Tuesday, June 26, 6:00 p.m. | You've never met a more cheerful urban ambassador than Kiyoko (Hideko Takamine), who works as a tour guide on a bus and spends her days airily comparing the sights and sounds of post-war Tokyo to the old world charms of Paris. From the first moment she’s glimpsed on screen, Kiyoko is obviously living her best life, unencumbered by marriage, children, or professional anxiety—and yet everyone in her family wonders when she’s going to settle down with the right man. Her mother, who’s been married and divorced four times and had a child with each husband, suggests (and suggests and suggests again) the local baker as a suitor with squarely good- enough appeal. Both of Kiyoko’s sisters attest to the pleasures of coupledom, despite much evidence to the contrary. Kiyoko laughs it all off, breezily informing any interlocutor that men are just terrible. (Luckily, she can readily cite the example of her ne’er-do-well brother, with his slovenly, unshaven legs and his meager pachinko parlor winnings.) Adapted from a novel by Fumiko Hayashi, whose hard- scrabble, lower-middle class milieu was brought to the screen six times by Mikio Naruse, LIGHTNING is an unassuming marvel, a work that teeters on the edge of romantic comedy, but never succumbs. Kinema Junpo magazine declared it the second-best Japanese film of 1952, behind only Kurosawa’s IKIRU, but LIGHTNING, along with the rest of Naruse’s post-war output, did not get distributed in the US and remains undeservedly obscure. Like its heroine, LIGHTNING simply engages with the world, avoids shunting its characters into readymade boxes, and looks over the horizon for fleeting release. (Chicago Film Society) 35mm from the Japan Foundation, permission Kadokawa.
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Best Supporting Actress (Chieko Nakakita), Mainichi Film Concours
Winner - Best Film Score, Mainichi Film Concours
Winner - Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Chieko Nakakita), Best Director, Blue Ribbon Awards
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu