Forever a Woman

Director: Kinuyo Tanaka

1955 / 110min / 4K DCP

Actress-cum-director Kinuyo Tanaka’s third feature features Yumeji Tsukioka giving a performance of fierce dedication as Fumiko Nakajo, a tanka poet who had died from breast cancer just the year before Forever a Woman’s release, here depicted negotiating the agony of separation from her children and the ecstasy of a final love affair with full knowledge of her impending demise. Frequent Naruse collaborator and feminist playwright Sumie Tanaka adapts Tsukioka’s biography to the screen with blunt candor and raw urgency, with a cast including Masayuki Mori, Yoko Sugi, and Shiro Osaka combining to make this one of the finest Japanese melodramas of the Golden Age.

Distributor: Janus Films

Part of All the Single Mothers!