Kinoshita Keisuke’s film at the end of the rainbow: love, labour, and alienation at the Yahata Steel Works

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 1958 film The Eternal Rainbow stands out in renowned director Kinoshita Keisuke’s oeuvre. Set entirely on location at the huge Yahata Steel Works, the film explores the lives of workers at the onset of Japan’s economic miracle before problems associated with the GDP-boosting polices appeared, when the pillars of smoke rising from the plant were still perceived as a sign of hope and prosperity. The film exposes the conflict between privileged regular employees and subcontracted workers, mirroring a basic social inequality that has resurfaced during Japan’s recent ‘lost decades’. A further theme running through the film is the existential question of the alienating effects of wage labour. In privileging problems identified with social maladies of decades to come, the film reminds us that Japan’s narrative of discontent might not be such a recent phenomenon. The film became variously praised for its ambitious approach, incorporating stylistic features borrowed from documentary film, and innovative exploration from the inside of the microcosm of a steel works; as well as criticized for its propagandistic features, and for its non-committal attitude towards the social conflict foregrounded by the film. While discussing its aesthetic and thematic features, this article explores critical responses to the film in mainstream newspapers and film publications, as well as commentary by workers in minor non-academic journals.