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Born in 1903 (the same year as Yasujiro Ozu), Hiroshi Shimizu made some 150 films between 1924 and 1959. While the majority of those have been lost, a significant number of excellent films have survived. Drawing from a retrospective organized by the Japan Society and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, Hiroshi Shimizu: Notes of an Itinerant Director offers a chance to rediscover the work of one of the great directors of the golden age of Japanese cinema.
Shimizu’s films depict characters on the move, out of place, or in the margins—performers, migrant workers, people with disabilities, working women, and, especially, children. His protagonists are buffeted by economic vicissitudes and social or political circumstances. As they endeavor to find their way, they may traverse the pathways of a quiet spa town or the teeming streets of Tokyo, grassy rural fields or dusty mountain roads. Usually shooting on location—creating a sense of openness, space, and place—Shimizu’s camera observes them, usually from a distance, and sometimes taking a journey of its own, tracking across a landscape or interior, revealing as if unscrolling the details of the surroundings. He chronicles the struggles of his characters with a light touch, avoiding melodrama and inflecting even the most serious stories with humor and profound humanity.
—Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator