Setsuko Hara
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozu
's films, most notably as Noriko in the 'Noriko Trilogy': Late Spring
(1949), Early Summer
(1951) and Tokyo Story
(1953). Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight
(1957), Late Autumn
(1960) and finally The End of Summer
in 1961.
She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in Yokohama
, Kanagawa prefecture. She came to prominence as an actress at an early age, in the 1937 German-Japanese co-production Die Tochter des Samurai (Daughter of the Samurai), known in Japan as Atarashiki Tsuchi (The New Earth), directed by Arnold Fanck
and Mansaku Itami.
She also starred in films by Akira Kurosawa
, Mikio Naruse
and other prominent directors.
She is called "the Eternal Virgin" in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s. She suddenly quit acting in 1963 (the same year as Ozu's death), and has since led a secluded life in Kamakura
, refusing all interviews and photographs. Her last major role was Riku, wife of Ōishi Yoshio
, in the 1962 film, Chushingura. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of the 2001 movie Millennium Actress
.
Her star image was closely bound to the national imaginary,in which the ideology of the virgin harbored an ideal of cultural purity. Hara Setsuko's screen persona is one of tight control,under which a current of strong emotion can often be detected. Part of her popular appeal was due to a certain honesty and integrity of character,enhanced by the home drama genre that kept her in extremely plain costumes.However,she also excelled in expressing highly contradictory and conflicted emotions.She can be at once hopeful and doubtful at marriage proposals;she laughs when she is most sad and cries when she is most happy.The contradictions and tensions within Hara's star image are very much bound up with a nativist sensibility, a longing for the past combined with a recognition of the impossibility of such a return. Among her secrets is her reputed quarter-German heritage that may account for her slightly Caucasian look.After seeing a "Hara Setsuko movie" the novelist Endo shusaku writes,in a typically reverential response,"we would sigh or let out a great breath from the depths of our hearts, for what we felt was precisely this:Can it be possible that there is such a woman in this world?" Endo is one of several men whom dream of meeting Hara just once before they die.Hara was so refined,so moral,so beautiful,so representative of all that Japanese men valued in woman that she remained excitingly out of reach for the hordes of males who adored her.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu
was a prominent Japanese film director and script writer. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work...
's films, most notably as Noriko in the 'Noriko Trilogy': Late Spring
Late Spring
is a critically acclaimed black-and-white Japanese film drama, directed by Yasujirō Ozu , first released in Japan in September 1949. Based on the novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu, the story concerns a young woman who lives happily in Kamakura with her kindly professor father, a widower...
(1949), Early Summer
Early Summer
is a 1951 film by Yasujiro Ozu. Like most of Ozu's post-war films, Early Summer deals with many issues ranging from communication problems between generations and the rising role of women in post-war Japan....
(1951) and Tokyo Story
Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behavior of their biological children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their daughter-in-law, who treats them with...
(1953). Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight
Tokyo Twilight
is a 1957 film by Yasujirō Ozu. The film is considered amongst Ozu's darkest postwar films.-Synopsis:Akiko Sugiyama is a young college graduate girl learning English shorthand. Her elder sister Takako , running away from an unhappy marriage, has returned home to stay with Akiko and their father...
(1957), Late Autumn
Late Autumn
is a 1960 drama film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It stars many of his favourite actors including Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu. It is based on a story by Ton Satomi....
(1960) and finally The End of Summer
The End of Summer
is a 1961 film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was his penultimate film; only An Autumn Afternoon followed it....
in 1961.
She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Kanagawa prefecture. She came to prominence as an actress at an early age, in the 1937 German-Japanese co-production Die Tochter des Samurai (Daughter of the Samurai), known in Japan as Atarashiki Tsuchi (The New Earth), directed by Arnold Fanck
Arnold Fanck
Arnold Fanck was a pioneer of the German mountain film....
and Mansaku Itami.
She also starred in films by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Mikio Naruse
Mikio Naruse
was a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967.Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook...
and other prominent directors.
She is called "the Eternal Virgin" in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s. She suddenly quit acting in 1963 (the same year as Ozu's death), and has since led a secluded life in Kamakura
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...
, refusing all interviews and photographs. Her last major role was Riku, wife of Ōishi Yoshio
Oishi Yoshio
was the chamberlain of the Akō Domain in Harima Province , Japan . He is known as the leader of the Forty-seven Ronin in their 1702 vendetta and thus the hero of the Chūshingura...
, in the 1962 film, Chushingura. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of the 2001 movie Millennium Actress
Millennium Actress
is a 2001 Japanese anime by director Satoshi Kon and animated by the Studio Madhouse. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred.-Plot:...
.
Her star image was closely bound to the national imaginary,in which the ideology of the virgin harbored an ideal of cultural purity. Hara Setsuko's screen persona is one of tight control,under which a current of strong emotion can often be detected. Part of her popular appeal was due to a certain honesty and integrity of character,enhanced by the home drama genre that kept her in extremely plain costumes.However,she also excelled in expressing highly contradictory and conflicted emotions.She can be at once hopeful and doubtful at marriage proposals;she laughs when she is most sad and cries when she is most happy.The contradictions and tensions within Hara's star image are very much bound up with a nativist sensibility, a longing for the past combined with a recognition of the impossibility of such a return. Among her secrets is her reputed quarter-German heritage that may account for her slightly Caucasian look.After seeing a "Hara Setsuko movie" the novelist Endo shusaku writes,in a typically reverential response,"we would sigh or let out a great breath from the depths of our hearts, for what we felt was precisely this:Can it be possible that there is such a woman in this world?" Endo is one of several men whom dream of meeting Hara just once before they die.Hara was so refined,so moral,so beautiful,so representative of all that Japanese men valued in woman that she remained excitingly out of reach for the hordes of males who adored her.
Selected filmography
- Kōchiyama SōshunKochiyama Soshun (1936 film)is a 1936 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Sadao Yamanaka.It is one of three surviving films by Sadao Yamanaka.- Cast :* Chojuro Kawarasaki* Kanemon Nakamura* Shizue Yamagishi* Setsuko Hara as Onami- See also :* Kōchiyama Sōshun...
(1936) - Daughter of the Samurai/The New Earth (1937)
- 嫁ぐ日まで Totsugu hi madeTotsugu hi madeis a 1940 drama/romance film, directed by Yasujiro Shimazu.-Synopsis:Twenty-year-old Yoshiko and her younger sister Asako struggle to accept changes in their home during the preparations of their widowed father's wedding to his chosen bride ....
(1940) - 阿片戦争 Ahen sensoAhen sensoaka The Opium War is a 1943 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Masahiro Makino."Ahen senso" in Japan refers to the First Opium War...
aka The Opium War (1943) - No Regrets for Our YouthNo Regrets for Our Youthis a 1946 film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is based on the Takigawa incident of 1933.The film stars Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita, and Denjirō Ōkōchi...
(1946) - 青い山脈 Aoi sanmyakuAoi sanmyaku (1949 film), literally: The Green Mountains, is a 1949 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Tadashi Imai. Its theme was sung by Ichiro Fujiyama and Mitsue Nara.It is an adaptation of 1949 novel Blue Mountain Range by Yōjirō Ishizaka....
(1949) - Late SpringLate Springis a critically acclaimed black-and-white Japanese film drama, directed by Yasujirō Ozu , first released in Japan in September 1949. Based on the novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu, the story concerns a young woman who lives happily in Kamakura with her kindly professor father, a widower...
(1949) - 白雪先生と子供たち Shirayuki-sensei to kodomo-tachiShirayuki-sensei to kodomo-tachiis a 1950 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Ren Yoshimura ....
(1950) - The Idiot (1951)
- Repast (1951)
- Early SummerEarly Summeris a 1951 film by Yasujiro Ozu. Like most of Ozu's post-war films, Early Summer deals with many issues ranging from communication problems between generations and the rising role of women in post-war Japan....
(1951) - Tokyo StoryTokyo Storyis a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behavior of their biological children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their daughter-in-law, who treats them with...
(1953) - Sound of the MountainSound of the Mountainis a 1954 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Mikio Naruse starring Setsuko Hara, So Yamamura, Ken Uehara, Yatsuko Tanami. It is based on the novel The Sound of the Mountain by Nobel-Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata....
(1954) - 驟雨 ShūuShuu, literally: Sudden Rain, is a 1956 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Mikio Naruse.- Cast :* Setsuko Hara* Keiju Kobayashi* Shūji Sano* Akemi Negishi* Kyōko Kagawa* Chieko Nakakita* and others...
(1956) - Tokyo TwilightTokyo Twilightis a 1957 film by Yasujirō Ozu. The film is considered amongst Ozu's darkest postwar films.-Synopsis:Akiko Sugiyama is a young college graduate girl learning English shorthand. Her elder sister Takako , running away from an unhappy marriage, has returned home to stay with Akiko and their father...
(1957) - Late AutumnLate Autumnis a 1960 drama film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It stars many of his favourite actors including Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu. It is based on a story by Ton Satomi....
(1960) - The End of SummerThe End of Summeris a 1961 film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was his penultimate film; only An Autumn Afternoon followed it....
(1961)