Maihime (1951)
Michael Kerpan
Mieko Takamine is a former ballet star and current ballet teacher
(seemingly not so happily) married to So Yamamura. The couple have a
teen-aged son and daughter (17 or 18 year-old Mariko Okada in one of
her first roles and Akihiko Katayama). Takamine's affections seem to be
engaged by an old friend (Kan Nihonyanagi -- Setsuko Hara's neighbor
from "Early Spring"). Okada is now an advanced ballet student -- but is
distracted by her mother's romance (which she is not entirely
unsympathetic to) and the illness of her old teacher. The ending is a
bit conventional, but much of the ride along the way is interesting.
Some very fine photography of ballet practices and performances by
Asakazu Nakai.
Dan Sallitt
Michael - you know what I'm going to ask: how did you get to see this and
THE GIRL IN THE RUMOR? And were there subtitles, in any language? - Dan
Michael Kerpan
picture quality of these broadcasts was surprisingly good. Much better
than the ratty old taped broadcasts I have from years back.
I had hoped that I could find a translation of Kawabata's story -- to
use as a cheat sheet of sorts -- but this story doesn't seem to have
been translated. Suprisingly, this film was made almost immediately
after the book came out (within the same year).