Cinema of Childhood: Children in the Wind

Hiroshi Shimizu’s 1937 tale of the innocence of childhood in a small Japanese village has been hailed as one of the masterpieces of the ‘Golden Age’ of Japanese Cinema. The film follows a young boy, Sempei, who is sent to live with his uncle when his father is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Despite its ‘classic’ status, this light-hearted mix of stagey stoicism and free range, almost neo-realism, often felt slightly too light. Seventy-odd years on, this crackly print creaked as the spare storytelling felt a little too simplistic. Still, the essential charm of Shimizu’s film remained intact as our hero’s entertaining scrapes became ever sillier.

Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Brighton, 12 May 2014

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