The Twilight Story
Bokuto kitan
Directed byShirō Toyoda
Screenplay byToshio Yasumi
Based on
Produced byIchiro Sato
Starring
CinematographyMasao Tamai
Edited byKoichi Iwashita
Music byDan Ikuma
Production
company
Tokyo Eiga
Distributed byToho
Release dates
  • 28 August 1960 (1960-08-28) (Japan)[1][2]
  • April 1962 (1962-04) (US)[3]
Running time
119 minutes[3]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

The Twilight Story (Japanese: 濹東綺譚 / 〓東綺譚[lower-alpha 1], Hepburn: Bokuto kitan), also titled Twilight Story, is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Shirō Toyoda. It is based on Kafū Nagai's 1937 short story A Strange Tale from East of the River.[1][2]

Plot

In the Tamanoi (now Higashi-Mukōjima, Sumida) district of 1936 Tokyo, geisha Oyuki earns her money as a prostitute to support her sick mother. One day, Oyuki meets and falls in love with a new customer, English teacher Junpei, who pretends that he lives alone while in reality he has a wife, Mitsuko. He and Mitsuko have ongoing arguments about his low salary and his discontent to accept financial support from the father of Mitsuko's child which she brought into the marriage. Meanwhile, Oyuki's uncle Otokichi, who acts as a messenger, spends the money intended for her mother on a prostitute himself, resulting in the mother's death. Junpei eventually returns to Mitsuko, though reluctantly, while the disillusioned Oyuki is hospitalised with blood poisoning. In the final scene, the narrator, an elderly writer and regular visitor to Tamanoi, reflects on the district's decline with the Pacific War entering its last stage.

Cast

Production

In addition to Kafū Nagai's short story A Strange Tale from East of the River, which it is officially based on, The Twilight Story also incorporates Nagai's short story Shissou and his diary Danchōtei nichijō.[1]

Reception

In their compendium The Japanese Film – Art and Industry, film historians Donald Richie and Joseph L. Anderson called The Twilight Story an "outstanding adaptation" of Nagai's story.[5]

Awards

Legacy

The Twilight Story was screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1994.[7]

Kafu's story was again adapted in 1992 by director Kaneto Shindō, titled The Strange Story of Oyuki.[8]

Notes

  1. ↑ The writing of the original title varies depending on the source, e.g. Kotobank lists the film as 濹東綺譚, the Japanese Movie Database as 〓東綺譚.[2][4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "ぼく東綺譚(1960)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "〓東綺譚". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8108-6004-9.
  4. ↑ "濹東綺譚". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  5. ↑ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1982). The Japanese Film – Art and Industry (revised ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 459. ISBN 9780691007922.
  6. ↑ "キネマ旬報ベスト・テン 1960年・第34回". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  7. ↑ "Twilight Story". BAMPFA. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "〓東綺譚". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 3 August 2023.
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