Setsuku Hara in trousers and a jaunty beret and a zoot-suited young Toshiro Mifune make a handsome and appealing couple in this handsome and appealing bittersweet slice of life which does for Tokyo and the River Sumida in the summer heat what Jacques Becker's 'Rendezvous a Juillet' had recently done for Paris and the Seine (and before that Rene Clair's 'Le Million').
Gracefully directed by a filmmaker new to me, Yasuki Chiba, it vividly evokes post-war Japan, complete with an early onscreen appearance by the yakuza.
Gracefully directed by a filmmaker new to me, Yasuki Chiba, it vividly evokes post-war Japan, complete with an early onscreen appearance by the yakuza.