Late Chrysanthemums is a film of unbridled riches, so it’s only appropriate that it contains two of Mikio Naruse’s typically superb climaxes.
Also known as Her Lonely Lane, A Wanderer’s Notebook is director Mikio Naruse’s hollow biopic of authoress Fumiko Hayashi, whose work the director often adapted for the screen.
The day-to-day actions of a Mikio Naruse character are typically mundane and repetitious to the point of none-too-subtly cloaked disdain.
The best moments of A Wife’s Heart involve things not said or seen.
Husband and Wife is one of director Mikio Naruse’s stranger films.
Flowing feels supremely indebted and connected to Eastern Buddhism’s karmic path toward enlightenment.
It’s to Mikio Naruse’s credit that he clearly doesn’t favor any one of his characters over another.
The film is something of a dull slog through territory better covered in Mikio Naruse’s prior Sudden Rain.