Japanese Girls at the Harbor
About Japanese Girls at the Harbor
Sunako and Dora, mixed-race students at a Catholic school in Yokohama, are friends until Henry takes up with Sunako and then leaves her for Yoko. Sunako shoots Yoko with Henry’s revolver in a church prayer room. Years later Sunako lives with the painter Miura and works in a bar, while Henry and Dora are married and expecting a child. Yoko, who survived, is the young woman Miura meets in the neighborhood, and she later dies of illness. Sunako tells Henry to stay with Dora, and she and Miura leave Yokohama by ship.
Cast & crew
More about Japanese Girls at the Harbor
Hiroshi Shimizu directed this silent drama for Shochiku from Toma Kitabayashi’s novel. Tarō Sasaki photographed it. Michiko Oikawa plays Sunako, Yukiko Inoue plays Dora, and Ureo Egawa plays Henry. It opened on 1 June 1933.
Themes
Making
The story stays in Yokohama from the school friendship through the ship that takes Sunako and Miura away.
Music
Silent, with Japanese intertitles.
Notes
- Ranko Sawa plays Yoko. Tatsuo Saitō plays Miura. Yumeko Aizome plays Masumi.
- An intertitle says God has not forgiven Sunako.
- Japan was already making talkies in 1933. This Shochiku feature was still silent.
- The Japanese title is Minato no nihon musume.
Scenes
- Sunako shoots Yoko in the church with Henry’s revolver.
- Miura meets Yoko, alive, in the neighborhood.
- Sunako and Miura leave on a ship.
Influenced by
- Toma Kitabayashi’s novel of the same name
