Hara Noda

He is an acclaimed composer / pianist living in Kyoto who is active in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Shiro Takaya, Noda Hideki etc, who has been active in a wide range of fields from post-classical to contemporary art, performing arts, Mitoshihiko's new album "Landscape in Portrait" will be released from <Beat Records>.

Veteran Japanese writer/director Yasujiro Ozu's second postwar production was 1949's Late Spring or Banshun. Chisu Ryu plays another of Ozu's realistic middle-class types, this time a widower with a marriageable daughter. Not wishing to see the girl resign herself to spinsterhood, Ryu pretends that he himself is about to be married. The game plan is to convince the daughter that they'll be no room for her at home, thus forcing her to seek comfort and joy elsewhere. What makes this homey little domestic episode work is the rapport between Chisu Ryu and Setsuko Hara, who plays the daughter. Late Spring is no facile Hollywood farce; we like these people, believe in them, and wish them the best.