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Trailer Watch: “Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us”
Japan Society and Metrograph will co-present Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us, a 30-film retrospective devoted to Naruse, the “fourth great” master of Japanese cinema, from May 9th through June 29th. Co-organized with The Japan Foundation, New York, the two-part series will offer the first major New York survey of this signal studio-era filmmaker’s work in 20 years, presented in commemoration of the 120th anniversary of his birth and entirely on rare prints imported from collections and archives in Japan.
Notable series highlights include all six of Naruse’s adaptations of celebrated feminist author Fumiko Hayashi’s work (Floating Clouds, Repast, Lightning, Wife, Late Chrysanthemums, A Wanderer’s Notebook), as well as some of Naruse’s rarest films, including the New York premieres of three pre-war gems not presented in previous retrospectives: Morning’s Tree-Lined Street, A Woman’s Sorrows and Sincerity.
Opening on Friday, May 9th with Naruse’s undisputed masterpiece Floating Clouds and an opening night reception, Japan Society will present the second John and Miyoko Davey Classic Film Series Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us – Part I through Sunday, May 31st, which culminates with his devastating late work Yearning (1964). In addition, Naruse scholar Catherine Russell, author of The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity will present a lecture at Japan Society on Saturday, May 31st.
Part II opens at Metrograph on Thursday, June 5th with Naruse’s best-known film When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), followed by a reception at the theater hosted Japan Foundation, New York, and closes on Sunday, June 29th with his swan song Scattered Clouds (1967). Select films will continue on to screen at Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) with Mikio Naruse: The Auteur as Salaryman (July 3 – December 21) and Harvard Film Archive with Floating Clouds: The Cinema of Naruse Mikio (July 5 – November 3), with programs in Canada taking place in Toronto at TIFF Cinematheque and in Vancouver at The Cinematheque in 2026.
Tickets for Part I at Japan Society are on sale now at
https://japansociety.org/film/
Tickets for Part II at Metrograph are on sale now at
https://metrograph.com/
