Her Brother

Her Brother (Ototo 1960) is the rare adaptation of Aya Koda's novel that wasn't scripted by director Kon Ichikawa's wife Natto Wada. Instead this screenplay was written by Yoko Mizuki. This award winning film is notable for Keiko Kishi's moving portrait of the self-sacrificing and stubborn Gen, who keeps the household of her distant, reclusive academic father (Masayuki Mori), ailing step mother (Kinuyo Tanaka), and the wild and increasingly delinquent younger brother Heikiro (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) together. It is a film that shows how loneliness and isolation can arise even while living with one's family. The film is also notable for the specific period look that Ichikawa and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon) created with the use of color. It was then, an experimental  process that is now called "skip-bleaching". It was the first time in film history that this process, now a rather commonly-used one, was applied for a motion picture film. There are some notable cinematic scenes in the films as well: the high angle shot from a roof that shows the school boys fleeing from a book shop after a theft with their capes flowing behind them, another overhead shot of girls leaving there school through the main gates, and the blurry neon lights that fill the background as Heriko and a friend go on a drunken spree in town. It is one of a number artistically and financially successful films from Ichkawa during his most prolific period that started in the late 50s and lasted to the mid 60s.