User Reviews

On a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea, a small family consisting of husband, wife, and two sons, struggle to get by. They are the island's sole inhabitants, and spend their days fetching water from the mainland and carrying up the steep hill in order to water their crops. One day when the mother and father are away from the island, one of the sons falls ill, and the father races to get help. Their lives are all portrayed in painstaking detail, and the film contains no dialogue whatsoever. The film is directed by Kaneto Shindo, who directed the two brilliant Japanese New Wave horror films, Kuraneko and Onibaba, the only two other films of his I've seen.

This is a break in style and subject for Shindo. The two aforementioned horror films were similarly slow and detailed, but The Naked Island contains no action or atmosphere, but certainly shares their beauty. This is a film that shows how far humanity can be pushed in order to merely get by. The climax of the film (and I don't feel I'm ruining anything by revealing it, the story is not important) has their ill son dying, as his father and the doctor arrive too late. After the funeral, they are forced back to work. The mother, needing to grieve, throws down the water and screams into the ground, as the father watches helpless. Afterwards, she gets up, and methodically resumes watering.

Shindo tackles a universal subject with the neglect of the working class. Filmed with no dialogue, it emphasises their facial expressions and body movements in a way the silent era did, and forces the audience to live through the work they do, every step at a time. The director said he wanted to "capture the life of human beings struggling like ants against the forces of nature," and he certainly does that. The film is slow, and focuses a lot of time on the struggle of carrying the water up the hillside. Yet it's filmed with such elegance, it only hammers their struggle home. This is a beautiful and moving film, that is almost brutal in its relentlessness.

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Amazing! Let me join the happy few who saw this film when it first came out. It was in Paris. I was a student. It was L'Ile Nu I think. And I have never forgotten it and never seen it again. That's over 40 years ago! And now it is coming out on DVD and most people will never have heard of it. So my dear golden oldies who were young in 1961, rejoice and tell everyone. This is pure cinema with no frills, worthy of comparison with Dreyer, Bresson and O'Flaherty and a lovely companion piece to Shindo's ONIBABA. That onibaba grass stayed with us over the years as did that naked island. Talking of films lost but not forgotten, I can draw a comparison with MERE JEANNE DES ANGES (same subject matter as Ken Russell's THE DEVILS)which I saw in Leipzig in about 1962 and which I have never seen since. What a coincidence! That Polish film (MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS)is also coming out on DVD. Real poetic cinema is trickling through the mishmash.

In a time where cinema was in the whole world was still concerned by representation of lives and social studies, this movie is an intense an important piece. It's great! Strong, hard, oppressing, nice, and emotive. Everything in the hard (but sometimes amazing) life of those workers is showed in it... It's really something the cinema can do at his best. A social study showing every aspect of a style of life, with its private feelings and possible events (thoose who are saying nothing happens mustn't have watched the whole movie. I was surprised by the changing of rhythm in the last 30 minutes).

It's showing everything essential cinema can show: Life, conditions of life, feelings of those who are living, and it's showing it in a very good way. This is a touching and oppressive movie which could maybe even be used as an historical document (for history of the Japanese island farmers in the middle of the XX century) , but also as an intense fiction.

I was living next to the Seto Naikai (Inland Sea) at the time this movie was made, and marvel at its matchless, eclectic choice of images and atmosphere to convey the ambiance of the time and place. The photography, music, and restrained acting are perfection itself. The lack of dialogue helps, rather than hinders, its beautiful, simple story. It has captured a Japanese way of life and culture (actually lived by the director---the movie was made as a tribute to his parents) forever and in the very highest artistic sense. The movie is so genuine, so sympathetic to its participants and subject matter, that the viewer is softly, irresistibly, drawn in to share their travails. For years it has been a wonder to me why this classic film has been forgotten. Of the thousands of movies I have seen in my lifetime, this is the finest.

I came to the internet searching for information on this movie. Not only did I find it, but I found a comment that mirrored my own experience with the movie. I too saw it in my student days, nearly 30 years ago, in a Friday-night "cinema" series in the student union theater. I see it's listed as B&W; I remember it in color -- maybe colorized it in my head? No dialog, just music and environmental sound; gorgeous photography of the island, the sea, the brutally hard work ferrying water for the crops on the terraces. And we follow that work for a long long time; we go through impressed, to irritated (why don't they move to town for chrissake), to rage at being made to sit through this for so long, to numb resignation. So we're right where the characters are. Writhing in my seat, hoping it will come to an end. And then the brief scene that left me stunned, that made sense of all that lead up to it, two seconds of film that explain us in the universe. Like William, I've never met anyone else who's seen this movie. And I don't know if I could sit through it again. But I'm sure glad I did back then.

Okay, we have a loving tribute here, personal for director Kaneto Shindo as portraying the life of his parents. We have the rural hardship, and dogged persistence for live in a place where water is painfully hauled over a steep cliff, and we have the quiet cinematic language that describes it.

But also describes a life of simple pleasures. Shindo observes both closely, with sympathy.

The narrative thread of The Naked Island flows with the slow and dull repetition of life itself - if the movie is dull and monotonous it is because life is dull and monotonous and with a handful of fleeting moments of pleasure and joy scattered among the daily routine of making ends meet. In that sense, the artificiality that some reviewers have spoken of (certainly Shindo's decision to include no dialogues and the film almost silent save for a few natural sounds and voices) touches upon the heart of the thing.

The film follows the cycle of the seasons as the family tries to survive in the small island and it is by using the renewal of nature as a backdrop that Shindo draws emphasis on the periodic nature of life and time - the snake that eats its tail. The theme of renewal and the cycle of life and death is further symbolized through long, repetitious sequences of the man and wife transporting irrigation water in large buckets through the steep steps of a hillside and even further as Shindo ends the film cyclically with the same aerial shot that opened it.

The other major triumph for the great Japanese director is the visual language he employs to tell the simple and languidly paced story. This is probably a point that will only interest the avid film buff but I'm fairly sure it's that kind of person only that will seek out such a film anyway. The cinematography consists of full images, superb staging and framing of the (little is the truth) action, images as much beautiful in the subject they present as in the presentation of the subject itself and vibrating with honesty and clarity of vision. As with Kurosawa in DERSU UZALA, The Naked Island captures the essence of 'life as lived in' - the texture, the mood, the smell.

Combined with the symbolism he has carefully planted within the film, The Naked Island is a complete depiction of life on both macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. Of a very specific kind of life the truth is (rural life in a Japanese island in the 30's) but in the larger scheme of things and in the things that actually matter, what is true of one man is true of many.

In an age where directors are content to just wink at their audiences with a sense of smug satisfaction, presenting us with cynic and gimmicky films, swapping emotional catharsis for surprise 'twists', doing away with honest character portrayals in favour of decorating characters with random quirks, having forgotten visual storytelling in favour of redundant voiceovers, shaky cams or self-consciously, witty dialogue; in an age like this, The Naked Island seems to come from another planet, alien to the mentality and ethics of modern cinema as much as its bucolic subject matter is to modern city life. It's definitely not something that will appeal to most but those that will set out looking for it will not be disappointed.

I was surfing on the t.v. and came across this incredible "little" film on a French Canadian station. As there is no dialogue and the story is so human and pure, it is truly the most universal picture I've seen. I defy anyone not to be moved by the challenges which the characters face, the realism in the minimalist acting and the beauty of the simplistic black and white camerawork. I've never heard of this film, but I will tell all my friends about it.

I saw this movie twenty years ago and I still remember it fondly. It should be part of the training of movie directors to see and analyze this movie. The naked island (as it was named in France) shows the hard struggle of a fisherman's family to survive in a very harsh environment. It is very emotional yet does not call on any modern artifice to carry the message. The music will stay with you forever. My only regret is that I can't get a copy to show my children what movie making can be.

Naked Island or Hadaka no Shima is a movie made by director Kaneto Shindo after he directed the movie Number 5 Lucky Dragon which was semi documentary about a ship that was hit by a nuclear fall out while fishing in the pacific ocean. Shindo has a theme to his movie and this one is no exception.

A family consisting of mother, father and two boys makes a daily ferrying of water from the mainland to an island to water their farm. There are no machinery to help with their farming, and the farm is situated on a steep slope. Every day the family struggles to care for their farm, except for few days out of the year they take a break for a time out in town.

The movie having no dialog was highly experimental, and no movie studio was willing to take on this project, so Shindo self financed the five million yen project out of his own pocket. There're not many actors in this movie except for the four people in the family, and the movie was made by a staff of 13 people. The project no movie studio wanted to touch won the grand prize at the Moscow movie festival that year and was shown in 66 countries around the world. Author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quoted that this is the most moving movie he's ever seen.

The movie is a reminder of how harsh a life can be if there is no enterprising society to forward the standards of living. The premise of the movie is little unrealistic because I don't think you can actually shuttle enough water by foot and a row boat to cultivate a farm. If I were them, I'd look around to see if there's a place suitable for perma culture.

Shot in the back drop of Seto inland ocean in Japan, the scenery of this movie is stunningly beautiful. Music by Mitsuru Hayashi is also beautiful. I wish I had access to the DVD released in Japan where the director's commentary is available on the bonus track ( it is available from Amazon.co.jp ).

Nobuko Otowa who played the mother in this movie went on to make many other movie and TV drama including the now famous Oshin series. Otowa later marries the director of this movie Kaneto Shindo in 1978 after Shindo's first wife passed away. Otowa and Shindo were a team since she made her film debut in 1951, and they had a long relationship until her death in 1994.

I remember this film from my student days. I saw it in an uptown, shabby, art house theatre (when art meant porn) in Philadelphia. I was amazed. As I recall, it is a film without dialog. Not silent, but no dialog. Black and white, but singularly visual. Three, maybe four characters with self- effacing directing and camera work, it was as intimate as small off-Broadway theatre. I've seen nothing since as cinematic, or moving. No one I've ever met, has seen it. But I remember it vividly.

Desalinate your water, people, God damn it!!! At least for the plants. I get it, the concept of a water well might have been impossible on this island but to make that effort multiple times of day only works as a metaphor, but frustratingly for the pragmatic that choose to watch this film.

Slow and cinema are the key words here. Here, Shindo, paints a picture by repetition, by pain, by slaps to the face, by sweat, all acompanied by contrasting semi-jolly music. Take heed children, this is how much effort your parents have to endure so you can have a future and a childhood - even though in Romania (maybe not so much now) you would have worked the field since age 7.

It kinda helps that the black & white is pretty.

Pure. Thick and heavy. It's like going through a gallery of paintings where every piece is a timeless treasure. It's as pure a movie as can be found. It's got its own style, it makes its own rules. There is no dialogue, no sound of human voice other than when the family goes to town. And just when you feel like you can't take anymore of this life, the movie slaps you in your face and you simply understand: this isn't make-believe, it's real life, and if you are busy being bored, you're simply wasting precious time when there's work to be done. The work for us is to enjoy all the beautiful angles, the daring framing which somehow often cuts off part of the image but by virtue of that cutting-off keeps the realness perfectly intact. The editing alone is a masterpiece, cutting just as the characters and setting reach a sublime visual harmony, and returning with a new set up full of many little details fluttering and seeking balance all over again. This movie defines what visual story-telling is and forever should be, because it almost never gets bogged down in drama, it ebbs and flows in synch with the nature around it. Plus, the talent of the actors is beyond belief, most definitely owing much to the direction.

The problem comes in the last quarter of the movie's duration. After teaching us not to be sentimental, the movie then takes us through what would be a tragedy for us in most other movies, but here we don't exactly know how to feel. The movie up to this point taught us to detach from emotion, so we kind of just want to get back to work and we don't see the sense in wallowing in misery. And so when one of the characters displays a desire to wallow in misery, we don't have any connection. That is the downside to not getting to know any of the characters' individuality. We have never heard their voices, never understood their dreams or frustrations. Because of this, the movie's miraculous shots, though technically good, become devoid of cinematic beauty because their context is muddled. The audience slips out of the spell that for more than hour seemed impossible to break. A+ for Ambition though.

If you have ever wondered what a film would be like that exemplifies how the tools of the craft can be used to do powerfully what no other art can do, this film answers the question. It is among the most carefully wrought, least encumbered yet profound movies ever made. The fact that it has long been unavailable in America and Europe in any accessible format reflects very sadly upon us all. (Addendum 15 March 2008 for those of you with region-free players: the English distributor, Eureka, has thankfully released the original widescreen version of the movie in PAL format in its 'The Masters of Cinema Series', #12, with an optional commentary by Shindo and his composer, Hikaru Hayashi. Available from Amazon.uk.)

A top rate drama from post-war Japan!

A family struggling to survive the toils of daily life is portrayed excellently. We get to see the effects of farming life and the family's scant opportunity for relief from such work.

Don't avoid it just because it's "in black and white" because you'd be missing out on one of the key films that form the solid base that all post-war Japanese cinema stands on. Technique and storytelling combine for a satisfying and truly human film without relying on the devices of obvious, heavy symbolism too often seen in quasi-religious dramatic films from this period.

Probably one of the most moving movies in the history ; the more so because of the simplicity of the movie: no dialogs, B&W, a very slow pace and non professional actors. But from the first to the last minute it is about fate and courage and man. Do see it. You'll understand.

This movie is 30 years old. Most of the people who have seen it, did it 30 years ago. This movie is quite difficult to find those days, so that's why few young person have seen it.

I saw this movie minutes ago. I haven't been much impressed by this movie. It is a slow, silent (i mean no dialogue) movie. This is not a wrong thing, but it is not really well exploited. No dialog means that actors must be really expressives : They must be able to communicate their emotions through their faces, their look... Unfortunatly, the children are quite poor actors : They just don't express anything. They look a bit like automatons. The women expresses happiness, sadness, and suffering. She's by far, the best actor of the film. The father isn't showing much emotion. He seems to watch and thinking about what he's watching or doing.

The movie seems to deal with human condition : hard work, hard life, sadness,... The vision of this movie is very special. The family is a simple family who lives alone on an island seperated from the civilization. They live on the plants they're making grow by themselves. That kind of family looks much more like a farmer family or a working family (like in the 19th century). That type of family isn't a family of the 20th century, or of the 21th century. The film is dealing with this subject as if it was some kind of universal fact for the humans. Luckily times are changing, and this movie will be forgotten with those times. Only a few people works as farmers, or workers. This movie don't have no more the strengh it could have had a few years ago.

The film is very simple, and quite original (no dialog,...). I guess this movie is much more better in memory than when you see it : Two persons commented it, and said "a perfect movie". Those two persons saw it 30 years ago. I'm almost convinced that if those persons see it one more time, they would be really desappointed. I saw this movie because mature persons have recommended it to me (it was a famous movie in 1962 in France). This movie is quite over-rated in my humble opinion, because it is badly growing old, but it's still an interesting movie.

This film brings you back to a similar time of honest hard work in agrarian life, and you should emphasize 'hard work'. From back breaking water carrying to rowing across the sea just to get to school in the morning the viewer gets a lengthy 'eye-full' of the experiences of this traditional family of fours' daily routine. The characters although one might first view as emotionless I eventually felt sympathy and care for each of them.

My only complaint with this experience is how slow the scenes feel to be passing. Although I do love lengthy scenes or scenes that drag out to test the stamina of the viewer this films felt much longer than the hour and a half it should have felt like, with the sensation of unnecessary repetitiveness. However the Intimacy of these scenes does in my opinion make up for their length.

Overall this movie is a gem if you enjoy classic films and don't mind a loss of dialogue. The story is simple, and the timeline, and almost everything else, but when the simplicity is so intimate you never feel too bored.

p.s This movie is available to watch on YouTube in its entirety and I would recommend this to most out of convenience.

Probably one of the most simple and still moving movies ever seen. No words. No special effects. A family: human beings that live and work and suffer and die and live.

I think this film prove that visual effects can be more efficient than sound. Hadaka no shima is a beautiful film without words. I love it very much.

I had not seen The Naked Island till today & I feel that I found a magnificent jewel in a long forgotten closet. Director Kaneto Shindo made an almost silent black & white film depicting the unbelievable struggle of a family of four living on their small arid island. This is a work of absolute beauty & simplicity. I read that the film is dedicated to his parents. The funny thing is that the production company was in an almost critical economic situation when the film was made, and the film's unexpected(?)financial success saved the company. The mother of the family was Kaneto Shindo's wife. The cinematographer Kiyomi Kuroda has cooperated with Kaneto Shindo in several films. My rate of 10 does not mean much I wish I could give it a higher rate