The Naked Face of Night
Kōzaburō Yoshimura: Tides of Emotion
December 5 - 11, 2025
Yoshimura’s complex, critical tribute to traditional Japanese dance follows the rivalry between two dancers (Machiko Kyo and Ayako Wakao) in the postwar period and the contemporaneous emergence of new forms of femininity.
Many of Kōzaburō Yoshimura’s best films scrutinize the effects of modernity upon traditional Japanese culture and industry. The Naked Face of Night, his complex, critical tribute to traditional Japanese dance, follows a rivalry between two dancers in the postwar period, portrayed by two of the era’s greatest actresses, Machiko Kyo and Ayako Wakao. Yoshimura, again working with writer Kaneto Shindō, uses the tension between them as a vehicle to explore the clash of the old and the new—and the emergence of new forms of femininity in women that weren’t as eager to accept their familiar, stifling social roles. Print courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.
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