Repast (Meshi)

1951, 97 min., 16mm, b&w. In Japanese with English subtitles. Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation with permission from Janus Films and Home Vision Entertainment.

Directed by Mikio Naruse. Written by Toshiro Ide and Sumie Tanaka, based on a novel by Fumiko Hayashi. Cinematograpy by Masao Tamai. Music by Fumio Hayasaka. With Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara, Yukiko Shimazaki, Yoko Sugi, Haruko Sugimura.

Setsuko Hara and Ken Uehara, two big stars of the 1940s and ’50s, play a young and humble couple who live in Osaka. The husband works as a stockbroker while his wife looks after the house. Five years after their marriage, life seems monotonous–until they are visited by their niece who has fled from her parents. Mikio Naruse dramatizes the subtle emotional relationships among family members in his usual exquisite manner.

Tickets: $10; Japan Society members, seniors & students $5.