18 Who Cause a Storm

A group of migrant workers fed up with their being ruthlessly exploited by the society around them lash out in Yoshida’s rugged widescreen chronicle of proletarian unrest. When a shipyard worker arrives at his new seaside company lodging in the town of Kure (located in Hiroshima, still marked by the scars of the American atom bomb), he finds himself looking after the titular 18 younger workers, whose disaffection and unruliness he initially finds offputting, only to eventually come to care for them deeply. 18 Who Cause a Storm boasts one of the richest and most complex mise-en-scènes in all of Yoshida’s work, conveying a smothering sense of claustrophobia and alienation, but it also marked the beginning of the dissolution of Yoshida’s relationship with Shochiku, setting into motion his eventual break with the Japanese studio system. Print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.