Donde se ven las chimeneas

In a small neighborhood in Tokyo, two couples live under the same roof with the dream of a prosperous life in a Japan devastated by war. Widow Hiroko (Kinuyo Tanaka) and her new husband resort to informal jobs in order to provide for their household. The other couple, a state employee and his radio announcer wife, long for a long and happy marriage. The routine of the four neighbors changes when an abandoned baby appears at their doorstep. Heinosuke Gosho, a director always outshined by the canonical last names of Japanese cinema, finds, in money —a ghost that has appeared in the narratives of his contemporaries but was usually treated with distance—, the perfect excuse to tell a story about fear, deceit and chimneys that disappear along with the idea of a better future, according to the viewpoint of those who take their time to analyze them.

This retrospective has been made possible thanks to a collaboration of the Cultural and Informational Center of the Japanese Embassy, the Japan Foundation and the Lugones Theater of the Buenos Aires Theater Complex.