Kisses

Boy meets girl in the anything but romantic environment of a prison, where they are visiting their fathers. Kinichi and Akiko, reaching the watershed between the teenage and adult years, are struggling to save money in order to put up bail for their prodigal parents. Like a lifeline, they hold onto each other in order to enjoy a brief but priceless escape to the beach, away from their adult obligations. Without no superfluous sentimentalities, but with minimal narrative and liberated filming with a handheld camera, Masumura turns his back on the sophisticated and “oldfashioned” cinema by Ozu and Mizoguchi, and delivers the unpretentious portrait of a youth confined in the shadows of its ancestors and determined to claim, even for a while, the right to innocence, outrage and love. Raw and spirited, Masumura’s debut was hailed by Nagisa Oshima, later the leader of the Japanese New Wave, as the key film of the upcoming movement.

Original Title: Kuchizuke

Director: Yasuzo Masumura

Screenwriter: Kazuro Funabashi

DoP: Jôji Ohara

Music: Tetsuo Tsukahara

Editor: Tatsuji Nakashizu

Principal Cast: Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hitomi Nozoe, Aiko Mimasu, Eitarô Ozaw

Country: Japan

Year: 1957

Running Time: 73’

Language: Japanese