Yoru no kawa (Undercurrent). 1956. Japan. Directed by Kōzaburō Yoshimura. Screenplay by Sumie Tanaka. With Fujiko Yamamoto, Ken Uehara, Keizō Kawasaki. North American premiere. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min.
One of the most stunningly and subtly beautiful color films to come out of 1950s Japan, Undercurrent is a Sirkian melodrama about an aspiring young kimono and necktie designer (oh, those gorgeous layered textile patterns!) who has an affair with a married scientist. Set in the ancient capital of Kyoto, this postwar rediscovery reflects on a nation’s uncertain future and the place of a working woman in it, with Yoshimura and the great cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (the subject of a major MoMA tribute in 2018) using the French tricolors of red, white, and blue to symbolize her wished-for independence and the encroachments of modern Western culture on native Japanese traditions.
4K digital restoration by Kadokawa Corporation; courtesy Janus Films.