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Ace Craven
2Aug11
"I'll say it again: one can't improve productivity without improving ones character." Call it a sophomore slump, growing pains, or a blatant spit in the face of propaganda, but this jumpy, cut-up and downright mechanical film is the furthest from what became Kurosawa's style. A lot of experiments -some are successful. There are building blocks & themes he uses later but this film is an exercise in self discovery.
branduponthebrain
6May11
Within the historical context it comes from, this is a great film. It's really interesting to see how masterfully Kurosawa blends the melodrama and propaganda.
Francisco R.
13Apr11
Being more of a political device in its time than an actual work of art, Kurosawa shows sympathy towards the female workers and makes a good point showing the [lack of] working regulations during preparations for the war, but that is not enough to lift this material farther than the mediocre genre he was initially asked to work in.
trolley freak
8Apr11
Kurosawa looked back on this - his second feature - with particular fondness. Hardly surprising, really, because he ended up marrying the leading lady! Beautifully directed in a semi-documentary style...
MrKPPatterson
29Dec10
A beautiful piece of propaganda, but a piece of propaganda nonetheless. The cinematography is fantastic, but the story and characters are flat, portraying a morale-boosting perfect that is very difficult to swallow.
Stu Witmer
26Aug10
This early Kurosawa film has a definite split personality: lovely visuals, lousy story. The story is a standard, forgettable, wartime, stiff-upper-lip heart-warmer. On the other hand, the directing, sets, cinematography and other visuals are quite good. Bits of real life extrude through the soap,scenes and sets are framed artistically and the faces...! One could find lots of worse things to do with 85 minutes. I suggest watching it with the sound & subtitles off. My two star rating is solely for the visuals. Everything else gets nothing.
Franklinton Underground Cinema
4Jan10
Despite being a film Kurosawa may have never made, had the studio not demanded this of him - I believe he still made a film with great depth of character, portraying the immense value of self-sacrifice and hard work for each individual within a community that shares a common goal - despite being exploited by the nationalistic government.