Aoi sanmyaku

Aoi sanmyaku
Theatrical release poster
Kanji青い山脈
Revised HepburnAoi Sanmyaku
Directed byTadashi Imai
Screenplay by
Based onBlue Mountain Range
by Yōjirō Ishizaka
Produced bySanezumi Fujimoto
Starring
CinematographyAsakazu Nakai
Music byRyoichi Hattori
Production
companies
  • Fujimoto Production
  • Toho
Distributed byToho
Release dates
  • July 19, 1949 (1949-07-19) (Part one)
[1]
  • July 26, 1949 (1949-07-26) (Part two)
[2]
Running time
  • 91 minutes (Part one)[1]
  • 91 minutes (Part two)[2]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Aoi sanmyaku (青い山脈, lit. Blue Mountain Range) is a 1949 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Tadashi Imai.[1][3] It is based on Yōjirō Ishizaka's novel of the same name, which was first published in serialised form in 1947.[4]

Plot

After defending Shinko, student at a rural girls' high school, for seeing a young man from the village, teacher Yukiko, who has just been transferred from Tokyo, finds herself in opposition to the conservative faculty and villagers.

Cast

Actor Role
Setsuko Hara Yukiko Shimazaki
Ryō Ikebe Rokusuke Kaneya
Michiyo Kogure Umetaro/Tora Sasai
Yōko Sugi Shinko Terazawa
Ichiro Ryuzaki Tamao Numata
Setsuko Wakayama Kazuko Sasai
Kamatari Fujiwara Okamoto-san

Production and legacy

Aoi sanmyaku was released in two parts, part one on July 19, 1949, part two one week later,[1][2][3] and was highly successful both with the audience and the critics.[5]

The film's popular theme song theme was sung by Ichiro Fujiyama and Mitsue Nara. Ishizaka's novel was adapted again in 1957, 1975 and 1988.[4]

Reception

The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "青い山脈 (Aoi Sanmyaku, Part one)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "続青い山嶚 (Aoi Sanmyaku, Part two)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8108-6004-9.
  4. ^ a b "青い山脈 (Aoi sanmyaku)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  5. ^ Hirano, Kyoko (1992). Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945–1952. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 234–235. ISBN 1-56098-157-1.
  6. ^ Thomas-Mason, Lee. "From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
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