Popular reviews

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  Review by Rebecca Marouf ★★★★★ 3

  It's truly sad that Sadao Yamanaka died at the age of 28, a few months after completing this masterpiece. Based on this film, I'm sure he would have had a career similar to that Kurosawa, Ozu, Naruse, Mizoguchi, Oshima, etc. if he had survived. But as my LB friend Yaruse points out, despite the fact that only three of his films are currently available in complete form (apparently a few others exist in parts), he still managed to have a pretty fruitful career, making more than 30 films. He died in Manchuria, after getting his draft notice on the day of this film's premiere. I sensed a great deal of Renoir in this work, the same lightness of touch, the same sense of humanism. I can't wait to check out the Yamanaka's other two features, not to mentions those that exist in incomplete form.

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  Review by mykola ★★★

  Yamanaka’s Humanity and Paper Balloons is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese cinema, and I can certaintly see where that statement comes into play. The way that the film can capture the culture, and ideals of Japanese culture; which is often strict and critical of men/underclass, its eye-opening. Tragically, it was Yamanaka's final film before his untimely death at 28 during World War II. The film remains a powerful critique of societal structures and an enduring testament to the struggles of the human spirit.

  I also love the title of this film, its a critique of the social-hierachy of Japan with the titular "paper balloons" symbolizing the fragility of human aspirations. just as paper balloons are frail and prone to deflation, so are the dreams and aspirations of many of the films characters.

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  Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 6

  Though it was made in 1937 and is set during the 18th century, Humanity and Paper Balloons is dismally universal, presenting a world in which honesty is a weakness of the naïve and vice is a crucial tool, but one which can often only get its practitioners so far. In this time and place (in any capitalistic time and place), it is only money that allows one the influence necessary to control one's life, and only a precious few can acquire the wealth necessary to wield that kind of authority.

  In this world, the poor, no matter their original class, are victims of structures, and women are the victims of men, trapped by the demands of male egos and used…

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★½

  Humanity and Paper Balloons peels away all the romanticism frequently depicted within the Edo period of Japan together with the widely held image of the samurai. 

  Sadly, it also turned out to be the final film from director Sadao Yamanaka, a promising young director of the nineteen-thirties. His career was tragically cut short when he became conscripted into the army and posted to the Manchurian front, where he died in a field hospital in September 1938, just 28 years of age. The film discovers Yamanka sketching a vivid portrait of a claustrophobic community and delivering a highly detailed approach that's nearer to naturalism than what was routinely the tendency of the time. 

  It observes the ambitions for a better future…

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  Review by tugging

  Poetry is a dying art form mainly because good poetry generally made people think and interpret unlike the vulgar and crass, in-your-face forms of expression that people are being fed upon today. Humanity and Paper Balloons is not just a movie but rather its poetry in cinematic form.
  The movie leaves a lot of food for thought for the viewer; so much so that I was glaring at the blank screen for several minutes after this movie ended. The part about demystifying the Samurai is only a small part of what this film explores. This movie touches upon unemployment, poverty, greed, lechery, violence and so many other ills that have plagued humanity over the years and will continue to do…

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  Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★½

  1st Sadao Yamanaka

  People are right to see Yamanaka as one of the tragically under-appreciated talents to come out of Japan before World War 2; don't let that low star rating fool you into thinking I think it's a bad film. Rather, it reflects the fact that I find social realism to be uninteresting, but this is a first-class example of the genre. Set in feudal Japan, it tells of a slum ran by an unscrupulous landlord and the lives of those within it. In particular, a young Samurai finds that his father has hanged himself in the slum and attempts to retrieve some money from said landlord in something of a Kafkaesque chain of events. In another plot strand,…

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★

  The most depressing film ever made

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  Review by Owen ★★★★½ 3

  Sadao Yamanaka gives us a loose, humanist look at a down at heel neighbourhood of 18th century Japan with people clinging to tradition and heirarchy and old certainties only to constantly find them hollow and unsustaining.

  I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie with this easy a feel where the idea of suicide as an inevitability is so ever present, the only possible way to equate the dignity of expectations with the reality of life as it is lived.

  The characters are perfectly realised, you care for most of them even as the directorial distance and cutaways to dolls tells you again and again that their concerns are almost meaningless in their futility.

  It's a movie that feels like…

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  Review by Kai White ★★★★★ 2

  This is a masterclass in world building and story structure.

  An unseen tenant in an 18th century Japanese slum commits suicide, touching off an unexpected story about the other residents there. While Humanity and Paper Balloons seems to start as an ensemble piece, the movie narrows its focus to two characters. Unno is an unemployed ronin whose wife makes paper balloons to keep the couple afloat. He holds out hope that local rich guy Mouri will hire him because Unno’s father used to work for him. Chôjûrô Kawarasaki’s demeanor as Unno is one of many equally important parts to the movie. His portrayal of persistence, of hope against hope, of constantly being beaten back but still carrying on, is both…

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★½

  Another quality film from director Sadao Yamanaka! The last one he did before dying at the tender age of 28. Just as sad is that only 3 of his movies still exist to showcase his extreme talents. Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935) stays my clear favorite of the three. Humanity and Paper Balloons is excellently shot, but for me it lacks a little in the story telling to become among my highest favorites. Didn't feel it reached any emotional climax in any of the situations. Not tragic enough before reaching the tragic conclusion. Came a little out of nowhere without any real satisfaction either way. Even the kidnapping hero's one-up on the local gangster didn't…

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  Review by Christian Ryan ★★★★★ 1

  A lot of reviews mention the tragedy of Sadao Yamanaka dying in the war at 28 years old, but did you know the only reason he was drafted (by no coincidence, on the day Humanity and Paper Balloons was released in theaters) was because the censor board felt his film was too pessimistic and revoked his military exemption permit? Sorta elevates it from tragedy to atrocity, doesn’t it?

  25 Essential Japanese Films (Spine #1)

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  Review by Daniel ★★★★ 1

  I kick off this year's Japanuary with the last of Sadao Yamanaka’s three surviving films. Humanity and Paper Balloons is a strong testament to Yamanaka's gift as a director, which easily matches that of Ozu or Mizoguchi from the time. Yamanaka blends bleak social criticism and class analysis with comedy in an impressive manner. The cynicism of the characters never drown out the fundamental humanism at the heart of the film. There's a great flow to the film; it has no real main character or narrative arc, as Yamanaka instead seamlessly cuts from one character to another to paint a vivid portrait of their impoverished and hard lives in the slums.

  Japanuary 2025