Asia Society continues an ongoing monthly series titled Films to See Before You Die featuring classic films and underseen gems from across Asia and the Asian diaspora with extended introductions by Asia Society's Curator of Film. 

The Eternal Breasts 
Kinuyo Tanaka, Japan, 1955, 35mm, 106 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles. 

Kinuyo Tanaka found stardom as an actress working with directors like Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, and Keisuke Kinoshita before directing Love Letter in 1953, making her only the second woman in Japan to direct a feature film. The Eternal Breasts was her third effort behind the camera, and the first that was also written by a woman— Sumie Tanaka (no relation), a frequent collaborator of Mikio Naruse.  

Its plot follows the life of a poet named Fumiko Shimojô (Yumeji Tsukioka, playing a version of real-life tanka poet Fumiko Nakajo) as she deals with divorce and motherhood, pursues creative fulfillment, and receives a terminal breast cancer diagnosis before awakening to the possibility of new love. Tanaka’s sensitive and exacting camera places the action amid layers of depth and brilliantly composed frames within frames, whose lack of symmetry reflects the transformation of Fumiko’s body and the uneven syllabic lines of her tanka poems. Scenes of a self-conducted breast examination and later surgery boldly confront the mid-fifties viewer with a woman's embodied reality, while the trajectory of Tsukioka’s performance slides from resilience to self-pity, defeat and bitterness with heartbreaking verisimilitude. Tanaka also plays a supporting role as the wife of Fumiko's neighbor-crush. Imported 35mm Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation.

Note on the film's title: this film has also been referred to as "Forever a Woman" in English speaking territories; "The Eternal Breasts" is a more literal translation of the Japanese title. 

A limited amount of complimentary tickets will be available to NYC college students with ID at the box office on the day of the screening.

This presentation at Asia Society is generously funded by the Pratt Foundation.