Broken Drum

An early Kinoshita film in which the feudal traditions of the Japanese family unit are lightly satirized. Broken Drum was mentioned very positively as being "successful" by Donald Richie in his overviews of Japanese film. It was co-written by the great Kobayashi Masaki, and Narushima Toichiru worked on it as an assistant director (along with Kobayashi), who would go on to be an important new wave cinematographer for Oshima and Yoshida as well as a director in his own right. (Steven H)