Setsuko Hara (Actor)

Reviews of Setsuko Hara Movies

Looking for reviews of Setsuko Hara movies? Cinafilm has a total of 266 reviews across 4 movies.

Movies starring Setsuko Hara have generally received positive reviews and hold an average score of 78%.

Late Spring - released in 1949 - is Setsuko Hara's highest rated movie, with a score of 84% based on 187 reviews.

The lowest rated film from Setsuko Hara is No Regrets for Our Youth - released in 1946 - with a score of 71% based on 16 reviews.

Actor Biography

Setsuko Hara (June 17, 1920 – September 5, 2015) was a Japanese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozu's films, most notably as Noriko in the 'Noriko Trilogy': Late Spring (1949), Early Summer (1951) and Tokyo Story (1953). Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight (1957), Late Autumn (1960) and finally The End of Summer in 1961.

She was born  Masae Aida in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. She came to prominence as an actress at an early age, in the 1937 German-Japanese co-production Die Tochter des Samurai (Daughter of the Samurai), known in Japan as Atarashiki Tsuchi (The New Earth), directed by Arnold Fanck and Mansaku Itami.

She also starred in films by Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse and other prominent directors.

She was called "the Eternal Virgin" in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s, although she is mostly unknown in the US. She suddenly quit acting in 1963 (the same year as Ozu's death), and had since led a secluded life in Kamakura, refusing all interviews and photographs. Her last major role was Riku, wife of Ōishi Yoshio, in the 1962 film, Chushingura. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of the 2001 movie Millennium Actress.

Setsuko Hara has acted in films with Haruko Sugimura, Chishū Ryū, Kuniko Miyake and Masao Shimizu.

Setsuko Hara has worked with these film directors: Yasujirō Ozu, Akira Kurosawa and Kōzaburō Yoshimura.