As our Kinuyo Tanaka Retrospective on the groundbreaking auteur, featuring brand new 4K restorations of her directorial work and 35mm screenings of her collaborations as an actor, kicks off this Friday, we are proud to continue our partnership with Janus Films and premiere two clips from the collection of new restorations.

Rediscover one of the greatest women filmmakers from Japan and explore showtimes here.


Forever a Woman (1959)

Forever a Woman Poster

Intro from programmer Lili Hinstin on March 19!

Tanaka’s third film is usually considered her first truly personal work. Based on the biography of tanka poet Fumiko Nakajo, entitled The Eternal Breasts, Forever a Woman concerns an unhappily married mother of two (Yumeji Tsukioka) who divorces her husband and moves back to her mother’s house. There she regularly attends a poetry circle and falls in love once more, until her life is brought to a premature end by breast cancer. Renowned female screenwriter Sumie Tanaka (who would later write Tanaka’s Girls of Night) fashions Nakajo’s ill-fated story with the same raw energy evident in the poet’s verses. Together with its director’s frank depiction of sickness, desire, and sexuality, the film evinces an audacity rare in Japanese cinema of the time, and still surprises to this day. Restored in 4K by the Nikkatsu Corporation. A Janus Films release.


The Wandering Princess  (1960)

The Wandering Princess Poster

Intro from programmer Lili Hinstin on March 19!

Five years after Forever a Woman, the most successful studio in Japan at the time, Daiei, offered Tanaka the opportunity to direct a josei eiga (“woman’s film”) with their contracted superstar Machiko Kyô. The project transformed into Tanaka’s own version of War and Peace, told from a woman’s perspective, by adapting the best-selling autobiography of Hiro Saga, a Japanese aristocrat engulfed in the colonial politics of Manchuria after marrying Prince Pujie, the young brother of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Puyi. Quite an expensive production for the time—it was also Tanaka’s first film in color and in Cinemascope—The Wandering Princess revealed an entirely new artistic vision from the director: an exquisite historical fresco bound up in a war melodrama. Restored in 4K by the KADOKAWA Corporation. A Janus Films release.


“The double tribute promises two types of ecstasy: seeing unsung films for the first time and (re)watching canonical titles with a new appreciation for a singular figure.” —Melissa E. Anderson, 4Columns.

“Her work behind and in front of the camera opened many windows into women’s stories.” —Kristin Marriott, The Wall Street Journal.