Japanese Girls at the Harbor (film)

Japanese Girls at the Harbor (港の日本娘, Minato no nihon musume) is a 1933 Japanese silent drama film directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. It is based on the novel of the same name by Toma Kitabayashi.[2][3] Film historians have called Japanese Girls at the Harbor an "electrifying masterpiece of Japanese silent cinema",[4] and "visually flamboyant and emotionally intense".[5]

Japanese Girls at the Harbor
Michiko Oikawa and Yukiko Inoue in Japanese Girls at the Harbor
Japanese港の日本娘
Directed byHiroshi Shimizu
Written byMitsu Suyama
Toma Kitabayashi (novel)
StarringMichiko Oikawa
Yukiko Inoue
Ureo Egawa
Ranko Sawa
Yumeko Aizome
CinematographyTarô Sasaki
Production
company
Release date
  • June 1, 1933 (1933-06-01)
[1]
Running time
72[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

The friendship of Sunako and Dora, both mixed-race teenagers attending a Catholic school in Yokohama, is at stake with the appearance of careless playboy Henry. After a short-lived affair, Henry leaves Sunako for a third girl, Yoko. In an outburst of jealousy, Sunako shoots Yoko with Henry's revolver in a church's prayer room. A few years later, Sunako, whom according to the intertitles "God hasn't forgiven", lives with unsuccessful painter Miura and works as a prostitute in a bar, while Henry and Dora are married and expecting a child. When Sunako is re-united with Henry and Dora, new tensions arise, while Miura is acquainted with a young woman from the neighbourhood who turns out to be Yoko, who survived the shooting. Sunako decides not to interfere with Dora's marriage and convinces Henry to stay with his wife and become a responsible father. After Yoko dies of illness, Sunako and Miura decide to start anew elsewhere and leave Yokohama by ship.

Cast
  • Michiko Oikawa as Sunako Kurokawa
  • Yukiko Inoue as Dora Kennel
  • Ureo Egawa as Henry
  • Ranko Sawa as Yôko Sheridan
  • Yumeko Aizome as Masumi
  • Tatsuo Saitô as Miura, the painter
  • Yasuo Nanjô as Harada

References
  1. "Entry for Japanese Girls at the Harbor at IMDb". Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  2. "Entry for Japanese Girls at the Harbor at the British Film Institute". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  3. "Entry for Japanese Girls at the Harbor at La cinémathèque française" (in French). Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  4. "The Best Japanese Film of Every Year – From 1925 to Now at the British Film Institute". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  5. Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.

Bibliography
  • Richie, Donald (2005). A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (Revised edition). Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International. ISBN 978-4-7700-2995-9
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