The Moon Has Risen

Why does the “Japan 1954” section of Timeless Festival include a film released in 1955? Firstly, we really wanted to include a film by Kinuyo Tanaka, an outstanding actor who stars in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff, also shown at Timeless. Secondly, Tanaka was the only female director working in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s, but none of her six films premiered in the “Year of Wonders”. In 1954, as Kurosawa triumphed with The Seven Samurai and Godzilla haunted the streets of Tokyo (both films are on the festival programme), Tanaka was shooting The Moon Has Risen, based on a script by Yasujirō Ozu. Tanaka’s films, overshadowed for decades by the works of her more accomplished colleagues, return to screens today in beautifully restored versions. The Moon Has Risen is a light-hearted, witty tale of three sisters and their romantic adventures – an elegant romantic comedy starring Chishū Ryū, Ozu’s favourite actor, in the role of a widowed father who observes the changing Japanese way of life.

Sebastian Smoliński

Kinuyo Tanaka (1909–1977) was a Japanese actress and director. She appeared in more than 250 films during a career that lasted 50 years, and was best known for the 15 films she made with Kenji Mizoguchi. With her 1953 directorial debut Love Letter, she became the second Japanese woman director, following Tazuko Sakane. Between 1953 and 1962 she directed six films in all, of which 1955’s The Moon Has Risen  and The Eternal Breasts are the best-known.

4K restoration.