Beautiful Days

A film set in postwar Tokyo. Sakurako runs a flower shop with her grandmother. Her life is ordered and narrow: the shop, the house, a few friends. The friends all come from a generation that came out of the war. Imanishi is a doctor; he is trying to stay honest, and the system he works in does not make that easy. Hakamada works in a factory, supports his family alone, and they live in something close to a shack. Nakao took a law degree but cannot find work; he plays drums at a bar at night. There is a reason the grandmother cares about Imanishi: he was a close friend of her grandson, who was killed in the war. The film watches the daily life of these four. There are no large events; there is work, money, health and unspoken feeling. What the narrative is interested in is class: the roads open to these people of one generation are not the same at all, and friendship does not close the gap. Imanishi's family is well off, Hakamada's is not, and the distance between them sits there without ever being named. Masaki Kobayashi directed, and this is early work; one of the quiet dramas he made for the studio before the hard, long films he would become known for. Yoshiko Kuga plays Sakurako. Keiji Sada and Isao Kimura are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes Japanese family drama of the 1950s. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for incident; the narrative is very slow and its tone is deliberately flat.