Yuqin Zhu ASTA 3900 Professor Michael Wood November 2, 2011 A Street of Love and Hope A Street of Love

and Hope is Nagisa Oshimas first film work, which was produced in 1959. In this film, Oshima tells a story about a poor junior high student, Masao, who has to support his sick mother and sister by selling pigeons. These pigeons would fly back to Masaos home, so he could sell them again and again. His life changes when a kind and rich girl buys his pigeon. Under Masaos teachers request, Kyoko, the rich girl, persuades her father to give Masao a chance so that he could be hired by her familys factory. However, Masao does not pass the hire test because Kyokos brother finds out that he uses pigeons to make money. The ending of the story is tragic: under the pressure of living, Masao has to sell pigeon again, which is seen by Kyoko. Kyoko buys the pigeon, but she asks her brother to shoot down the pigeon in the end. In this film, Oshima shows the insurmountable gap between social classes and the loss and helplessness that the new generation felt in 1960s. Oshima uses light and darkness to indicate the difference between social classes. The district where Masao lives is cast shadow. In one scene, Masao walks his teacher out of his house, and they walk along the dusty road. The camera follows them so the audience can clearly see the change of the background while they are walking. The whole background seems to be covered in yellow dust and the houses in it are shallow. Then Masao and the teacher stop before the bridge. The camera rotates some degrees of angle so now Masao and the teacher are positioned at the right side in the frame and on the left side is the wide and clean stone bridge. The screen suddenly lights up when they reach the bridge. This shot also creates a feeling of extension of the bridge, leaving an impression that the bridge is connected to a different world, a bright and ordinary world we always see. However, Masao and the teacher separate here, which makes the audience feel that Masao is left in the dusty and shallow part of the world. A more obvious example is the luminance in Masaos house and Kyokos house. The only source of light in Masaos house is the lamp. The lamp is too dim to light the whole house, so the house is covered in darkness and heaviness. In contrast, the first shot of

Kyokos house is taken in her younger brothers room, which has large windows on two sides of walls, so the room is full of brightness. The interior part of the house has sufficient luminance as well. As his house cannot get rid of the darkness Masao cannot pull himself and his family out of poverty. Kyoko cannot truly understand Masaos situation because she does not know what darkness is. A feature showed in the ending part of this film is oblique angle. The technique is used when Masao breaks the pigeons cage and when Kyoko asks her brother to shoot the pigeon. Oshima tilts the camera so the images are obliquely slanted to the frames vertical axis. The oblique angle demonstrates Masaos unstable mental status and his agitation. In the other scene, Kyoko wants to have the pigeon killed. This decision breaks audience last love and hope. At this point, the oblique angle seems to indicate that something is out of control; some beautiful things are inversed to the dark side. Masao and Kyoko represent their own social class, and they both represents the new generation. As the pigeon falls, the understanding and the possibility of change between two classes disappear. They are lost in the maze of life. They use violence in the hope that they find their way out. The tilted camera angle deepens the conflicts and chaos in characters mind. As Oshimas first film, A Street of Love and Hope has founded the base of Oshimas style. It focuses on profound social problems. Oshima points out the hidden side of society that people tend to ignore. Though Japans economy developed quickly in that period, the gap between social classes has become a problem. The new generation has not been mature enough to solve problems so they can only their own ways to relieve their emotions. Oshima uses his techniques perfectly depicts these concerns in this film.