The Cinematheque

“A pointed moral indictment of Japan’s postwar society, this is also one of Ozu’s most emotionally charged movies.”

Reece Pendleton, Chicago Reader

Tanaka Kinuyo, star of many a Mizoguchi masterpiece, was an Ozu favourite as well. (She was also a gifted filmmaker in her own right, demonstrated in our 2022 retrospective.) Tanaka is commanding in this poignant postwar melodrama, which visits Mizoguchi territory with its tale of female suffering and sex work. While awaiting the demobilization of her soldier husband, a young woman is forced to spend one night as a brothel worker in order to pay the medical expenses for their ailing son. When her husband finally returns, she confesses her indiscretion and must deal with his outrage, culminating in a shocking act of domestic violence that ruptures the placidity of the Ozu brand. Dismissed as a minor work—owing, one presumes, to its irreconcilable deviations and Ozu’s own misgivings about the film—A Hen in the Wind reveals a crucial, darker shade of the great director, made all the more discernable in this 2022 restoration.

In Japanese with English subtitles

“If I’m asked to say what film of his that I like best I reply without hesitation A Hen in the Wind … A powerful movie which describes how deeply scarred our country was after the war experience … A masterpiece.”

Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Cure)

“One of the most important films in Ozu’s entire body of work.”

Hasumi Shiguéhiko, Directed by Yasujiro Ozu