is a 1934 Japanese silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily Shoshimin-eiga, shōshimin-eiga ("common people drama") films with f ...

, based on a newspaper serial by Komatsu Kitamura. It was Naruse's last silent film and his final film for the

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

studio.

Plot

Sugiko works as a waitress in a café in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Ginza Ginza ( ; ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo ...

district. Her boyfriend Machio proposes to her, although his family has arranged a marriage with a woman from a wealthy family for him. She is also approached by Yukihiko, a talent scout for a film studio which is looking for a new star actress. When she steps onto the street absent-mindedly, she is hit by the car of Hiroshi, the heir of the Yamanouchi family. Machio sees her being taken away in Hiroshi's car, believing that she is dating Hiroshi and has decided against his proposal, and leaves town. Hiroshi starts dating Sugiko, despite his mother's and sister's objections against his liaison with a girl of lower class descent, but when he insists on marrying her, they eventually give in. Meanwhile, Sugiko's friend and colleague Kesako has successfully applied for the job at the film studio, which puts the relationship to her boyfriend Shinkichi to the test. Sugiko soon feels uncomfortable in her new home, and Hiroshi, unhappy with his family's overt reluctance to his wife, starts drinking frequently. After Sugiko leaves him, Hiroshi has a car accident and is hospitalised. At the hospital, Sugiko blames Hiroshi's mother and sister for never having accepted her. Hiroshi dies soon after, and Sugiko returns to her job in the Ginza café, reunited with Kesako and Shinkichi who quit the film studio.

Cast

* Setsuko Shinobu as Sugiko Shima * Akio Isono as Koichi, Sugiko's brother * Sozo Okada as Hiroshi Yamanouchi * Nobuko Wakaba as Takako, Hiroshi's sister * Fumiko Katsuragi as Hiroshi's mother * Shin'ichi Himori as Shinkichi * Chiyoko Katori as Kesako * Ichirō Yūki as Machio Harada, Sugiko's boyfriend * Yukiko Inoue as Yoshiko Hisayama * Shōzaburō Abe as barman *

Chishū Ryū was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting 65 years, appeared in over 160 films and about 70 television productions. Early life Ryū was born in Tamamizu Village, Tamana, Kumamoto, Tamana County, a rural area of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu ...

as Yukihiko Chiba * Tomio Aoki as boy on the telephone * Takeshi Sakamoto *

Kōji Mitsui was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 150 films from 1925 to 1975, including 29 of ''Kinema Junpo''’s annual Top-10 winners and three of its 10 best Japanese films of all time. In 2000 the magazine named him one of the 60 most impor ...

as café customer (credited as Hideo Mitsui)

Release

''Street Without End'' premiered in Japan on 26 April 1934. It was shown in the U.S. as part of a Naruse retrospective in 1985, organised by the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute and film scholar

Audie Bock Audie Elizabeth Bock (born October 15, 1946) is an American film scholar and politician who served in the California State Assembly from 1999 to 2000, and was elected to the Sarasota County, Florida, Sarasota County, Florida Soil and Water Conserv ...

References

External links

* * * {{Mikio Naruse 1934 films 1934 drama films Japanese black-and-white films Films based on works by Japanese writers Films directed by Mikio Naruse Shochiku films 1930s Japanese-language films Silent Japanese drama films