Most viewers will recognize the tear-jerking techniques used in this transparent, sometimes understated melodrama, but they may succumb anyway. One stormy night, the two are visited by a handsome but mysterious stranger Ken Takakura who, after helping out in the birth of a new calf, offers to work at the farm: he doesn't care about the pay, asking only for room in the nearby barn and board. A widow struggles to maintain a small farm in a remote area of Hokkaido, fighting the elements and raising her young son. He makes you feel for the characters without ever stooping to sentimentality or easy manipulation. Add plot description Add cast with characters Add other production credits director, editor, etc. As the warmth of their relationship grows, it is clear that Kosaku's past is going to catch up with him when least expected.
His script with usual collaborator Yoshitaka Asama is especially smart in dramatizing the working relationship between Tamiko and Tajima; he's worked on a ranch in the past, but she's more experienced in dairy farming, so that she has to teach him how to do some but not all tasks, and those he hasn't done before he's quick to learn. Please note that we cannot respond to address or phone information requests for any person identified in our database, nor can we forward fan mail. Yamada is a master of emotional nuance and a brilliant observer of the small details of ordinary lives, which he obviously holds in some kind of awe, and in which he finds a kind of magic. One brutally stormy night, a stranger appears at the door looking for shelter. Some movies like A Distant Cry from Spring: The Yellow Handkerchief 1977 , Station 1981 , Dearest 2012 , Child of the Steppe 2016 , My Brother 2004. Advertisement According to a program note, the director, Mr. For other feedback please visit our.
Everything about this lovely film is underplayed and subtle. The young widow who owns the farm puts him up in the barn. If you can cite the source of your information, that would be a great help to our data team. For example, Tamiko's determination to keep the struggling dairy farm going isn't because she's reluctant to part with something so connected to her late husband. The film is in fact inspired by the American film ''Shane,''sharing that classic's photographic beauty, the relationship between the stranger and the boy, the efforts by homesteaders to hang onto their land and the intrusion of outside elements. Well, the disk is very poor quality, a murky transfer with the widescreen compositions butchered by a truly wretched pan-and-scan job -- and yet the quality of the film still manages to shine through. The young widow who owns the farm puts him up in the barn.
Changes to written content like reviews and biographies, tagged metadata like Genres, Styles, Moods, Themes and Similar Movies, as well as information about credits, movie posters and movie trailers are provided by our data provider, Rovi. At dawn, he helps to deliver a calf and, just as mysteriously and distantly, disappears down the road. These films are so much different from the Hollywood blockbusters and offer some have satisfaction after each viewing. Please send reports of such problems to June 6, 1982, Page 001058 The New York Times Archives In ''A Distant Cry From Spring,'' a Japanese film at the Film Forum, a mysterious stranger appears at the door of a farmhouse on a stormy night and asks for shelter. One of Yamada's achievements in all of these films is how vividly he captures the atmospheres of these out-of-the-way places, and how completely believable his actors are portraying his working poor characters and how convincing they are in their demanding occupations. A mysterious stranger appears at the door of a farmhouse on a stormy night and asks for shelter. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, realistic, emotional and touching films with plots about loneliness, horse, female nudity, brother brother relationship, doctor, widow and dog mostly in Drama, Western and Comedy genres.
Instead, Panorama got stuck with a vastly inferior 4:3 panned-and-scanned master that looks at least 20 years old and may be closer to 30. In the spring, he returns to stay as a farmhand, gains the respect of the widow and the devotion of her young son, and begins to end their feelings of loneliness. Yamada; released by Shochiku Films of America. Here, as a struggling dairy farmer, Baisho is so convincing that non-Japanese audiences not familiar with the actress might reasonably assume she was a non-professional actress, a real local farmer selected by Yamada for his film. If either a the film were available with English subtitles in a better form; or, b if it seemed likely that a U. The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Kosaku shows up looking for work one day at a remote farmhouse run by a mother and her son.
At times they get several beats ahead of themselves and later lag behind a few beats too many , but otherwise are okay, as is the mono soundtrack. In Home from the Sea actress Chieko Baisho was utterly believable as a woman who with her husband hauled rocks down the Inland Sea in an outdated, frankly dangerous boat. Desperate for help, Tamiko cautiously agrees. This film has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it over 30 years ago. This film and The Yellow Handkerchief marked a major turning point in the career of Ken Takakura, an actor whose long career might be likened to contemporary Clint Eastwood. Even the English subtitles, accompanying the sparse dialogue, have clarity and simplicity. But there is a mystery about where the stranger came from; and why, after winning the hearts of the widow and her son, he has to go away again.
The film is very nearly a prequel to another of Yamada's best films, The Yellow Handkerchief 1977 and similar in a lot of ways to George Stevens' Shane 1953 , albeit set in present-day Hokkaido and minus the Van Heflin and Jack Palance characters. What follows is the depiction of a slowly developing emotional bond set against a beautifully observed portrait of daily life on the farm, an endless round of backbreaking chores which constantly threaten to overwhelm the lonely woman. When his brother Mizuho Suzuki suddenly shows up to visit, Tajima's story begins to become clear to the audience , but how will it impact his future with Tamiko and Takeshi? Up to then, Takakura was best known for his world-weary yakuza characters, in films like the Abashiri Prison and Battles without Honor and Humanity film series for Teruo Ishii and Kinji Fukasaku. The two live alone and need help so they accept his offer, even though it is obvious he is on the run from someone or something in his past. Fatherless Takeshi quickly bonds to the man, Kosaku Tajima, and - though it's never discussed - it's clear that Tamiko very gradually falls in love with the hard-working if enigmatic man of few words.
As time goes by the little boy becomes close to Kosaku, and his mother generously insists that the adopted farmhand eat with them at the table. The stranger is called ''Mister'' by the boy, in a mixture of friendship and respect. Late in the film he invites her to his space for coffee his brother has given him a coffeemaker , which is a Big Deal, a rare moment of intimate conversation. It stands on its own as a quietly moving story. What at first appears to be a cliched character evolves into something else entirely.
He leaves, but then returns in the spring and asks for work, desiring only room and board in return. This film is not rated. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. On its surface, there's nothing particularly remarkable about A Distant Cry From Spring. In the spring, he returns to stay as a farmhand, gains the respect of the widow and the devotion of her young son, and begins to end their feelings of loneliness. Parting Thoughts An extraordinary delicate, moving portrait of hard-working yet quietly suffering and lonely people that's and filled with honest and revealing monologues, A Distant Cry from Spring is ripe for discovery in the west.