“No Regrets for Our Youth”, “One Wonderful Sunday”, “Scandal”, “The Idiot”, and “I Live in Fear”

In No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga Seishun ni Kuinashi, 1946), Yukie is the well-bred daughter of a university professor sees her father fired for his politics and her boyfriend arrested and summarily executed as a spy. She flees Kyoto to live with his parents, but more trials and tribulations are in store for her.

In One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki Nichiyobi, 1947), Yuzo spends a Sunday his fiancée Masako and the two of them manage to have a great time with only 35 yen between them—mostly due to Masako’s uplifting outlook on life.

In Scandal (Shubun, 1950), a young painter meets a famous female singer while vacationing in the mountains. A tabloid magazine scandalizes their innocent encounter in an attempt to humiliate her for refusing press interviews in the past. The painter tries to hire a lawyer to fight for her, only to be betrayed by the man he eventually hires.

In The Idiot (Hakuchi, 1951), a former asylum patient named Kameda travels to Hokkaido and becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Their relationship with him and the violent Akama leads to a tragic string of events.

In I Live in Fear, (Ikimono no Kiroku, 1955), Toshiro Mifune plays a man named so obsessed with the possibility of a nuclear holocaust and the need to escape Japan that his family to attempt to have him ruled incompetent in court. A civil volunteer takes his case, but the man’s unstable behavior causes the court to ignore his ramblings.

Available at the following retailer(s) on December 23, 2007:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca

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Tags: akira kurosawa, chieko nakakita, criterion, denjiro okochi, eiko miyoshi, haruko sugimura, isao numasaki, masayuki mori, minoru chiaki, setsuko hara, susumu fujita, takashi shimura, toshiro mifune, yoshiko kuga