Lightning (1952 film)

1952 Japanese film

Lightning

Inazuma

Japanese movie poster

Directed by| Mikio Naruse
Written by|

* Sumie Tanaka
* Fumiko Hayashi (novel)

Starring|

* Hideko Takamine
* Mitsuko Miura
* Chieko Nakakita

Cinematography| Shigeyoshi Mine
Edited by| Toyo Suzuki
Music by| Ichirō Saitō

Production
company

Daiei Film

Distributed by| Daiei Film

Release date

* 9 October 1952 (1952-10-09) (Japan)[1][2]

Running time

| 87 minutes
Country| Japan
Language| Japanese

Lightning (稲妻, Inazuma) is a 1952 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse.[1][2] It is based on the 1936 novel by Fumiko Hayashi and was the second in a series of adaptations of Hayashi's work by Naruse after the 1951 Repast.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

23-year-old Kiyoko works as a tour guide in Tokyo. Like her single mother and her three older siblings, all from different fathers, she lives in the city's Shitamachi area. From her siblings, Kiyoko is closest to her sister Mitsuko, who runs a clothing store with her husband Rohei. Her brother Kasuke is an unemployed war veteran, who wastes his time in pachinko arcades. Her oldest sister Nuiko has her husband Ryuzo invest in a hotel enterprise by baker Tsunakichi, who secretly is Nuiko's lover. Nuiko pushes Kiyoko to date Tsunakichi, and even slaps Kiyoko when she refuses to see him. When Rohei dies, his mistress Ritsu approaches Mitsuko and claims a share from Rohei's life insurance because he is the father of her new born child. Also Nuiko, Kasuke and the mother want to borrow money from Mitsuko for their own pursuits. Mitsuko eventually decides to use the money partly for Ritsu's demands and for opening up her own coffee shop.

Kiyoko becomes frustrated with the tensions in her family and moves out into a flat of her own. She becomes acquainted with Shuzo and Tsubomi, a brother and sister her age living next door, and Kiyoko and Shuzo slowly develop an interest in each other. During a visit to Mitsuko's new café, Kiyoko is repelled to see that Tsunakichi is now involved in her sister's business as well and possibly her lover, and has to fight off his obtrusive advances. When her mother comes to look for the missing Mitsuko at Kiyoko's place, they have an argument about the many fathers Kiyoko grew up with and start crying, while a thunderstorm passes by. Afterwards, Kiyoko offers to buy her mother new summer clothes and walks her home.

## Cast

[edit]

* Hideko Takamine as Kiyoko
* Mitsuko Miura as Mitsuko
* Chieko Murata as Nuiko
* Chieko Nakakita as Ritsu
* Kenzaburo Uemura as Ryuzo
* Kyōko Kagawa as Tsubomi
* Jun Negami as Shuzo
* Sakae Ozawa as Tsunakichi
* Maruyama Osa as Kasuke
* Kumeko Urabe as the mother Osei

## Reception

[edit]

Film historian Donald Richie called Lightning an "almost perfect realization of Fumiko Hayashi's novel" and "a balanced union of literature and cinema".[4]

## Legacy

[edit]

Lightning was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in 1985[5] and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2005[6] as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse.

## Awards

[edit]

* Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Film, Best Director (Mikio Naruse) and Best Supporting Actress (Chieko Nakakita)[7]
* Mainichi Film Awards for the Best Film Score (Ichirō Saitō) and Best Supporting Actress (Chieko Nakakita)[8]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "稲妻". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 June 2009.
2. ^ a b "稲妻(1952)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 June 2009.
3. ^ Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. p. 241\. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.
4. ^ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company. p. 195.
5. ^ "Mikio Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema Opens at MoMA September 23" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
6. ^ "Lightning". Harvard Film Archive. 8 October 2005. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
7. ^ "ブルーリボン賞ヒストリー". Cinema Hochi (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
8. ^ "毎日映画コンクール 第7回（1952年）". Mainichi (in Japanese). Retrieved 20 January 2021.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lightning (1952 film).

* Lightning at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Mikio Naruse

* Flunky, Work Hard! (1931)
* No Blood Relation (1932)
* Apart from You (1933)
* Every-Night Dreams (1933)
* Street Without End (1934)
* Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts (1935)
* Wife! Be Like a Rose! (1935)
* The Girl in the Rumor (1935)
* Morning's Tree-Lined Street (1936)
* Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro (1938)
* The Whole Family Works (1939)
* Sincerity (1939)
* Travelling Actors (1940)
* Hideko the Bus Conductor (1941)
* The Song Lantern (1943)
* Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka (1950)
* Battle of Roses (1950)
* Ginza Cosmetics (1951)
* Dancing Girl (1951)
* Repast (1951)
* Mother (1952)
* Lightning (1952)
* Husband and Wife (1953)
* Wife (1953)
* Older Brother, Younger Sister (1953)
* Sound of the Mountain (1954)
* Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
* Floating Clouds (1955)
* Sudden Rain (1956)
* A Wife's Heart (1956)
* Flowing (1956)
* Untamed (1957)
* Anzukko (1958)
* Summer Clouds (1958)
* When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
* Daughters, Wives and a Mother (1960)
* The Approach of Autumn (1960)
* As a Wife, As a Woman (1961)
* A Wanderer's Notebook (1962)
* Yearning (1964)
* The Stranger Within a Woman (1966)
* Scattered Clouds (1967)

* v
* t
* e

Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film

1950–2000|

* Until We Meet Again (1950)
* Repast (1951)
* Lightning (1952)
* An Inlet of Muddy Water (1953)
* Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)
* Floating Clouds (1955)
* Mahiru no ankoku (1956)
* The Rice People (1957)
* The Hidden Fortress (1958)
* Kiku to Isamu (1959)
* Her Brother (1960)
* Pigs and Battleships (1961)
* Foundry Town (1962)
* The Insect Woman (1963)
* Woman in the Dunes (1964)
* Red Beard (1965)
* The Great White Tower (1966)
* The Fossil (1974)
* Lullaby of the Earth (1976)
* The Yellow Handkerchief (1977)
* Third Base (1978)
* Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
* Kagemusha (1980)
* Muddy River (1981)
* Fall Guy (1982)
* International Military Tribunal for the Far East (1983)
* MacArthur's Children (1984)
* Ran (1985)
* House of Wedlock (1986)
* A Taxing Woman (1987)
* The Silk Road (1988)
* Dotsuitarunen (1989)
* Childhood Days (1990)
* A Scene at the Sea (1991)
* Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1992)
* All Under the Moon (1993)
* Like a Rolling Stone (1994)
* A Last Note (1995)
* Boys Be Ambitious (1996)
* Bounce Ko Gals (1997)
* Hana-bi (1998)
* Taboo (1999)
* Battle Royale (2000)

2001–present|

* Spirited Away (2001)
* The Twilight Samurai (2002)
* Akame 48 Waterfalls (2003)
* Nobody Knows (2004)
* Break Through! (2005)
* Hula Girls (2006)
* Kisaragi (2007)
* Climber's High (2008)
* Mt. Tsurugidake (2009)
* Confessions (2010)
* Cold Fish (2011)
* Our Homeland (2012)
* The Story of Yonosuke (2013)
* Samurai Hustle (2014)
* The Emperor in August (2015)
* Shin Godzilla (2016)
* Wilderness (2017)
* One Cut of the Dead (2018)
* Fly Me to the Saitama (2019)
* Fukushima 50 (2020)
* Last of the Wolves (2021)
* A Man (2022)
* Godzilla Minus One (2023)
* A Samurai in Time (2024)

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