The Girl on the Line

Three years have passed since the filming of "Let's Go Happy", and the Japanese people's enthusiasm for gangster romance films has not diminished. Ozu once again encountered this genre, and his mentality and skills were different from before. The emotions of the characters have become complex and tragic, and the arrangement of every scene and thing in the picture is full of ingenuity. Continuing the role of the previous work, it tells the story of the love and hatred between a gangster and two women, one good and one bad. However, this time the gangster and the bad woman are both attracted to the good woman, and the gangster does not abandon the bad woman in the end. Perhaps in order to increase the persuasiveness of the plot, Ozu hired Tanaka Kinuji as the heroine. The bad girl is indeed evil in a subtle way, and sometimes even more pitiful. It's a pity that Kinuyo had just performed in "Izu Dancer", which was deeply popular among the people, and the image of a bad woman was not accepted by the audience at that time. Ozu played the gangster film genre to perfection, and many people think this is the pinnacle of his silent films. (The 27th Hong Kong International Film Festival)