Undercurrent

Exquisitely lensed in gorgeous color by master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, this sublimely subversive melodrama employs ravishing mise-en-scène to lend layers of subtextual meaning to the story of Kiwa (Fujiko Yamamoto), an independent-minded kimono designer in Kyoto who rebuffs the advances of various men to focus on her craft—until she falls in love with a married scientist (Ken Uehara) and faces a stark choice. UNDERCURRENT was one of a string of postwar dramas focusing on the experiences of women made by unsung director Kozaburo Yoshimura, whose work is ripe for rediscovery for its incisive portrayal of shifting gender and social roles in a rapidly modernizing Japan.