The Blue Sky Maiden

Yasuzo Masumura's 1957 film follows a young woman raised on the coast. Yuko learns from her ailing grandmother that she is not who she thought she was; when she returns to her family, what waits for her is coldness and humiliation. The film works melodramatic material in a comic register, a choice particular to Masumura's early period. Yuko does not pity herself; she answers everything done to her with plain speech and tells the family their hypocrisy to their faces. That stance is a direct rejection of the obedient woman of Japanese cinema at the time. Ayako Wakao's performance carries the energy. Masumura and Wakao worked together on many films in the years that followed. The colour image and fast cutting set it apart from the heavy family dramas of the same period. Who it's for: those who like Japanese studio cinema and melodrama with strong women characters. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a solemn drama; the film is light and fast, however heavy its subject.