Sound of the Mountain

The fourth one. Less known, less celebrated, yet just as great: it’s high time you met Mikio Naruse. During the People’s Republic of Poland only one of his films, Mother (1953), was screened in Poland. Despite the passing of time and his influential fans – such as contemporary masters Hirokazu Koreeda and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Naruse is not as well recognized in Poland as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi or Yasujirō Ozu. Naruse’s ouvre consists mostly of dramas, and many of his films are insightful, empathetic, and often critical towards Japanese reality in their portraits of women, who try to cope in a patriarchal culture. Sound of the Mountain, an adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Yaunari Kawabata’s novel, is considered the director’s highest achievement. Favorizing the perspective of female protagonists, entangled in unfulfilled relationships and unfaithfulness, Naruse tunes into their emotions, sadness, and melancholy. The leading actors have also played in Ozu’s films – among others, we can admire Setsuko Hara and Sō Yamamura whom we know from Tokio Story.

Sebastian Smoliński

Mikio Naruse (1905–1969) was a Japanese director and screenwriter who worked from 1930 to 1967, directing 89 films in all. He is best-known for films belonging to the shôshimin-eiga genre, family dramas about ordinary people, usually with female protagonists. Because of thematic similarities, his films are often compared with those of Yasujirô Ozu. His best-known films include Floating Clouds (1955) and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960).