A WONDERFUL SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Japan, 1947, 108 minutes, Black and white.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
A Wonderful Sunday Afternoon was written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa is best known for him Samurai and historical epics ranging from Rashomon and the Seventh Samurai through Yojimbo and Sanjuro to Throne of Blood, Ran and Kagemusha. However, a number of his films have a gentler tone, a great humanity: Living, Redbeard, Dersu Uzala and Dodes'kaden.
This film comes from 1947, shows us something of Japanese society immediately after the war, attempting to reconstruct. A young man and his girlfriend have very little money, meet every Sunday afternoon for an outing. They are able to do very little, and even what they attempt is often frustrated (as a concert is sold out of seats which they can afford). However, they dream, they get angry, they reconcile, they have hopes of a future opening a cafe. In a romantic sequence, the young man in a music bowl conducts Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, the piece that they missed out on when the seats were sold out.
In black and white photography, Kurosawa uses something of the atmosphere of Italian neo-realism of the time. It is a glimpse of a Sunday afternoon in war-affected Japan, trying to face a future.
1.Entertaining romantic story, Japanese style? Of the '40s? Immediate post-war atmosphere?
2.The work of Kurosawa over many decades? The tender tone? Black and white photography? Locations, photography and neo-realism? The touch of fantasy and dream? The musical score? Schubert's Unfinished Symphony?
3.The title, the focus on the meeting, the boy and the girl, the Sunday afternoon?
4.The boy and the girl, their age, their experience of war? Their love for each other? Very ordinary couple? Their hopes, the enjoyment of the weekly afternoon? The lack of money? The young man and the cigarette butt? The decision what to do, walking around the city, sharing their hopes and dreams, their love? Not being able to afford anything? The visit to the zoo and the animals? The decision to go to the concert, the line-up, the tickets sold out? The angry appeal of the young man, his violence and people's reaction? Going to have the cup of tea, the owner putting the milk in the tea and their not having enough money, the young man leaving his coat - and the kindness of the patron paying for them? The frustrations, the dreams of opening a restaurant - and serving all people like themselves who are in difficulty? Finding the music bowl, the imagination, the discussion between the two, the young woman urging the young man on, the wind, the conducting of Schubert's Unfinished Sympathy, their taking a bow? The evening drawing on, the effect of the day, their parting, the promise of next Sunday? His resisting picking up the cigarette butt?
5.The implications of the film in showing us Japan, the hardships, the poverty? (And the restructuring and rebirth of Japan in hindsight?) The young boy and the girl, the possibility of this kind of story in any culture? The humanity and the sense of realism?
