The Blue Sky Maiden (Also called 'We'll meet again') (1957)

February 4, 2025 1:12 AM

After seeing 'Perfect days' the other day, I was reminded of this. Japanese New Wave director Yasuzō Masumura is considered by some to be "the most important filmmaker in the history of postwar Japanese cinema", yet I never heard of him before. How can that be?

I discovered his beautiful melodrama The Blue Sky Maiden by complete accident.

Yuko Ono, a lovely country girl, travels to Tokyo to find her mother, and is being reminded to always look for 'the bright blue sky’. An utterly modern and unorthodox adventure story, full of impromptu and unusual touches. An underrated gem. Recommended!

3.8 score on Letterboxd.

No Wikipedia page!

I don't know where you can find it on corporate streaming sources, but if you want, you can use the link here (Safe).

I am going to start exploring some of his 57 other features!

posted by growabrain (4 comments total)

Masumura is certainly a very underrated filmmaker though I'm not sure he's the most important postwar filmmaker of postwar Japan - more important than say Nagisa Ōshima or Kon Ichikawa? I'm not sure about that. Anyone wanting to watch his entire oeuvre should remember about this group of Japanese filmmakers is that they are highly eclectic - jumping from genre to genre without much thought to their overall filmography. Masumura is no different.

Blue Sky Maiden is endlessly charming and, like his first film Kisses, well directed and likely aimed at the growing teenage / young adult market in Japan at the time.

A number of Masamura's films had an early DVD release in North America so he is better known as the director of the deeply cynical satire of modern commercialism & advertising Giants and Toys, Afraid to Die (starring Mishima), the lesbian themed Manji, an infamous Hanzo the Razor sequel, the brutal Manchurian war film Red Angel, and the notoriously kinky Blind Beast. All good and all very different.

For me, the most underrated director of this period is Kihachi Okamoto. In North America he's largely known as a director of Samurai films but his post war takedowns of Japan's WWII involvement and militarism are incredible. And his Age of Assassins is the equal to any of Seijun Suzuki's better known films.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:53 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

Thank you @Ashwagandha for the insight. I marked Okamoto's work for viewing.
posted by growabrain at 6:37 AM on February 5

Masahiro Shinoda, another underrated director of that period, is also worth a look as well. His Demon Pond, Himiko and Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees are all excellent (but I haven't seen a dud really in the 20 of his films that I've seen).
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:45 PM on February 5

Thank you @Ashwagandha - I will check out his work. I only recognized his name from the front page of r/Criterion, which features his 'Double Suicide' poster.
posted by growabrain at 12:38 PM on February 10