Hara Setsuko Forever: A Homage To Japan’s Best-Loved Actress

Description

Dubbed the ‘Greta Garbo of Japan’, actress Hara Setsuko (1920 – 2015) is best remembered for her starring roles in Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) and Late Spring (1949), both of which will be screened in the programme.

Renowned for her beauty, smile, inner depth and strength, Setsuko was one of the biggest stars of post-war Japanese cinema. She worked some of the most acclaimed directors in Japanese cinema, among whom Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, and Mikio Naruse.

HKIFFF’s tribute screenings to Hara Setsuko includes iconic movies such as The New Earth a.k.a. The Daughter of the Samurai (Japan/Germany, 1937), the first coproduction between national socialist Germany and imperial Japan before WWII to boost relations between the two countries; Sudden Rain (Japan, 1956), a drama/comedy about pitched marital combat, and Late Autumn (Japan, 1960), a poignant film in which Setsuko plays a mother sacrificing for her daughter’s happiness.