The Japanese Smile

This chapter examines the work of three Japanese directors. Yasujirô Ozu and Akira Kurosawa are well established as masters in world cinema. Hirokazu Kore-eda is a relative newcomer but has already become an important figure in the Japanese pantheon. The chapter concentrates on the way these directors portray the faces of their characters, often smiling through the most troubling circumstances. Those circumstances are almost invariably domestic: fathers and daughters, fathers and sons—each pair creates their own tensions, the sadness behind the smile.