Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937) on Netflix
In an Edo slum, the masterless samurai Matajuro Unno looks for work while his wife Otaki makes paper balloons. Their neighbor Shinza, a hairdresser, plans to kidnap a pawnbroker's daughter.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/102,484 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In an 18th-century Edo slum, Matajuro Unno, a masterless samurai, lives on what his wife Otaki earns from making paper balloons. He hopes Mouri, his late father's former master, will hire him once he reads a letter from the father, but Mouri avoids him and sets guards to keep him out. Next door, Shinza the hairdresser makes his living from gambling rooms and pawning his belongings, and the pawnbroker Shiroko Ya's men beat him for the money he owes their leader, Genshichi Yatagoro. Shiroko has promised his daughter Okoma to the son of a rich samurai, though she is close to his clerk Chushichi. Refused payment for his hairdressing tools, Shinza decides to settle the score.
Cast
- Sensho Ichikawa
- Kô Mihashi
- Tsuruzô Nakamuraas Genko, fish seller
- Sukezô Sukedakayaas Landlord(Sukezo Sukedakaya)
- Kikunojô Segawaas Chushichi(Kikunojo Segawa)
- Chôemon Bandôas Yabushi, the masseur
- Emitaro Ichikawaas Yatagoro
- Takako Misakias Okoma
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The year Humanity and Paper Balloons was released, its director Sadao Yamanaka was sent to the Chinese front, possibly as retribution for its unpatriotic sentiments, and died there in 1938. The film debunked a national myth while Japan's militaristic government expected filmmakers to glorify the present.
- Humanity and Paper Balloons was the final film directed by Sadao Yamanaka, who died at 28; only three of his films are known to survive.
