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The Eternal Breasts

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The Eternal Breasts
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji乳房よ永遠なれ
Directed byKinuyo Tanaka
Written by
Produced by
  • Hideo Koi
  • Shizuo Sakagami
Starring
CinematographyKumenobu Fujioka
Edited byKimihiko Nakamura
Music byTakanobu Saitō
Production
company
Distributed byNikkatsu
Release date
  • 23 November 1955 (1955-11-23) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
110 minutes[1][2]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

The Eternal Breasts (乳房よ永遠なれ, Chibusa yo eien nare), also titled Forever a Woman, is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by actress Kinuyo Tanaka. It is based on the life of tanka poet Fumiko Nakajō (1922–1954).[3]

Plot

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Unhappily married Fumiko, mother of two children, divorces her drug-addicted husband after an incident which she regards as an act of unfaithfulness, and moves back to her mother. At the same time, she tries to find her voice as a poet, regularly attending a poetry circle, encouraged by her married tutor Hori, whom she loves with a respectful distance. While struggling with the divorce and the fact that she could only take her daughter with her, she is diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. She undergoes a double mastectomy, which she writes about in a series of widely noticed and prize-winning poems, and tries to live her life as freely as possible and as her illness allows. She has a short affair with journalist Ōtsuki, who writes about her in a newspaper series before she finally dies.

Cast

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Production

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Lead actress Yumeji Tsukioka on location in "Eternal Breasts."

Shot largely on location in Hokkaidō, filming took place a year after the death of Nakajō.

Reception

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Ryōji Hayama and Yumeji Tsukioka

The Eternal Breasts is unanimously highly regarded for its directorial skills, yet film scholars differ in their evaluation of the themes addressed in the film. While Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández calls it "a daring depiction of female sexuality […] as well as a powerful instance of women's creativity and self-expression",[4] Alexander Jacoby sees the "feminist and progressive" theme of a woman willingly choosing career over marriage obscured by the film's concentration on her illness, thus shying away from the more controversial implications.[5]

Legacy

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The Eternal Breasts has seen repeated screenings at festivals and film museums in the US,[6] in France[7] and in Germany.[8] The British Film Institute included the film in its 2020 The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now list.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b "乳房よ永遠なれ (The Eternal Breasts)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b "乳房よ永遠なれ (The Eternal Breasts)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  3. ^ Sato, Hiroaki (2015). Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology. Milton Park and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7656-1783-5.
  4. ^ a b "The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now at the British Film Institute website". British Film Institute. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  5. ^ Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.
  6. ^ "To Save and Project: The 18th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  7. ^ "Maternité éternelle". Festival Lumière (in French). 2021. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  8. ^ "Eternal Breasts". Nippon Connection. 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
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Bibliography

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  • González-López, Irene; Smith, Michael, eds. (2018). Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-0969-8.
  • Berra, John, ed. (2012). Directory of World Cinema: Japan2. Bristol and Chicago: Intellect. ISBN 978-1-84150-551-0.
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