Kisses
Tribute to Yasuzô Masumura 2023 / Kuchizuke / Japan 1957
Synopsis
Boy meets girl. He is a delivery boy, she's an artist’s model. Their fathers are in prison: his is a politician accused of electoral fraud; hers is a governmental employee charged with embezzlement. Over the course of one day, the young pair hit the beach, go to the races, attempt to reconcile with their families, and fall in love. A snapshot of the aimless, post-war Japanese youth brimming with vitality and compassion, Masumura’s wondrous debut is a sublime piece of the popular 1950s Sun Tribe genre, significantly deviating from convention by featuring underprivileged protagonists. Laced with the kind of carefree optimism rarely figuring in his subsequent work and containing little of the artifice that would define his filmmaking, Kisses is a singular entry point to Masumura’s colossal oeuvre.
Joseph Fahim
About the film
74 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Yasuzô Masumura
/ Screenplay Kazuo Funahashi podle předlohy / based on the novel by Matsutaro Kawaguchi
/ Dir. of Photography Jyouji Obara
/ Music Tetsuo Tsukahara
/ Sound Takeo Suda
/ Editor Tatsuji Nakasizu
/ Art Director Tomoo Shimogawara
/ Producer Hidemasa Nagata
/ Production DAIEI studio, Kadokawa Corporation
/ Cast Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hitomi Nozoe, Eitaro Ozawa
/ Sales Kadokawa Corporation
Contacts
Kadokawa Corporation
2-13-12 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, 102-8552, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 807 233 6972
E-mail: mori-c@kadokawa.jp
