Army

In her first collaboration with director Keisuke Kinoshita (who penned the screenplay for Love Letter), Tanaka plays the patriotic mother of a young WWII army recruit. Amid strong pressure to make pro-military propaganda during the war, the authorities took one look at Kinoshita’s Army and knew exactly where his sentiments lay. The film chronicles a family that for generations has produced military officers, but the values of tradition seem to serve no one well in contemporary Japan. With the outbreak of war, attention falls on a representative of the youngest generation, a young man plagued by ill health who, through great effort, grows strong enough to follow in his family’s footsteps. In its iconic final scene, the boy’s mother (Tanaka) sees him off to war, and the play of emotions across her face reveals everything about the film’s true attitude toward Japanese militarism.

35mm print courtesy of Japan Foundation: