#811: SHINDO, Kaneto: The Naked Island (1960)

SHINDO, Kaneto (Japan)

The Naked Island [1960]

Spine #811
Blu-ray

Director Kaneto Shindo's documentary-like, dialogue-free portrayal of daily struggle is a work of stunning visual beauty and invention. The international breakthrough for one of Japan's most innovative filmmakers — who went on to make other unique masterworks such as Onibaba and Kurenko — The Naked Island follows a family whose home is on a tiny, remote island in the Japanese archipelago. They must row a great distance to another shore, collect water from a well in buckets, and row back to their island — a nearly backbreaking task essential for the survival of these people and their land. Featuring a phenomenal modernist score by Hikaru Hayashi, this is a truly hypnotic experience, with a rhythm unlike that of any other film.

96 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

in Japanese

2:35:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2016

Director/Writer

Kaneto Shindo was 48 when he wrote and directed The Naked Island.

Other Shindo films in the Collection:

#226: Onibaba (1964)
#584: Kuroneko (1968)

The Film

The Japanese film industry is second only to the U.S. in age.

The first Japanese film was made in 1899. So the “Golden Age” of the great directors of the 40s, 50s and 60s either made silent films or watched them in their youth.

Mizoguchi (b. 1898), Ozu (1903), and Naruse (1905) all made silents; many of them (the ones that weren’t “lost”) are seen as masterpieces today … [Criterion has released two sets of Ozu silents: Eclipse Series 10 and 42; and a Naruse set, Eclipse Series 26 which is a stunning revelation of great silent filmmaking!]

Kurosawsa (1910) and Shindo (1912) certainly grew up watching silents. In Kurosawa’s autobiography, “Something Like an Autobiography,” he lists over 100 silents he recalled watching as a kid.

So all these greats had the silent tradition behind them, no matter what sort of films they made at the time. (Look at most of Kurosawa’s films — there are often many long stretches of scenes with no dialogue) …

**

Kindai Eiga Kyōkai (“Modern Film Association”) was formed in 1950 by Kōzaburō Yoshimura, Shindo, and Taiji Tonoyama, who plays the role of the father in this film. Nobuko Otowa is the mother (she became Shindo’s wife), and the two kids are Shinji Tanaka and Masanori Horimoto (his sole IMDb credit).

Tonoyama is instantly recognized as the annoying rubber bands and brushes salesman in Ozu’s Good Morning (1959) [Spine #84] …

**

Every Criterion release has the following introductory sentence at the head of the back cover:

“The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents:”

This film is certainly an important one, in the history of filmmaking.

It has no dialogue, no intertitles, but it is not silent … about half of the film shows the couple carrying buckets full of water — balanced on a flexible pole — to water the crops on this waterless island. The sounds of their steady footsteps and the delicate sound of them ladling the water onto the dry ground, which greedily soaks up the moisture are just an example of the sounds we hear accompanying the silent images.

In addition, Hikaru Hayashi’s score repeats one melody — with only slight variations — throughout the film, often expressing different feelings overlying different images.

It may seem astonishing to realize how well this film did on the art circuit — it basically rescued Kindai from bankruptcy, enabling Shindo to go on to make the other two films in this Collection (see above), which were much more successful, commercially.

Ultimately, the Western viewer has to adapt him or herself to the Japanese slow pace of long shots of pedestrian activity, for example a walk down the mountain path to their boat — which would be brutally shortened in Hollywood cinema to a miniature of two-seconds scenes with a cut in between!

The final shot (an aerial look at the island, similar to a shot at the start of the film) is revelatory: all the trips up the hills with those heavy buckets of water, the kids running up and down the dirt paths, the open space where they have their meals — all this is seen from the bird’s-eye lens, as we leave the family on their lonely island.

**

The Inland Sea (1991) [Spine #988] makes a nice companion piece. Donald Richie (the original author) and Lucille Carra (the filmmaker) seek to find just such a place as this island — an idyllic setting, untouched by modern society.

Sadly, they mostly fail to do so.

Film Rating (0-60):

55

The Extras

The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound with an essay by film scholar Haden Guest.

“The haunting serial score by avant-garde composer Hikaru Hayashi makes clear the alternate, empathetic vision of the proletariat offered here. Rather than heroic symphonic music, the tale of the peasant farmers is adorned with only a minimal, melancholy theme, whose constant repetition takes on an almost work-song-like cadence that echoes the endless cyclicality of the film’s starkly utilitarian world, where every movement is bent to the absolute purpose of the family’s meager yet onerous harvest.”

I do wish writers who don’t know anything about music would check with someone. The score is far from serial — it is tonal, and always so.

Commentary

Recorded in 2000, featuring Shindo and composer Hikaru Hayashi.

A nice combination — director and composer — and great observations on their respective processes.

Video introduction

By director Shindo, recorded for a 2011 retrospective of his work.

Aged 99, Shindo seems extremely grateful for the attention is work is getting, partially due to the:

New

Appreciation of the film by actor Benicio Del Toro.

Who recalls watching a DVD of the film for the first time with dropping jaw. That’s a typical reaction to this unusual and vibrant piece of cinema.

Interview

With film scholar Akira Mizuta Lippit.

Who discusses the films of the Occupation and post-Occupation period with great detail, and how The Naked Island came about through an almost bankrupt production company!

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

35

55 + 35 =

90

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