Japanese Girls at the Harbor

1933 [JAPANESE]

Action / Drama / Romance

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 71% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 71% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 833 833

harbor yokohama

Plot summary

Set in the port city of Yokohama, two girls, Sunako and Dora who attend a Christian school, pledge to be friends. But when a youth named Henry appears on his motorcycle and offers to take Sunako for a ride, we know that this friendship won't last and that the lives of both girls will change in ways they are barely able to comprehend, and can do little to change.

Director

Hiroshi Shimizu Photo
Hiroshi Shimizu

Top cast

Yumeko Aizome Photo
Yumeko Aizome as Masumi
Ureo Egawa Photo
Ureo Egawa as Henry
Tatsuo Saitô Photo
Tatsuo Saitô as Miura - a Painter
Yukiko Inoue Photo
Yukiko Inoue as Dora Kennel
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
660.05 MB
932*720
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
1 hr 11 min
Seeds 1
1.2 GB
1398*1080
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
1 hr 11 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 6 / 10

Another Japanese tearjerker from Shochiku...

...this time from director Hiroshi Shimizu. Sunako (Michiko Oikawa) is a teenage girl in the port city of Yokohama. When she discovers that her older boyfriend is seeing another woman, Sunako commits a terrible act and leaves the city. After years of drifting about, she returns to Yokohama as a bar hostess and reconnects with her old boyfriend, who has married Sunako's former best friend in the interim. Heartbreak naturally ensues.Director Shimizu indulges in a number of camera tricks, like rapid tracking shots, fast-edit zoom ins, and having characters dissolve likes ghosts when leaving a scene. While many of these gimmicks are eye-catching, they don't do anything to add to the meager, routine plot. A distinct lack of characterization in the script makes discerning who's who a chore for the film's first half hour, which is bad in a one hour movie. The coastal scenery and some decent performances from Shochiku regulars save this from being a loss, though. (
Reviewed by zetes 6 / 10

Sometimes hard to follow

This story involves two girls, Dora and Sunako, who are best friends in Yokohama. They vow never to separate, but along enters a man (with the Western name Henry). Sunako goes for him, but he's a bad guy, a gangster and a philanderer. She eventually catches him with another woman, and does something rash. In her shame, Sunako runs away only to become a geisha. Later she meets up with Dora and Henry again, now married to each other and feeling guilty for what became of Sunako. Japanese Girls at the Harbor is often a very pretty film, but I sometimes found it to be poorly made. The first half is especially confusing with Shimizu's gimmicky editing. And the transition between the big event of the first half and the second half of the film is never quite clear. I had initially thought I was confused because I watched it tired, but I watched most of the first half over again and still found it hard to put together. Plus, whenever characters who aren't one of the main three enter the film, it's always hard to understand who they are. The second half of the film is much stronger than the first, but I would still complain that Henry and Dora are never especially interesting characters. My attention was focused entirely on Sunako, and I found it hard to concentrate when she wasn't around. This is the earliest film in the Eclipse Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu box set (and the only silent film), and I've read at least one review of the set that claims that it's the weakest. Looking at the better aspects of the film, it's clear that Shimizu is a talented director. I'm confident that the other films will be better. I definitely do not recommend starting with this film if you're just renting them. Skip it all together, or at least come back to it later.
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