A Fond Face from the Past
6.6
A Fond Face from the Past is also set in a rural community, specifically a village outside Kameoka, near Kyoto. In some ways this short, thirty-six-minute film is Naruse's most moving negotiation of the militarist restrictions of the time, perhaps because it is also his most direct engagement with the culture of war. When a newsreel comes to Kameoka featuring a local man named Yoichi, it causes some excitement in the community and, of course, in Yoichi's own family. First of all his mother makes the newsreel (Nippon News, no. 14), which begins with the same marching music that opens his own film, followed by a curious baby judging context in Los Angeles featuring two hundred Japanese babies. Released in January 1941, almost a year before the pacific war begins, this “found footage” is indicative of Japanese imperialist ambitions beyond Asia long before Pearl Harbor.
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Cast
19 people
Ranko Hanai
Osumi
Known for
Sanshiro Sugata
Repast
Takashi Kodaka
Also in
This Happy Life
Oath on the Burning Sands
Mikio Naruse
Also in
Mikio Naruse 100th Birth Anniversary
Seiichi Kizuka
Tsuruko Mano
Known for
Godzilla
Rodan
Teppei Himuro
Kinji Fujiwa
Also in
Ōhinata-mura
Morning for the Osone Family
Tadashi Ota
Taizō Fukami
Schoolteacher
Known for
Sisters of the Gion
No Regrets for Our Youth
Shin Ebara
Masaru Kodaka
Shin-chan
Also in
Composition Class
Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky
Takero Marukawa
Mikio Naruse Director · Tadashi Ota Composer Seiichi Kizuka Cinematographer
First release January 18, 1941 · Produced in Japan · Production Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.
Production
Toho Eiga
Production
Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.
Production
Japan
Produced in
Languages
Original title
なつかしの顔
Original language
Japanese
Spoken on screen
Japanese
Release dates
Japan · January 18, 1941
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
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Some details come from TheTVDB.