Ed note: For the next several weeks, composer and film aficionado Lewis Saul has agreed to supply us with in-depth commentary about the films of Akira Kurosawa, now showing in an extended festival at the Film Forum. Even if you're unable to stop by the Forum, we think Lew's insights will deepen your appreciation of these important movies.
Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth) [1946]PLAYING January 25th at The Film Forum
For a detailed frame-by-frame (literally, at one point!) analysis, click here.
Although Yukie Yagihara (Setsuko Hara) says this line to Itokawa (Akitake Kôno, five early films with AK) very late in the film, the line resonates throughout this fantastic 1946 film -- Kurosawa's first post-war film.
It is a shame that Criterion has not released this as a regular Criterion Collection DVD, with some expert commentary. The political situation alone is important enough to the film to have someone discuss that in depth. But let us be thankful for what we have -- a nice, quite watchable print on the Eclipse Series line -- no frills, but the price is right (and four other films in the package)...
Galbraith's précis is nice:
"Professor Yagihara is dismissed from Kyoto University, and the students revolt. Yukie is courted by two of Yagihara's students, Noge (Susumu Fujita) and Itokawa (Kôno). Yukie lives in a carefree, bourgeois world oblivious to the tumultuous events that surround her. Noge is expelled for his anti-militaristic activities, while the weak-willed Itokawa chooses the opposite path, joining the military government as a public prosecutor. Yuke follows Noge to Tokyo, becoming first his secretary, then his wife. Noge is arrested again and dies in jail, presumably tortured to death. She returns briefly to her parents before deciding to take her husband's remains to his rice farmer parents (Haruko Sugimura [a favorite of Ozu's, but AK used her only used more, in Akahige {Red Beard} |1965|] and Kokuten Kôdô). Because of their son's infamy, the parents are ostracized from the village community and forced to eke out a living during the night. The mother curses her son. But Yukie's selfless decision to work in their rice paddies like an ordinary peasant, refusing to hide in the shadows, gradually impresses Noge's parents. When their neighbors viciously trample their rice crop, Yukie determinedly starts over, in spite of total










