Synopsis
Masako struggles to look after childeren and her husband. One of her son has been ill for a long time and her husband has got sick from overwork. After the death of her husband, Masako takes over the family dry-cleaning business. Toshiko, her teenage daughter, wants to help mom but makes mistakes a lot.

Program Note
NARUSE Mikio’s Mother starts with a girl’s narration, who introduces her family members in a nervous voice: Petite mother, father
 who ran a dry cleaning business but now works at a factory, older brother in poor health, younger sister who is already into her
 looks, younger cousin who still wets his pants, and herself, who is almost all grown up. The whole picture of the film may already
 be visible to those who know that the film is based on the winning entry of an essay contest for elementary school students and
 that this film is a popular melodrama appealing to the sentimentalism of the Japanese audience in the ‘50s. This may not be the first
 film to recommend, when introducing the director, NARUSE Mikio.

 However, Mother chooses to go down a different path from the typical sentimentalism. Although the family members die one by
 one, from disease or accidents, NARUSE Mikio does not force these emotions to the audience. Tragedies are depicted as quick and
 brief as possible, at times too calm to go along with the sentimental background music. While this film portrays the importance of
 family and motherhood, it isn’t difficult to notice the unique storyteller with acute observation, standing behind this familiar Asian
 melodrama. KAGAWA Kyoko plays the narrator and daughter. [Djuna]