The River Fuefuki

The River Fuefuki (笛吹川, Fuefukigawa) is a 1960 Japanese historical drama based on a novel by Shichirō Fukazawa.[1] Critic Donald Richie considered "The River Fuefuki" to be Kinoshita's last important film.[2] Marcus Stiglegger found it to be one of Kinoshita's most experimental and spectacular films.[3] The film is set during eld of the Sengoku period period in Japan, with the action marked by historical events from the Battle of Iidagawara and the birth of Takeda Shingen in 1521 to the Battle of Tenmokuzan and fall of the Takeda clan in 1582. The film displays the impact of the Takeda clan's actions on five generations of a farming family, particularly family members' decisions to join or avoid the Takeda's battles of the period.[2][3] Alexander Jacoby found the message of the film to be "a simple pacifism."[4] Stiglegger viewed it as a pessimistic version of the samurai myth, contrasting it with Akira Kurosawa's samurai films from the late 1950s and early 1960s.[3]

Kinoshita incorporated a number of unusual techniques into the film, including freezing the action with still photographs during battle scenes.[2][3] Richie interprets this technique as being a means to "both halt and hold the action."[2] According to Stiglegger, the technique is a metaphor for the immobility of a social system that has exhausted itself in its traditions.[3] Another technique used in the film is the occasional addition of washes of color to portions of the black and white film.[4] Richie filt the use of color in this manner to woodblock prints.[2]