Japan Release: 1946
Running Time: 82 minutes

Those Who Make Tomorrow

明日を作る人々
[Asu o tsukuru hitobito]

In the early years of the Occupation, labor unions and union activities started popping up all around Japan, much to the dismay of Gintaro Okamoto. A white-collar man with anti-union sentiments, he dreaded the idea of his own family succumbing to the temptation of organized protest. But with one daughter, Yoshiko, working as a script girl at a big movie studio and the other, Aiko, performing in a revue dancing troupe subject to the wrath of a malicious stage manager, it was only a matter of time before his progeny became entrenched in this movement for improved working conditions. One day, a railroad employee boarding in the Okamoto household goes on strike with his comrades. This inspires the employees of the movie studio (including Yoshiko) to do the same, feeling their company thinks too much about profits and not enough about the financial well-being of its own staff. A while later, one of the girls in Aiko's dance troupe is fired by the stage manager, prompting her friends to start picketing themselves. Gintaro maintains his anti-union sentiments, opposing his daughters' involvement with his every breath, until he loses his own job. Realizing the errors of his beliefs and knowing now from experience the unfairness infiltrating even the white-collar realm, Gintaro joins his daughters in mutiny. Together with other unhappy workers, they join hands, singing pro-union songs, demanding a better future for everyone...

Live Action

Titles

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US Distributor: - / Time: -

Those Who Make Tomorrow
[Literal translation]

Staff

Cast

Background and Trivia

• Was co-directed by Akira Kurosawa, Kajiro Yamamoto, and Hideo Sekigawa, though it remains unclear which director handled which portions of the film. It is known, however, that Kurosawa shot his portion in a week. This information comes from The Films of Akira Kurosawa (ISBN: 0520220374)
• Akira Kurosawa disowned Those Who Make Tomorrow, describing it as "a film made by committee" and something that "cannot be described as mine more than anyone else's." He went on to state it was "a good example of how uninteresting [films made by committee] can be." This is noted in The Emperor and the Wolf (ISBN: 0571211526).
• Has not been shown in Japan since its original release and has never been made available in any home media format anywhere in the world. Cited in The Emperor and the Wolf (ISBN: 0571211526).
• Was made during the early years of the Allied occupation of Japan, at a time when studio employees were encouraged to form labor unions and produce pro-union movies. In March 1946, shortly before this film's release, Toho's own union went on strike. The strike lasted 15 days and ended with the studio agreeing to the following: employees would receive a minimum monthly salary of 600 yen (plus overtime); the union's committees would be allowed input in the hiring of new talent and the selection of scripts to be filmed. Mentioned in The Emperor and the Wolf (ISBN: 0571211526).
• Toho contract players Susumu Fujita, Hideko Takamine, and Seizaburo Kawazu appear as themselves, suggesting the unnamed studio in the film is, in fact, Toho. It has also been speculated the railroad company is a stand-in for Hankyu Electric Railway Company, whose chairman Ichizo Kobayashi merged Photo Chemical Laboratories, J.O. Studios, and other small companies to form Toho. Noted in The Emperor and the Wolf (ISBN: 0571211526).