Judith Rosenberg on Piano

(Kagirinaki hodo). Fascinating in its observations of class distinctions and rich in melodramatic content—including a look at the machinations of a big movie studio and not one but two car accidents, a recurring Naruse motif—Street Without End centers on the loves of a beautiful tea-salon waitress. Sugiko wants only to wed her working-class boyfriend although she is eyed by movie talent scouts and adored by an upper-class gentleman, Yamanouchi. She marries Yamanouchi, but the mutual contempt between her and his snobbish family eventually drives Sugiko back to the loyalty and security of her working-class cronies. John Gillett noted the film's "sustained stream of visual invention . . . freedom of editing, superb camera flow, and realistic use of locations. . . . The great tracking [shot] in the climactic hospital scene perfectly encapsulates the story's feminist concerns."

• Written by Tomizo Ikeda, from a story by Komatsu Kitamura. Photographed by Suketaro Inokai. With Setsuko Shinobu, Akio Isono, Chiyoko Katori. (116 mins, Silent with Japanese intertitles and English subtitles, B&W, 35mm, A Collection of National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, permission Janus/Criterion Collection)