Black River (1957 film)

Black River (黒い河) is a 1957 Japanese drama film directed by Masaki Kobayashi.

Plot
University student Nishida moves into a rundown area near a US military base, where he gets acquainted with waitress Shizuko. Shizuko is raped by local gangster boss Joe and, although she despises him, is unable to put an end to their subsequent affair. Joe also helps Nishida's landlady to throw Nishida and the other tenants out of their flats in a scheme to make room for a new hotel, leaving them homeless. After a confrontation between Joe and Nishida, who has fallen in love with Shizuko as she has with him, Shizuko kills the drunken Joe by pushing him in front of a passing army truck.

Cast

 * Ineko Arima as Shizuko
 * Fumio Watanabe as Nishida
 * Tatsuya Nakadai as Joe
 * Asao Sano as Sakazaki
 * Tomo Nagai as Okada
 * Keiko Awaji as Yasuko
 * Seiji Miyaguchi as Kin
 * Isuzu Yamada as Landlady
 * Eijirō Tōno as Kurihara
 * Yōko Katsuragi as Sachiko
 * Masao Shimizu as Kuroki
 * Eiko Miyoshi as Procuress
 * Natsuko Kahara
 * Toyo Takahashi
 * Yasushi Nagata

Legacy
Black River was screened at the 2005 New York Film Festival in a theatrical retrospective celebrating the Shochiku Company's 110th year.