| This thesis provides a new reading of the actress Hara Setsuko's popularity and her contributions to three important films in the Japanese film canon. Using concepts from star theory and the idea of cinematic excess, I analyze several films produced in Occupation-era Japan and starring Hara Setsuko: Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth) a 1946 film by Kurosawa Akira, and Banshun (Late Spring, 1949) and Bakushū (Early Summer , 1951) two films by Ozu Yasujirō. Hara's character in each of these films reflects both prewar family-based expectations for women's behavior, and postwar, individualistic and independent expectations as promoted by the Allied Occupation. These films present the ideological message that Japan's traditions can continue and are not fundamentally incompatible with Occupation-era values. I argue that it is Hara's image as the Eternal Virgin that allows this message. Hara reassures audience members about the validity of aspects of Japan's past and its ability to face the present. I show that cinematic excess can help explain how Hara's image, as an entity that goes beyond the boundaries of a single film, affects the way in which her films are interpreted and understood. |
