One Wonderful Sunday (1947)

One Wonderful Sunday (Japanese: 素晴らしき日曜日, Hepburn: Subarashiki Nichiyōbi) is a 1947 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa and co-written by Kurosawa and Keinosuke Uekusa. The film was produced by Sojiro Motoki for Toho and stars Chieko Nakakita and Isao Numazaki. It was made during the allied occupation of Japan and depicts a young couple who, with only 35 yen between them, go on a date together on the only day of the week they can see each other. The film makes use of sequences depicting characters' imagination and a creative use of sound. Conceived in the aftermath of a split within Toho resulting from a series of strikes, the film featured unknown actors and was shot on location in the destroyed city of Tokyo. The film, which depicts the challenges of life in early postwar Japan, was released in Japan on 1 July 1947. One Wonderful Sunday received mixed reception, but marked the first award Kurosawa received for his talent as a director. The film has been described as a shomin-geki, a style of realist cinema that focussed on the ordinary lives of the middle class. Reviews focussed on a fourth wall-breaking scene at the climax centred on Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. The film has since been regarded as a point in Kurosawa's directorial career that established many themes in his work.