Nobuko Rides on a Cloud (Fumindo Kurata, 1955)
Started my Late Ozu and Late Setsuko Hara run with this 1955 Japanese children's film starring Haruko Wanibuchi in the lead role.
Nobuko Rides on a Cloud marked Hara's comeback after nearly 2 years away recovering her health after Tokyo Story, and was also the first time she played a mother in a movie.
This film started out terrible, but turned into a huge surprise. Nobuko (or Non-chan as she's called), played by Haruko Wanibuchi, wanders alone down a country path, balling her eyes out with the most ridiculous and awful sounding fake cry I've ever heard. She climbs a tree and pretends to fly like a bird, until the branch snaps, causing her to fall into a lake where she apparently drowns. Well, whatever happened, she wakes up in heaven. There's this creepy old man with a rake giving off major David Lo Pan vibes, a really chubby kid from her class, and atrociously cheap looking special effects.
Seriously, I thought this was going to be a major bomb ... but boy, was I wrong.
Plot:
Non-chan describes her life to the old man, and eventually he has to decide if she can go back to her family or if she has to stay in Heaven. Sometimes the camera films them talking up in the clouds, and sometimes the camera follows the narrative of her daily life at school or with her family. Overall the story is nothing special, just a children's film. but Haruko Wanibuchi is so incredibly charming and delightful to watch, she actually gives one of the greatest child acting performances of all-time. She has such a smart and clever countenance and displays tremendous range without ever being cheesy. You can't watch this movie and not think she's the cutest 10 year old girl you've ever seen.
Grand Finale:
So as this movie works its way towards the final act, Setsuko Hara really doesn't do much, she's just kind of in cameo mom mode here, but it's all about Haruko Wanibuchi. She's crying because she might have to stay in Heaven. She wants to go back home. Suddenly a huge, elaborate song-and-dance number breaks out with dozens of adult ballerinas and little ballerina girls, and I've watched enough 1950s Japanese cinema to know that these weird musical scenes sometimes randomly show up near the end of movies that are otherwise not known to be musicals.
But wow @ this one.
Suddenly a violin and bow appear in Non-chan's hands, something she always wanted, and she's no longer crying, but she has the biggest smile on her face. Then she runs over into the middle of the little girl ballerinas and she starts playing the violin. I was already so impressed with her up until this point in the film, but then as I'm watching closely, it looks like she's really playing the music, not just pretending. Turns out I was right! She was a child prodigy violin player too, there are photos of her on the internet, and her playing at the climax of this film was just beautiful.
After that the ballerinas all start dancing, and then Non-chan reappears in her own ballerina outfit, and she starts dancing solo in the middle of the other girls. The first shots are all cut off at her waist, so I'm thinking to myself, finally this kid can't do something. She's just pantomiming to the music. But no! A few seconds later the camera cuts back and you can see her pirouetting around on the tips of her toes like she's freaking Anna Pavlova or somebody. Just incredible. Amazing really.
Well, after that it's time for creepy David Lo Pan to take little Miss Wanibuchi back to Earth on a magic cloud ride. But first there's a chorus of sayonaras and another fun kids song to close this one out.
Really couldn't believe how good this movie turned out. Very glad I watched it.
I had to look up Wanibuchi after this because I've never heard of her, she was so tremendous, and this was basically her first movie. I expected her to have a huge career, but doesn't look like she did very much in movies, then went into the music industry. But I did find some cool photos, including one with Kyoko Kagawa and Alain Delon, very cute!
