The Naked Island (1960)

IMDb Listing
This is a unique film, about a Japanese family who live on a remote island, where they live a grueling agricultural lifestyle. The land is dry, and they depend on fresh water from the mainland that they transport on a daily basis on their small rowboat. The film has virtually no dialogue, and has a documentary-like feel in the way it focuses on the day-to-day life of the family. It feels like a metaphor for post-war Japanese life, and the struggle to rebuild a battered society, but I just don’t know enough about the subject to have much to say about the film along those lines. I enjoyed the film on its own terms, especially the naturalistic widescreen photography, but I couldn’t help wondering if it would have had more resonance to a contemporary Japanese viewer. 8/10