
About the film

pearl ama kachido
The Blue Pearl
Release Date: August 03, 1951
Year | : | 1951 |
Slogan | : | «» |
Genres | : | |
Production Companies | : | Toho |
Director | : | Ishirō Honda |
Producers | : | Sōjirō Motoki |
Writers | : | Ishirō Honda, Katsuro Yamada |
RunTime | : | 99 mins. |
Though recognized worldwide almost exclusively for his colorful kaiju fare, director Ishirō Honda (Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra) was a natural humanist with a particular understanding of the relationship between people and their social environs. His debut fiction feature, The Blue Pearl (Aoi Shinju) – virtually unseen in the west until now – depicts the melodramatic, but keenly-observed interplay between a young man from Tokyo and two ama (pearl divers; literally “women of the sea”) in a superstitious coastal town. Though raised within the same tradition-bound crucible, the two women – Noe and Riu – are portrayed as diametric opposites; the former meek but affectionate, the latter strong-willed but jaded by a tryst with metropolitan life. Nonetheless, Honda provides equal weight to their desires and their ambitions to break free from the social mold imposed upon them from birth.
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