Every Night Dreams

Plot

Mitsu (Sumiko Kurishima) works as a hostess in a Ginza bar entertaining docked sailors. She is single and supporting her son Fumio (Teruko Kojima). She shares a room with a couple (Jun Arai and Mitsuko Yoshikawa) who babysit for her.

Her estranged husband Mizuhara (Tatsuo Saitō) shows up one day to see his son. He convinces her to reconcile. Mizuhara declares his intention to take care of his family, but is of a sickly constitution and unable to find work.

Fumio, out playing one day, gets hit by a car. He is injured and needs hospital care beyond the family's means. Mizuhara commits a robbery, but when he returns home Omitsu tries to convince him to turn himself in. He hands her the money and leaves.

The morning after, Omitsu learns that Mizuhara has drowned himself.

Omitsu is disgusted by his cowardice, rips Mizuhara's suicide note apart with her teeth and screams, "Weakling!" She then pleads with Fumio to grow up to be a strong man.

Cast

Reception

Keith Uhlich of Slant Magazine gave the film four out of four stars, saying: "Like many Naruse films of the '30s, Every Night Dreams is somewhat stylistically unhinged, yet the constant rapid push-ins and frenetic cutting (particularly during a striking montage of running legs) feel more to the psychological point than in comparatively showier works like Not Blood Relations and Street without End."

Reviewer Roger Macy stated that Every Night Dreams "is arguably one of the most famous Japanese films of the silent era and has had considerable attention in the literature." He said "[t]he story develops with superbly measured pace, with scenes of great comedy and others of much pathos, depicting the world of the great depression for those at the bottom of the heap."

Home video

In 2011, Every-Night Dreams was released on a five-film DVD set by The Criterion Collection's Eclipse label. Titled "Silent Naruse", it collected five silent films made between 1931 and 1934.