Oshidori utagassen (Singing Lovebirds). 1939. Directed by Masahiro Makino

Film

Oshidori utagassen (Singing Lovebirds). 1939. Japan. Directed by Masahiro Makino. Screenplay by Koji Edogawa. With Chiezo Kataoka, Takashi Shimura, Haruyo Ichikawa. In Japanese; English subtitles. 69 min.

Masahiro Makino’s breezy musical comedy about a ronin (masterless samurai) and three coquettish suitors was billed as “the rare operetta in which jazz bursts into the period film”—precisely the sort of well-crafted genre picture that Makino and his cinematographer Kazuo Miygawa produced with seeming effortlessness before the war.

35mm print courtesy the National Film Center; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and Nikkatsu.

This film accompanies Kazuo Miyagawa: Japan’s Greatest Cinematographer.

Saturday, April 14, 2018, 1:30 p.m.
MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2
Friday, April 13, 2018, 4:30 p.m.
MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

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