“Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us,” a two-part retrospective of thirty films

Presented by the Japan Society and Metrograph, New York City, 2025

Mikio Naruse. Photo © Toho.

In the United States, the term “women’s picture” generally refers to a film, released between the 1930s and the end of the century, with a melodramatic story concerning women’s emotions, presented from a woman’s point of view. The melodramas are often exaggerated in their details of relationships, and the most important relationships tend to be between women. They rarely enjoy happy endings, and their nicknames as a genre—tearjerkers, soap operas—represent their propensity for . . .