
Tasogare sakaba (Twilight Saloon). 1955. Japan. Directed by Tomu Uchida. Screenplay by Senzo Nada. With Keiko Tsushima, Hitomi Nozoe, Isamu Kosugi, Daisuke Kato. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min.
Although Uchida’s postwar reputation was based primarily on his period films, two of his first three films made after a decade in Manchuria were set in modern times, and both looked at Japanese society with a critical eye. In Twilight Saloon a cast of diverse characters spend an eventful evening in a cheap beer hall filled with music, dance, drunkenness, and self-reflection. Witty and lively, it also has a confessional quality: Uchida cast his regular prewar star Isamu Kosugi as an artist lamenting his art’s use for propagandistic purposes during the war.