Snow Country

Yukiguni

Japan

1957

120 Min

Black and White

Japanese

Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
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SCR Yasunari Kawabata, Toshio Yasumi

CAST Ryô Ikebe, Keiko Kishi, Kaoru Yachigusa, Daisuke Katô, Akira Kubo, Hisaya Morishige, Chieko Naniwa, Maruo Tanaka

PROD DES Kisaku Ito, Makoto Sono

It’s a man’s world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She’s the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family’s son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He’s tended by his sister Yuko who’s angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and her family loses their home. Complications arise when Shimamura doesn’t come back as promised. Then Komako discovers that he and Yuko knew each other in Tokyo. Can Komako escape destiny? —IMDb

Director

Shirô Toyoda

Shirō Toyoda (豊田四郎 Toyoda Shirō, born 3 January 1906, Kyoto, Japan – 13 November 1977, Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese film director. Born in Kyoto, Toyoda moved to Tokyo in his teens and began studying under the pioneering film director Eizō Tanaka. He joined Shōchiku’s Kamata studio in 1924 and worked as an assistant director under Yasujirō Shimazu. He debuted as a director in 1929 and moved to the independent Tokyo Hassei studio in 1935, where he scored a hit with Young People and gained a reputation for directing literary adaptations with a humanistic touch. After a slump during World War II, he became one of the top directors at Toho (into which Tokyo Hassei had merged during the war), famed for his adaptations of literary works by such giants as Yasunari Kawabata, Kafū Nagai, Naoya Shiga, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Masuji Ibuse, and Ango Sakaguchi. He was particularly known for portraying weak men and strong women with a humorous touch, such as in films like Meoto zenzai (1955). His career… read more