This film was interesting to check out because it's Kurosawa, and for the little window it gives into Japan in 1944, not because it's an objective piece of realist cinema, but because of the extraordinary context. The film is geared towards recognizing the Japanese equivalent of America's 'Rosie the Riveter,' as well as boosting their morale. The women in this case work in the manufacturing facility to make lenses for targeting weapons, and take on a difficult production goal (though it's made clear that it's still less than their male counterparts lol). Over the course of the film, we see their progress against this goal, often literally in the form of a graph, making for a pretty dry story and eroding interest pretty quickly.
In a plodding, heavy-handed way, the film delivers the message to act selflessly for the greater good, to work hard to achieve factory targets, to maintain high quality, to remain cheerful, to understand that even away from combat, they are on a battlefield of their own, and to remember their homes and the homeland they're all collectively fighting for. Notably, it also messages for them to trust their superiors, including the men who oversee their work condescendingly, tut-tutting over what they're doing (including long-time Kurosawa collaborator Takashi Shimura). It's what any nation does when at war, emphasizing sacrifice, obedience, and the greater good of the nation.
"The Most Beautiful" in this case refers to the beauty of these virtues, and I like how the film shows the positive contribution of women. I don't mind that it's trying to drill all of its messages home to viewers, but there just wasn't enough to the story to keep it interesting. The soil each worker brings from home and puts in a communal garden leads to the film's strongest scene, where we get a sentimental flashback into one of their hometowns, nostalgically reminding the target audience of the home country they were all fighting for, and what they would return to when the war was over. It was pretty touching, as was the quiet determination of one of them to continue working after hearing her mother had died. Unfortunately these moments were too small and came too late, the first at the 65 minute point.
I'm glad I saw the film more to imagine what the 34 year old director was going through at the time, and to see the woman he would marry, Yoko Yaguchi, who plays the leader of the workers. She would be with him until her death four decades later. The most beautiful for Kurosawa, indeed.
In a plodding, heavy-handed way, the film delivers the message to act selflessly for the greater good, to work hard to achieve factory targets, to maintain high quality, to remain cheerful, to understand that even away from combat, they are on a battlefield of their own, and to remember their homes and the homeland they're all collectively fighting for. Notably, it also messages for them to trust their superiors, including the men who oversee their work condescendingly, tut-tutting over what they're doing (including long-time Kurosawa collaborator Takashi Shimura). It's what any nation does when at war, emphasizing sacrifice, obedience, and the greater good of the nation.
"The Most Beautiful" in this case refers to the beauty of these virtues, and I like how the film shows the positive contribution of women. I don't mind that it's trying to drill all of its messages home to viewers, but there just wasn't enough to the story to keep it interesting. The soil each worker brings from home and puts in a communal garden leads to the film's strongest scene, where we get a sentimental flashback into one of their hometowns, nostalgically reminding the target audience of the home country they were all fighting for, and what they would return to when the war was over. It was pretty touching, as was the quiet determination of one of them to continue working after hearing her mother had died. Unfortunately these moments were too small and came too late, the first at the 65 minute point.
I'm glad I saw the film more to imagine what the 34 year old director was going through at the time, and to see the woman he would marry, Yoko Yaguchi, who plays the leader of the workers. She would be with him until her death four decades later. The most beautiful for Kurosawa, indeed.