Kon Ichikawa – Anata to watashi no aikotoba: Sayônara, konnichiwa AKA Goodbye, Hello (1959)

There is little to nothing written in English about this film, and in fact of the entire Cinemateque Ontario Ichikawa Kon tome the only mention of Goodbye, Hello was in the extensive filmography. This was one of the films Ichikawa made for Daiei that he co-wrote with his wife Wado Natto, the pair being one of world cinema’s great husband and wife collaborations. Ichikawa worked with the cinematographer for Goodbye, Hello, Kobayashi Setsuo, on some of his best looking films: Ten Dark Women, Fires on the Plain, and An Actor’s Revenge. Actress Kyo Machiko was certainly a familiar face in Ichikawa’s films, starring in Odd Obsession and The Pit. Judging by cast and crew alone, this looks like prime Ichikawa, and I personally find this period of his filmmaking (late 50s, early 60s) the most interesting.

The film seems to use of a number of themes and images that remind one of Ozu, as perhaps the screen captures make evident. Of course it probably helps add to this that the lead male actor, Saburi Shin, had been in a couple of Ozu films (in fact, he seems to have been plucked right out of this film and placed in Late Autumn a couple years later). Wakao Ayako and Kyo Machiko, who were both in Floating Weeds, but that provides a more tenuous connection with the director, I think. Anyway, this is just a general impression so I could be way off!