Yellow Crow

It would seem that Yellow Crow (1957) was one of Heinosuke Gosho's most well-received films overseas as it won a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film for the year it was released. I suspect the original color print was striking, but I saw a flawed version-perhaps there will be a restoration some day. That being said this story of a young boy and his mother (Chikage Awashima in another strong performance) restarting their family life with the repatriated father (Yunosuke Ito), which disrupts the boy's family life was a story that I did not connect with. That's not to say that there isn't any artistry to the film, I just felt that the boy was spoiled and overly sensitive about his relationship with his mother-thus could not really sympathize with the boy's position and point of view. Every film I see by Gosho increases my respect for him and makes we wonder why he seems to be so overlooked. Then again there were so many great movies made by Japanese directors in the years he was active (1930s-1950s) that there was plenty of competition in the theaters.