The Most Beautiful (一番美しく) is a Japanese film released by Akira Kurosawa in 1944 in support of Japan's war effort during World War II.[1] This was the second film he ever directed. It depicts a group of women who are employed at an optics factory. In response to gains made by the United States in the Pacific theater, the factory is forced to increase the daily production quotas. The women respond by striving to surpass their already strenuous quotas.
Initially the women are successful, but then hardship sets in. One woman falls ill and is sent home. Another woman falls from the roof of her apartment building, while trying to air out her bedding, breaking her leg. Not only do they lose two workers, but the morale of the rest of the women declines and soon they are falling behind.
The cinematography was similar to Sergei Eistenstein's propagandist films for the Soviet Union, with lots of close-ups of churning machinery and the determined faces of the hard-working women, interspersed with static shots of everyday Japanese objects.[2] The sum effect of this style, though, is a dehumanizing one. Human workers are equated with the working parts of a machine. This comes as no surprise, though, given the ideological parallels between communism and fascism.[3]
My verdict: Despite being only an hour and a half long, this movie started to drag. Though some of the characters got some development, there were far too many scenes with the crowds of women shouting together in unison. This film is definitely one of Kurosawa's duds.
Notes:
[1] It's hard to know whether or not this was voluntary. Two years later, during the Occupation, Kurosawa released a film called No Regrets for Our Youth (わが青春に悔なし) It depicts the coercion used by the Imperial Japanese Army and the silencing of those who dared to speak out against Japanese militarism. However, this film may have been to placate the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, General Douglas McArthur. See my post on Kurosawa's earlier film, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail. In his later years Kurosawa was quite critical of the use of the atomic bomb to end World War II.
[2] I was also reminded of David Lean's rather boring propaganda film, In Which We Serve.
[3] Fascists are often mis-characterized as an extreme right-wing movement. However, fascism was a form of socialism. This is evident in the title of the German fascist party: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party).
Initially the women are successful, but then hardship sets in. One woman falls ill and is sent home. Another woman falls from the roof of her apartment building, while trying to air out her bedding, breaking her leg. Not only do they lose two workers, but the morale of the rest of the women declines and soon they are falling behind.
The cinematography was similar to Sergei Eistenstein's propagandist films for the Soviet Union, with lots of close-ups of churning machinery and the determined faces of the hard-working women, interspersed with static shots of everyday Japanese objects.[2] The sum effect of this style, though, is a dehumanizing one. Human workers are equated with the working parts of a machine. This comes as no surprise, though, given the ideological parallels between communism and fascism.[3]
My verdict: Despite being only an hour and a half long, this movie started to drag. Though some of the characters got some development, there were far too many scenes with the crowds of women shouting together in unison. This film is definitely one of Kurosawa's duds.
Notes:
[1] It's hard to know whether or not this was voluntary. Two years later, during the Occupation, Kurosawa released a film called No Regrets for Our Youth (わが青春に悔なし) It depicts the coercion used by the Imperial Japanese Army and the silencing of those who dared to speak out against Japanese militarism. However, this film may have been to placate the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, General Douglas McArthur. See my post on Kurosawa's earlier film, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail. In his later years Kurosawa was quite critical of the use of the atomic bomb to end World War II.
[2] I was also reminded of David Lean's rather boring propaganda film, In Which We Serve.
[3] Fascists are often mis-characterized as an extreme right-wing movement. However, fascism was a form of socialism. This is evident in the title of the German fascist party: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party).
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