The Wandering Princess
Collaborating with screenwriter Natto Wada (The Burmese Harp) on an adaptation of the best-selling book by Hiroko Aiishinkakura, Tanaka’s first widescreen film spans twenty tumultuous years in the life of a young Japanese woman (played by Machiko Kyo). A daughter of nobility, she is subjected to an arranged marriage to the brother of the emperor of the “puppet state” Manchukuo during its Japanese occupation. A stranger in a strange land, she begins a new life trying to straddle two cultures amidst cataclysms of imperialism.

DIRECTOR: Kinuyo Tanaka. WRITTEN BY: Natto Wada. STORY BY: Hiroku Aiishinkakura. CAST: Machiko Kyo, Eiji Funakoshi, Atsuko Kindaichi. 1960. 102 min. Japan. Color. Scope. Japanese. DCP. Restored in 4K by Kadokawa.

Love Under the Crucifix
Tanaka’s final film was produced by Ninjin Club, a film company founded by three actresses—Yoshiko Kuga, Keiko Kishi, and Ineko Arima (all of whom star in the film). The daughter of a tea ceremony master must choose between her desire for a Christian Samurai lord and her marriage to a wealthy merchant. Though Tanaka often looked back at Japan’s recent history for her other films, Love Under the Crucifix is her only true period piece. Opening during a windswept battle, Tanaka’s 16th century romance is brimming with elegant widescreen compositions and evocative production design.

DIRECTOR: Kinuyo Tanaka. WRITTEN BY: Masashige Narusawa, Yoshio Miyajima. CAST: Ineko Arima, Ganjirô Nakamura, Mieko Takamine, Tatsuya Nakadai. 1962. 102 min. Japan. Color. Scope. Japanese. DCP. Restored in 4K by Shochiku Co., Ltd.

All film screenings in the Forever a Woman: Six Films by Kinuyo Tanaka series are available here.

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.