Souls on the Road

A boy in a small town dreams of becoming a famous fiddler. At the same time two convicts escape from prison and hide in the woods. The two lines come closer to each other as the film goes on. The account is built like a morality play; the one who seems merciful turns out hard, and the one who seems hard turns out merciful. The film is adapted together from a play by Maxim Gorky and a story by a German writer. It brings the influence of European and American cinema together with Japanese tradition. The work is the oldest surviving film from the Shochiku studio. It is counted among the landmark works of Japanese cinema in 1921. Kaoru Osanai and Denmei Suzuki appear in Minoru Murata’s ninety one minute Japanese film, completed in 1921.