Nobuku is the story of a young female teacher from the countryside and her first teaching job at an all-girls school, in an unspecified big city (probably Tokyo.) There are some minor plot points about her fitting in with the other teachers and her friendship with some geishas, but the main story is about a battle of wills between her and a trouble-making student. This is about the sixth movie I've seen by this director, and it is probably the most plot driven movie of his that I've seen (although this may be due to the fact that it is based on a novel.) And while this isn't a bad movie, it is probably the least favorite of his that I've yet seen. The story is a fairly typical new teacher story and the resolution was too pat to be believable in these times. As other reviews of this movie have noted, this movie was made while the Japanese military had tight control over the movie industry and that may explain the rather preachy and extremely optimistic ending. Still, the performances are all wonderful and there are enough charming bits in the movie to make it worthwhile viewing for anyone interested in cinema history.
2 Reviews
Much To Teach And Much To Learn
boblipton12 August 2020
Mieko Takamine is the newest teacher at a girl's school. The headmistress explains that they instruct these girls in how to be ladies, so lose the rube accent. Miss Takamine does, but it doesn't happen overnight. One schoolgirl in particular, Mitsuko Miura, plays cruel pranks. In doing so, she gradually alienates all the other girls, who have come to admire Miss Takamine.
Hiroshi Shimizu's movie shows his kindly concern with the young, a theme that would dominate his movies for the rest of his career. Other directors admired his ability to make movies easily; Mizoguchi said "Me and Ozu get movies made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius." Perhaps so; perhaps just the sort of self-effacing politeness Japan esteemed.
I've seen enough of Shimizu's work to recognize some themes; there's the bus that gives Miss Miura a ride, that made me think of MR. THANK YOU. There's the instructors teaching by example, rather than words. Mostly, it's about the attitude: caring. It's not an outstanding movie, certainly not in Shimizu's corpus of almost 150 features, but it certainly held my attention for an hour and a half.
Hiroshi Shimizu's movie shows his kindly concern with the young, a theme that would dominate his movies for the rest of his career. Other directors admired his ability to make movies easily; Mizoguchi said "Me and Ozu get movies made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius." Perhaps so; perhaps just the sort of self-effacing politeness Japan esteemed.
I've seen enough of Shimizu's work to recognize some themes; there's the bus that gives Miss Miura a ride, that made me think of MR. THANK YOU. There's the instructors teaching by example, rather than words. Mostly, it's about the attitude: caring. It's not an outstanding movie, certainly not in Shimizu's corpus of almost 150 features, but it certainly held my attention for an hour and a half.
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