲 (No Blood Relation)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 19 February 2021.
^ Goble, Alan (1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 513. ISBN 978-3-11-095194-3.
^ Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. pp. 115–116. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.
^ "Nasaku naka". Cinémathèque Française (in French). Retrieved 19 July 2023.
^ "Nasanu naka". Berlinale.de. Retrieved 25 October 2022.