Kurosawa’s Second Feature-Length Film

Akira Kurosawa is considered one of the finest film directors in cinematic history. The second feature-length film that he ever directed is titled The Most Beautiful (番美しく). Released in 1944, the movie is a World War II Japanese propaganda film shot in an almost documentary style about a group of young women working in a factory in Japan that has to increase production to meet an almost impossible quota as part of the Japanese war effort. The men are to increase their quota 100%, whereas the women are only expected to increase 50%. Dismayed by the lower quota, and wanting to do all they could to support their army, the women set about trying to increase their production by 66%. The story is mainly about the personal sacrifices and difficulties that the women face while trying to meet this quota.
The Most Beautiful is considered a minor work by Kurosawa, however, his directorial style and approach to the film are considered significant by film historians and Kurosawa enthusiasts.

Still image from Akira Kurosawa’s second film, The Most Beautiful (1944).
Back to SilverMedals Referencepedia...
Other Stories

It didn’t have as compelling a birth as the first Special Air Service regiment. It didn’t have its great founder driving point in a souped-up jeep during attacks on German air bases. It didn’t have the romance of the desert as its initial stomping grounds. About the only thing it seemed to have going for it was the reputation of…read more

The world’s second-ranked Google search queries of 2018.

By the time Burt Reynolds signed up for the movie Armored Command (Allied Artists, 1961), his second full-length feature movie, he had already put together a respectable resumé as a stage and TV actor having appeared in at least 15 television shows in not only bit parts but in regular roles. An ex-athlete from Florida with a rugged sexiness that…read more

After the fifth installment of the James Bond movie series You Only Live Twice hit the theaters, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, the producers of the lucrative franchise, had a problem. Their Bond didn’t want to be Bond anymore. After spying, killing, and sexing his way through five movies, Sean Connery was ready to go. There were several reasons for…read more

Nagasaki was not the primary target for the nuclear attack the United States launched against Japan on the morning of August 9, 1945. It had barely even made the list of potential targets for atomic bombings. Kokura was the primary target, and Nagasaki was the secondary target should weather conditions have prevented the attack on Kokura. Conditions for the atomic…read more

It was common during WWII for USAAF (United States Army Air Force) ground crews to write out little messages on bombs meant to be dropped on the enemy. It was a sort of middle finger to the soldiers whom they blamed for there being a war in the first place. There are even stories of bomber crew members throwing trash out the…read more