Nadare / Avalanche

Mikio Nadare: 雪崩 / Nadare / Avalanche (JP 1937). A newly married couple at the crossroads. Hideo Saeki (Goro Kusaka) and Noboru Kiritachi (Fukiko Yokoda).

Akira Kurosawa (gauche) et Mikio Naruse (droite) durant le tournage d'Avalanche (雪崩), 1937. En arrière plan, le Château de Nagoya. Source: P.C.L. Eiga Seisaku-jo. Domaine public. From: Wikipédia: Avalanche (film, 1937).

雪崩 / [Valanga].

    JP (Empire of Japan) 1937. Prod.: P.C.L.

    Director: Mikio Naruse. Sog.: from the Jiro Osaragi’s homonymous novel (1936). Scen.: Tomoyoshi Murayama, Mikio Naruse. Ass. regia: Ishiro Honda, Akira Kurosawa. F.: Mikiya Tachibana – b&w. M.: Koichi Iwashita. Scgf.: Takeo Kita. Mus.: Nobuo Iida. Int.: Hideo Saeki (Goro Kusaka), Ranko Edogawa (Yayoi Ema), Noboru Kiritachi (Fukiko Yokoda), Yo Shiomi (Goro’s father), Yuriko Hanabusa (Goro’s mother), Sadao Maruyama (Fukiko’s father), Masao Mishima (lawyer Koyanagi), Akira Ubukata (Keisuke).

    59 min

    Not released in Finland.

    35 mm print from NFAJ (National Film Archive of Japan).

    Courtesy of Toho.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2025: Sorrow and Passion: Pre-War Mikio Naruse.

    Introduced by Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström.

    Viewed with e-subtitles in English and Italian at Cinema Jolly, 23 June 2025.

Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström (Bologna 2025): "One of Naruse’s most underrated films, Nadare describes a love triangle in which Goro (among the most detestable of Naruse’s many flawed male protagonists, played by his regular collaborator Hideo Saeki, 1912–2003) is torn between his wife and a childhood friend. It was based on a serialised novel by the popular author Jiro Osaragi (1897–1973), many of whose books were adapted into films. The screenplay was prepared by Tomoyoshi Murayama, a playwright whose outspoken leftwing convictions are reflected in the film’s critique of the Westernised upper class. Although Murayama retained credit for the original draft, his version of the script differed significantly from the final one, which was completed by Naruse himself."

"One of the assistant directors on the film was a young Akira Kurosawa. He complained that Naruse insisted on “doing everything himself”, leaving his assistants with nothing to do, and wryly related that he fell asleep on set, only for his snoring to enrage the director. Nevertheless, he was impressed by Naruse’s discipline on set and expertise, and testified that he had learned much from his method of “of building one very brief shot on top of another, which, spliced together in the final film, […] give the impression of a single long take”."

"The film excited the ire of various contemporary film critics. Fuyuhiko Kitagawa complained about the literary material’s unsuitability for cinematic adaptation, while “Kinema Junpo”’s Seiji Mizumachi disliked the obtrusive technique in which a kind of gauze or blind falls over the image in order to allow characters to speak their thoughts to the audience, as if in a theatrical aside. Seen today, this gesture seems refreshingly experimental. The film is generally stylish: Tetsuya Hirano rightly praises the dynamism of scenes shot around Nagoya Castle, the imagery of sunlight filtering through the trees, and the panning shots of the protagonist walking in the rain." Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström

IMDb capsule: "Avalanche is a study of a one-year marriage that begins to crumble. A married man is torn between the love of his wife, and his attraction to his cousin."

Wikipédia: Synopsis: "Gorō est né dans une riche famille japonaise des années 1930. Il se voit déchiré entre deux femmes, Yayoi qu’il a aimée autrefois, et Fukiko, sa femme actuelle avec laquelle il est marié depuis un an. Il ne peut oublier Yayoi ni l’abandonner, car il se sent toujours pour elle de tendres sentiments et il délaisse son épouse. Il parle beaucoup de la vie idéale, mais son père ne prend pas ce qu’il pense au sérieux et refuse qu’il divorce d'avec Fukiko. Devant l’incompréhension de ses parents, il décide de se suicider avec Fukiko qu’il n’aime pas, mais au dernier moment il se rend compte qu’il n’en est pas capable."

AA: Messrs. Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström explained the title of the movie: "avalanche" here means "emotional crisis". Today we live in a precarious world.

Mikio Naruse's Nadare is a marriage tragedy which turns into a marriage melodrama. Quite literally it's a weepie. After one year of married life, Goro Kusaka (Hideo Saeki) realizes that the marriage is over. "You can't always get what you want". But "I can't live in deception".

Goro's parents are fiercely against divorce. "Young people know everything." "Goro knows his goal but does not believe in it." "A man has to look after a frail woman." His father even suggests the possibility of an affair on the side. "I can only think of one woman at a time". Father is desperate and decides to disown Goro.

From the father's viewpoint the young ones only think about themselves, not about the family. "If I die, the family name has to be continued". But Goro needs to be sincere in commitment. He is uncomfortable with the father's gift of a wonderful handbag for Fukiko. "The heart must be in it".

Naruse's movies are usually driven by the female protagonists, but Nadare's viewpoint is male.

Goro's dearest friend has always been his cousin Yayoi (Ranko Edogawa), a free and independent woman. Both have been born into wealth and privilege. Only after marriage does Goro realize how much he has loved her. Their relationship has been close and intimate but not romantic or sexual. It has been a soul union, a meeting of the minds, essential for both.

His wife Fukiko (Noboru Kiritachi) is the sweetest and the kindest person on earth, beloved by everybody. She is a perfect traditional Japanese woman, an ideal homemaker, close to Goro's parents, always happy to sacrifice herself for the common good. "You are like our own daughter", a sunshine in the family.

Now Goro finds Fukiko too passive, weak and naive. He needs a woman who challenges and defies him. Fukiko always submits.

It often rains. It is an avalanche of rain. The sky is crying. Which brings to mind all the great songs such as Carole King's "Crying in the Rain".

"There is no way out." "I can't go on anymore." Goro proposes double suicide to Fukiko. Shockingly but not surprisingly, Fukiko agrees. Her eyes in tears, she says: "I'm all yours. If you ask me to do it I'll do it gladly".

For once, Goro's spinelessness is welcome. In a surprise ending the double suicide is cancelled. Some might think that the spinelessness is also Naruse's. Siegfried Kracauer (in Theory of Film) might applaud. For him, cinema and tragedy were incompatible, an open end the perfect cinematic option.

In cinematic means, Naruse is in full command of his art and craft. In less than an hour he tells a complex and compelling story with subtlety. He introduces a visual effect of ghostly superimpositions to the confession monologues. The descending gauze effect reminded Japanese critics of bamboo blinds so much that they joked that the movie is "a bamboo blind film, not an avalanche film".

The print felt like a blow-up from 16 mm, with blur in the image and buzz on the soundtrack.