Could have easily lost a good block of it's third act sections, when Hara moves to the country again; the propaganda bits are just too pronounced. Kurosawa and Hara are enough to make my reaction favorable, though. There are some inspired stylistic choices he went with here, a fair amount that I haven't seen duplicated in his later work.

68.750

The earliest of Kurosawa's films that I've seen, and the most political. It takes a bleak course, but he manages to make it an ultimately optimistic movie with some layered characters. Setsuko Hara is excellent, and her character's maturation over a decade is satisfying. There are times in the middle when it moves along at a snail's pace, but on the whole its quite graceful, and Kurosawa's talent with the camera is obvious.

Solid film, with a few distinctive flourishes from Kurosawa. Also some more poetic sequences, light and airy early on, shifting to a chastened optimism later in the film. Very enjoyable overall.

Hara is absolutely marvelous, but the film itself is great too. The techniques are clearly influenced by Eisenstein and Dovzhenko, in fact the whole thing closely resembles a Soviet propagnda film, in style and content. Indeed, it also carries that same bluntness, which is its greatest drawback. It could also be said that Kurosawa doesn't capture women particularly well (this was his ONLY movie with a female protagonist), but I guess not everyone can have Mizoguchi's talent in that area.

No Regrets For Our Youth drags for a bit in the second act, but it fits the story and never becomes boring. Setsuko Hara is fantastic, if a little modest of a protagonist, and Kurosawa's style begins to formulate on screen (note the rain scenes). This is not to be missed, and fits in well with other second-tier Akira Kurosawa films (which is still better than some directors' magna opera).

I found this film excrutiatingly boring. The only Kurosawa I didn't love.