Cinema East: 'Equinox Flower' at Pickford Film Center

The Cinema East film series, a collaboration between Western Washington University Libraries and Pickford Film Center, presents The Films of Tanaka Kinuyo, featuring the films of one of the most famous and revered actresses in the history of Japanese film. This series is co-presented with CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival and coincides with Women’s History Month.  

Tanaka Kinuyo directed six films during the 1950s and early 1960s, becoming only the second woman to direct films in Japan. She is also the first woman director whose work survives to this day, although the films were not available in any format and had never been screened in North America until last year, when Janus Films released newly restored versions. Beginning in March 2023, Pickford Film Center will screen all six films, along with a film that Tanaka stars in from that same period, Ozu Yasujiro’s Equinox Flower.    

From the PFC website description about Ozu Yasujiro’s Equinox Flower: "Later in his career, Ozu Yasujirō started becoming increasingly sympathetic with the younger generation, a shift that was cemented in Equinox Flower, his gorgeously detailed first color film about an old-fashioned father, Hirayama, and his newfangled daughter, Setusuko. Tanaka Kinuyo plays the mother in this family, who exerts her quiet influence as their two daughters, as well as a female innkeeper and her daughter, work to expose Hirayama’s hypocrisy and nudge him to accept both Setsuko’s choice and the changes underway in society." 

For more information about the Cinema East series, please see the PFC website, or contact Jeff Purdue at: purduej@wwu.edu, (360)-650-7750. All PFC theaters are ADA accessible with wheelchair seating, and closed captioning and assistive listening devices are available at the box office. For questions about or to request disability accommodation, please contact Meghan Schilling, meghan@pickfordfilmcenter.org.  Ticket information can be found on the PFC website. 

[Image Description: Still color image from the film 'Equinox Flower,' of three women seated around a table laid out with food and drinks. One woman is on the left side of the table, smiling and looking directly out, facing the viewer. The other two women are positioned across the table from her, seated next to each other and also looking in the same direction, but they are not smiling.]