Another Monday means it is time for another ingredient to be added into our Review Stew! We’re wandering off the beaten path a bit this week. According to Letterboxd, just over 4,500 users have marked this week’s entry as “watched”. Let’s increase that number and take a look at…Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937).
Title: Humanity and Paper Balloons
Director: Sadao Yamanaka
Released: August 25, 1937 (Japan)
Runtime: 1 hour 26 minutes
Available to stream on: The Criterion Channel
Unno (Chōjūrō Kawarasaki) is a young ronin who is struggling with the recent passing of his father. Despite his best efforts, Unno has struggled to find consistent work. He’s even tried to get his father’s master, Mouri, to take him under his wing. However, Mouri goes out of his way to avoid Unno, thus leaving Unno to rely on his wife selling paper balloons as a way to try and make ends meet.
Meanwhile, Shinza (Kan’emon Nakamura) lives in the same slum and has decided to go a less ethical route in making a living. Though a hairdresser by trade, Shinza makes his money from pawning items and running illegal gambling rings.
While Unno and Shinza are neighbors with each other, they’re living two very different lives.
But what if there’s paths wound up intersecting?
Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937) is not an easy movie to try and summarize without spoiling much. What you think is lining up to be a super slow burn winds up being just…life. There isn’t some big payoff and to say there’s a “happy” ending would be quite the stretch. Instead, what we get is a scathing look at the class/societal conditions of the era.
What really stood out to me was how this looks. It manages to look and feel like movies that weren’t to come for another 15-20 years. Truly a testament to the vision of Sadao Yamanaka and the work of DP Akira Mimura.
The story peels back its layers as it unfolds. And even with a runtime just shy of 90-minutes, it manages to tie everything up without leaving you with lingering questions. The true definition of getting in and out without wasting a single second.
After watching, I learned that director Sadao Yamanaka died just over a year after the film’s release. Of the 26 or so films he reportedly made, only three remain intact today. There is something about that fact that makes me appreciate my viewing even more.
If you fancy yourself a fan of Japanese cinema, I highly suggest you check this out.
Shoot, even if you’re just a fan of cinema in general, bump Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937) to the top of your watchlist.
Now, if you have seen Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937), I want to hear from you!
Leave a comment below or reach out to me on Bluesky and let me know what you thought.
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see what else I’ve been watching lately.
Finally, before I go, we are just weeks away from Livestream for the Cure.
May 16th and 17th some of the best in indie podcasting will be live-streaming on Twitch to raise money for a world immune to cancer.
If you’d like and are able to, you can donate early here.