Epitome (film)
Epitome (縮図, Shukuzu) is a 1953 Japanese drama film written and directed by Kaneto Shindō,[1][2][3] based on an unfinished novel by Shūsei Tokuda.[4][5]
| Epitome | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kaneto Shindō |
| Written by | Kaneto Shindō Shūsei Tokuda (novel) |
| Produced by | Kōzaburō Yoshimura |
| Starring | Nobuko Otowa Isuzu Yamada Sō Yamamura |
| Cinematography | Takeo Itō |
| Edited by | Yoshitama Imaizumi |
| Music by | Akira Ifukube |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Shintoho |
Release date |
|
Running time | 133 minutes[1][2] |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Plot
Ginko, daughter of a poor shoemaker, is sold to work as a geisha in a brothel in Tokyo to support her family. Although made the madam after the death of the owner's wife, she suffers so much from the violence inflicted by the abusive owner, that her father buys her back. To help the family and her sick father, she starts working in a brothel in Hokkaido. There she meets a man who is seemingly willing to make Ginko his wife, but his upper-class family demands that he marries a woman of equal social status. Back in Tokyo working at still another brothel, she catches pneumonia and is carried home to die, but in the end her younger sister Tokiko dies and she lives. The last scene shows her again as a geisha, entertaining a group of customers.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Nobuko Otowa | Ginko |
| Isuzu Yamada | Tamiko |
| Sumiko Hidaka | Somefuku |
| Sō Yamamura | Wakabayashi |
| Akira Yamauchi | Kuramochi |
| Tanie Kitabayashi | Oshima |
| Jūkichi Uno | Ginzō |
| Taiji Tonoyama | Yamada |
| Ichirō Sugai | Isogai |
| Sadako Sawamura | Isogai's wife |
| Osamu Takizawa | Ino |
| Chikako Hosokawa | Fujikawa's owner |
| Masao Shimizu | Nagase |
| Yuriko Hanabusa | Kuramochi's mother |
| Yōichi Numata | Kurisu |
References
- "縮図 (Epitome)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- "縮図 (Epitome)" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- "Epitome". Complete Index to World Film. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
- Entry for Epitome at worldcat.org. OCLC 728709633. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
- Ueda, Atsko; Bourdaghs, Michael K.; Sakakibara, Richi; Toeda, Hirokazu, eds. (2017). The Politics and Literature Debate in Postwar Japanese Criticism, 1945–52. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-8075-4.