The Most Beautiful (1944)
1944 · Feature film · 85 min · dir. Akira Kurosawa
- Drama
Synopsis
Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Writer
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cinematography
- Jōji Ohara
- Studio
- TOHO
- Released
- 1944-04-13
- Original title
- 一番美しく
- Running time
- 85 minutes
Cast & crew
Akira Kurosawa Director- Sayuri Tanima
- Akitake Kōno
Unpei Yokoyama- Mineko Yorozuyo
Ichirō Sugai
Takako Irie
Yōko Yaguchi
Takashi Shimura
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★ · The Most Beautiful · Dijo Ann Johns · 2026-06-04
Kurosawa’s wartime film is a strange watch. On the surface, it’s pure propaganda—women workers in a factory making scope mirrors for the war effort, all painted as endlessly devoted patriots. The speeches, the chants, the self‑sacrifice… It’s hard not to roll your eyes, because it feels more like a government script than a lived reality. I doubt many of those women actually felt the kind of unwavering loyalty the film insists on. That part is troubling, and it drags the movie down. But if you squint past the propaganda, there are moments where Kurosawa’s human touch sneaks in. The film does…
