Warm Current

Kōzaburō Yoshimura’s second (and earliest surviving) feature announces some of the main concerns that would mark his work going forward, here following the private lives of a small group of hospital employees, with concealed attractions and simmering emotions rumbling in the background as a power struggle unfolds among the hospital’s administration. Later remade in less soapy fashion in 1957 by Yasuzō Masumura, the sentimentality, studio-bound artifice, and borderline overripe emotions of Yoshimura’s original are very much the point: spotlighting the desires of women who hope to marry for love rather than social/familial obligation, Warm Current is a sneakily modern take on new directions in Japanese society, and an understated declaration of Yoshimura’s artistic vision. Print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.