Forever a Woman

Introduction by 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.