One Wonderful Sunday (1947)

Interesting facts

One Wonderful Sunday 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.

Production

One Wonderful Sunday was produced by Toho in 1947. The film was conceived in the aftermath of a series of labour strikes that led the stars of Akira Kurosawa's previous film, No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), to defect from the studio and form Shintoho. This breakaway led to a lack of familiar actors contracted to Toho, with the studio relying on its directors, while Shintoho distinguished itself by focussing on their stars.

The film was shot on location in Tokyo. Actors Isao Numazaki and Chieko Nakakita were unknown at the time, allowing the crew to film around the city using a handheld camera hidden inside a box and carrying-cloth. The use of this camera caused several problems when bystanders, unaware that a film was being shot, ended up obscuring planned shots, including one man at Shinjuku Station who assumed Kurosawa was a pickpocket when he tried to nudge him…

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