Singing Lovebirds

Oshidori utagassen

Japan

1939

69 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

Japanese

Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
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DP Akira Mimura, Kazuo Miyagawa

CAST Chiezo Kataoka, Ryôsuke Kagawa, Takashi Shimura, Mitsuru Toyama, Kajo Onoe, Hidemichi Ishikawa, Eizaburo Kusunoki, Ryutaro Chikamatsu, Matsunosuke Fukui, Minoru Fujisaki, Shirô Osaki, Mitsuo Kobayashi

MUSIC Tokujiro Okubo, Masao Yoneyama

Antique lover Kyosai Shimura (Shimura) is a poor umbrella-making samurai who struggles to make ends meet while his daughter Oharu (Ichikawa) vies for the attention of the handsome neighboring ronin, Reisaburo (Chiezo Kataoka). Reisaburo wants to reciprocate, but when an unexpected gift turns into a scheme to force Shimura to sell his daughter as a mistress to a local suitor (and thus reserve the ronin’s attention for another girl), the father can’t scrounge up the required 50 ryo and plans for a midnight escape. —Midnight Eye

Director

Masahiro Makino

The eldest son of Shozo Makino was completely dedicated to making movies, directing over 260 films during his lifetime, mostly movies for entertainment.

Under the tutelage of his father, Masahiro was first an actor, appearing in his first film at the tender age of 3, and starred with eventual director Tomu Uchida in Kusu Kichiko, Sakurai no Ketsubetsu (1921). After graduating from school in 1925, he officially joined Makino Film Productions as an actor/assistant director. His debut as a director was Aoi Me no Ningyo (1926). He then teamed up with screenplay writer Itaro Sanjo and cinematographer Minoru Niki to create Roninkai – Daiichiwa Utkushiki Emono (1928) and Kubi no Za (1929), which won consecutive #1 rankings in the movie Top Ten. Each of these period films produced by the “Young Makino Trio” while Makino was still in his early twenties was revolutionary and caused a sensation. After father Shozo’s death, Makino Film Productions went… read more