Film Forum

下町　ダウンタウン

Director Yasuki Chiba
Cast Isuzu Yamada, Toshirô Mifune, Keiko Awaji
Screenplay Fumiko Hayashi, Ryôzô Kasahara, Seiya Yoshida | Cinematography Rokurô Nishigaki
1957 | Japan | 35mm print courtesy National Film Archive of Japan | approx. 58 min. | In Japanese with English subtitles created especially for this screening

Lonely single mother/war widow Isuzu Yamada, living in a house of a prostiution with her 8-year-old son, faces isolation and despair until she meets good guy truck driver Toshirô Mifune. Two legendary icons (Mr. & Mrs. Macbeth the same year in Throne of Blood) do simple ordinary people in this pure slice of life – with a climax unique in Mifune’s oeuvre. Based on the novel by feminist writer Fumiko Hayashi.  An unseen masterpiece that has rarely, if ever, been seen in this country.  (The print will return to Japan following our screenings.)

Translation and subtitles by Mimiko Goldstein.