Sayonara, Setsuko

As a tribute to the veteran Japanese actress Setsuko Hara, who died last year, the Japanese Film Festival 2016 has organised a triple-bill of some of her most acclaimed performances. The films will be screened in 16mm at The Reading Room in Bangkok on 7th February.

The three films are: No Regrets For Our Youth (directed by Akira Kurosawa; previously shown at the Kurosawa 100 Years Retrospective), Late Spring (directed by Yasujiro Ozu), and Repast (directed by Mikio Naruse; previously shown at the Japanese Film Festival 2008). Admission is free.

In his obiturary of Setsuko for Sight & Sound magazine, Alexander Jacoby writes: "Shortly after the death in 1963 of her frequent collaborator, director Ozu Yasujiro, Hara Setsuko announced her retirement from cinema. She was only in her early 40s, and for half a century was to live as a recluse in Kamakura... in retirement she earned comparisons with Greta Garbo, declining interviews and refusing to discuss her work in the film industry."