November 27, 2015 10:00 PM
This black and white picture shows Japanese actress Setsuko Hara, left, and actor Chishu Ryu, right, in a scene from the iconic 1953 movie "Tokyo Story," directed by Yosujiro Ozu. Photo Credit: Getty Images / JIJI PRESS
Setsuko Hara, a Japanese actress who achieved international stardom and critical acclaim after World War II through her collaborations with directors such as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, only to vanish, Garbo-like, from public life more than half a century ago, died Sept. 5 in Kanagawa Prefecture. She was 95.
She had pneumonia, according to Japanese media. The monthslong delay in reporting her death reflected the anonymity that the actress had cultivated after starring in more than 75 movies, including such esteemed works as Ozu's "Tokyo Story" (1953). Roger Ebert called that bittersweet drama of generational conflict "one of the greatest films of all time."
Hara was admired for her ability to convey the interior life of seemingly ordinary characters who exemplified archetypes of Japanese womanhood. Many of them struggled with tensions between the desire for an independent life and traditional societal boundaries and family demands. She undertook so many demure or long-suffering roles that she was dubbed "the eternal virgin." Blending allure and minimalist restraint, she possessed an unshowy intelligence that Ozu said set her apart from many performers of her generation.
After making her cinematic debut at 15, Hara became a household name two years later with "The New Earth" (1937), a bizarre mélange of melodrama and propaganda made by a team of German and Japanese filmmakers.
She continued her rise in nationalistic wartime fare such as "The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya" (1942), a big-budget spectacle that re-created battles such as the Pearl Harbor attack, and "Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky" (1943).
After the war, she made an indelible impression in Kurosawa's "No Regrets for Our Youth" (1946), a character study tracing the decadelong evolution of a bourgeois 1930s schoolgirl into a strong-willed woman who goes to extremes to live on her own terms.