Japan
English
00:12:24
150 ft
8mm
B&W
Silent
"Okamoto again demonstrates his fine sense of composition, repose and rhythm. Okamoto never hurries his pictures, neither does he hold them too long to bore you. He plans only to give you another fine picture, but he always puts life into his shots. Autumn Leaves is a fine Okamoto offering, but in the opinion of the judges it does not contain the same spark of creation as his last year's effort, 'Tender Friendship'." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1936, 24.
"In the countryside of Japan, the atmosphere of autumn is captured in shots of bare trees, reeds, reflections and sunlight on rippling water, floating leaves and dark clouds. A woman carrying a small child on her back is reflected in water as she stands near a pole, then rests against a harvest stack while crocheting from a ball of yarn. She walks along a path surrounded by farmed terraces. A child (described in the opening titles as motherless) plays with a paper ball while the grandfather tills the soil. The child blows into the ball to inflate it and the grandfather gets out his pipe and lights it with a match. Then he helps to inflate the ball. Against a sky of darkening clouds, they walk along the path, the man carrying the rake and the child a kettle. A woman with an infant on her back passes them, and the child stops and watches after her as she moves away. Then the child stops at a wayside shrine, and the grandfather offers comfort. Against low sun beneath dark clouds they are seen in silhouette as they continue on their way" (EAFA Database).
Accompanying musical compositions chosen for a public screening of the film are listed in "Musical Scores for the Prize Pictures" (American Cinematographer, Feb. 1936, 68-69, 76).
IAC Film Library Catalogue (Silent and Sound). Institute of Amateur Cinematographers, 1975.
This film is part of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers Collection held by the East Anglian Film Archive, UK.
Incorrectly referenced in some publications as "Autumn Leaves."
Institute of Amateur Cinematographers Collection, East Anglian Film Archive
Amateur Cinema