JAPAN 2011 KYOKO KAGAWA RETROSPECTIVE


Director Yasujiro Ozu touches up Kagawa’s make-up on the set of Tokyo Story Kagawa appeared in five Kurosawa


films over the decades, playing varied roles in The Lower Depths (1957), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), High And Low (1963), Red Beard (1965) and Mada- dayo (1993). High And Low in particular showcases Kagawa’s ability to hold her own against the likes of Toshiro Mifune, who plays her husband in the taut kid- napping drama. With Mifune’s charac- ter pacing the living room of their home like a caged tiger, Kagawa — as dutiful wife Reiko — chips away at his armour with rational concern. Kagawa’s comedy chops may be seen


in one of the 48-film Tora-san series, written and directed almost exclusively by Yoji Yamada. She plays the charming love interest in Dream Of Spring, also notable for its look at US culture. Adding a genre film to the mix, Ishiro


Honda’s original Mothra (1961) could also make an appearance in the retro- spective. Kagawa is appealing as a feisty photojournalist who joins the effort to save Japan from Mothra’s ram-


n 10 Screen International May 2011


page at a time when strong career women were still uncommon on the Japanese big screen. Titles by equally talented directors


with profiles still developing outside of Japan, such as Shiro Toyoda (A Cat, Two Women And One Man) or Minoru Shibuya (Christ In Bronze) — the subject of his own retrospective at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival — are also strong contenders to be shown. Yatabe sums up Kagawa’s appeal as


an actress and a festival draw. “She belongs to the last generation who lived through the golden age of Japanese cin- ema, the 1950s, and therefore had the privilege to work with legendary direc- tors. She is one of the greatest stars in Japanese film history, with a career spanning more than 60 years.” Kagawa remains a working actress, appearing in popular period dramas for TV broadcaster NHK and epic time- travel samurai action film Ballad (2009). She is expected to grace the stage at TIFF this October. n


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Kyoko Kagawa has appeared in 120 films


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