When Andrew Sarris classified a chapter of his Pantheon-defining "The American Cinema" as “Subjects for Further Research,” he had filmmakers like Kinuyo Tanaka in mind. The celebrated actress, known for her collaborations with Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff, Ugetsu, The Life of Oharu), was also the second woman in Japanese cinema to direct a feature. PacArts will screen 4 of the 6 features Tanaka signed, starting with this, her directorial debut. In a performance worthy of Robert Ryan, Masayuki Mori stars as Reikichi Mayumi, a deeply disturbed veteran five years out from the war who, were it not for his brother, could not scrape by on the money he makes as a translator. A navy buddy hooks him up with a job writing mash notes on behalf of prostitutes looking to win back the sailors that abandoned them. (His letters are so poignant, his customers cry when he reads them aloud.) Mayumi holds his vendees in contempt until that day when yesterday’s love (Yoshiko Kuga) becomes today’s clientele. Were it not for America’s puritanical code, complex emotional melodramas such as this would have cracked American screens long before the studio system crumbled. Nothing you see this year will come close to matching the emotional force of this mid-century melodrama. Order your tickets yesterday! (1953) — Scott Marks
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