One Wonderful Sunday

This affectionate paean to young love is also a frank examination by Akira Kurosawa of the harsh realities of postwar Japan. During a Sunday trip into war-ravaged Tokyo, Yuzo and Masako look for work and lodging, as well as affordable entertainments to pass the time. Reminiscent of Frank Capra’s social-realist comedies and echoing contemporaneous Italian neorealism, One Wonderful Sunday touchingly offers a sliver of hope in dark times.

Japan
1947
109 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
Japanese

Available In

Collector's Set

Eclipse 7: Postwar Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

5 Discs

$55.96

Collector's Set

AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

25 Discs

$319.00

Out Of Print

Cast & Credits

Cast

Isao Numasaki: Yuzo
Chieko Nakakita: Masako
Atsushi Watanabe: Yamamoto
Zeko Nakamura: Dessert shop owner
Ichiro Sugai: Yamiya, the black marketeer
Masao Shimizu: Dance hall manager

Credits

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay: Keinosuke Uegusa
Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai
Music: Tadashi Hattori

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Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.