Friday, April 29, 2011

Simple Life

The Naked Island (1960) - Shindo
On a small island, a family- father, and mother and two young sons, ekes out a living by cultivating an arid soil by transporting water from the main land by their wooden row boat everyday. It's a back breaking work and highly repetitive. Shot on black and white Cinemascope and accompanied by a memorable score (by Hikaru Hayashi) and without any dialogue, The Naked Island shows the resilience of human spirit against nature in its simplest terms. It's a thing of beauty.