A Woman in the Typhoon Area (1948)
There must have been some temptation for filmmakers to cast Setsuko Hara as a gangster moll. The idea sounds intriguing on paper, maybe. However, it was not that simple and easy, of course.
Renoir, Gide, Setsuko Hara
Though little known today, there were attempts to export Japanese films to the foreign countries before Kurosawa’s “Rashomon“. Japanese film industry explored the possibility to show Shimazu’s film or young Setsuko Hara’s starring vehicle in various countries, from Asia to United States to Europe. They condescendingly ‘exported’ the films made in Japan to Manchuria, Korea and the other occupied territories. However, the attempt to export such films to Europe was a different matter. It was a competitive market saturated with highly sophisticated products. Especially, during the thirties, volatile European politics lowered the melting point of artistic borders, resulting in the …
