Directed by Kon Ichikawa
(Japan, 1983, 140 min., in Japanese with English subtitles, 35mm)
Sundays, July 28 & August 4, 5:00 p.m. (B)
Adapted from the 1948 literary classic by Junichiro Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters follows the lives of four siblings who have taken on their family’s kimono manufacturing business, in the years leading up to the Pacific War. The two oldest have been married for some time, but according to tradition, the rebellious youngest sister cannot wed until the third (conservative and terribly shy) finds a husband. Film scholar James Quandt observed that veteran filmmaker Ichikawa created “an exercise in traditionalism, intended to affirm Japanese identity at a time when Japan was re-emerging as a major commercial and industrial power”.