Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)

Highly Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 人情紙風船

Director: Yamanaka Sadao

Writer: Mimura Shintarō

Cinematographer: Mimura Akira

Composer: Ota Tadashi

Cast: Kawarasaki Chojuro, Nakamura Kan'emon, Nakamura Tsuruzo, Bando Choemon, Sukedakaya Sukezo, Ichikawa Emitaro, Kiritachi Noboru, Yamagishi Shizue

Every square inch of Yamanaka and Mimura’s exquisitely composed frame drips with meaning and portent in this gently humorous and terribly moving work; a portrait of the poor inhabitants of an 18th Century Japanese backstreet, depicting their troubled encounters with a high ranking samurai and the thugs with whom he associates. Iain.Stott