貧しさに負けず、夢を追い求める少女を描くドラマ

[From September Issue 2011]

Cupola, Where the Furnaces Glow (Directed by URAYAMA Kirio)

This is a drama set in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, where numerous foundries stand side by side. The “cupola” in the movie’s title refers to a furnace for heating and melting metals. Released in 1962, the film is famous for having won the Blue Ribbon Award in 1962 for Best Film and YOSHINAGA Sayuri won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress. That same year, the film was also entered in the Competition Category at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, located right across the Arakawa River to the north of Tokyo, has been known as a foundry town since the Edo period. Jun (Yoshinaga) is a third-year middle school student whose father works as a laborer at a small foundry. But the foundry is bought out, and her aging father is fired. That night, her mother gives birth to her third brother.

Her father is invited to work at an automated modern foundry, but as a proud artisan, he resists the idea and soon quits. The family cannot survive on the income from the work that her mother does at home. Moreover, it is Jun who takes care of her naughty brother, a sixth grader, instead of her mother and father.

Jun, who has good grades and likes studying, wants to go on to a prefectural high school. She tries her best to pay for her tuition by doing a part-time job, but her father, who is out of work and always drunk, objects to her going to high school, saying, “You have to work after graduating from middle school.” Feeling disgusted with her mother, who has started working as a hostess at a bar for good money, Jun gives up on taking the high school entrance exam and decides not to go on a school trip.

Before long, Jun starts skipping school, telling herself, “If I can’t go to high school, there is no point in studying.” Her homeroom teacher pays her a visit and urges her to attend night school while working, saying, “If you have the motivation, regardless of where you are, you find some way to study.” Around that time, a North Korean friend of hers decides to move to her father’s native country along with her father and younger brother.

Jun goes to the station with her teacher and classmates to see her friend off. Despite feeling sad about leaving Japan, where she was born and raised, her friend expresses concern for Jun, who has been absent from school. That encourages Jun to choose to work her way through school. At the same time, the foundry where her father used to work expands and he begins to work there again at the start of the New Year. For the first time in a long while, laughter and peace returns to the family.

Despite this, Jun tells her parents that she will work her way through school without relying on her father. Although they can’t understand Jun’s way of thinking, her parents don’t object to the idea. As he prepares to go on to middle school, her mischievous brother comes to keenly realize the difficulties confronting his sister and starts a part-time job as a newspaper delivery boy. One morning, on the way to a job interview, Jun asks her brother, who is delivering newspapers, to see her off at the station. The film ends with a shot of their silhouettes fading away as they head towards the station.

[2011年9月号掲載記事]

キューポラのある街(浦山桐郎 監督)

鋳物工場が建ち並ぶ埼玉県川口市を舞台にした人間ドラマ。タイトルの「キューポラ」は、鉄を熱して溶かす炉を意味する。1962年に公開され、ブルーリボン賞の作品賞および吉永小百合が主演女優賞を取ったことでも知られる。また、その年のカンヌ国際映画祭のコンペティション部門でも上映された。

荒川を挟んで東京都のすぐ北に位置する埼玉県川口市は、江戸時代から鋳物の街として知られる。中学3年生のジュン(吉永)の父も、小さな鋳物工場の職人として働いている。しかし、工場が買収され、年老いた父は首になってしまう。その夜、母は3番目の弟を出産する。

職人としてのプライドが高い父は、オートメーション化された近代的な工場での仕事を紹介されても、その考えに反発してすぐにやめてしまう。母の内職だけでは、生活が成り立たない。おまけに、小学校6年生の弟はいたずらばかりで、ジュンは父や母に代わって面倒を見ている。

成績がよく、勉強が好きなジュンは、県立高校への進学を希望する。アルバイトで少しでも学費を稼ごうとするが、仕事に就かず、酒浸りの父から「中学を出たら働くんだ」と進学を反対される。給料の良い飲み屋のホステスを始めた母に対する嫌悪感もあり、ジュンは高校受験をあきらめ、修学旅行も取り止めてしまう。

やがてジュンは「高校に行けないなら、勉強なんてしても意味がない」と、学校を休むようになる。担任教師がジュンをたずね、「気持ちさえあれば、どこでもどうやっても勉強はできる」と、働きながら夜間学校に通うことを勧める。そんなおり、在日朝鮮人の友人が、父親と弟と3人で、父の故郷、北朝鮮へ帰国することを決意する。

ジュンは、教師や級友たちと駅まで友人を見送りに行く。生まれ育った日本を離れる寂しさに耐え、学校を休んでいたジュンを心配する友人にはげまされ、ジュンは教師の勧め通り、働きながら学校に通う道を選ぶ。時を同じくして、父は、かつて勤めた工場の拡大にともない、年明けから再び働くことになる。久しぶりに一家に笑いと平和が戻る。

それでもジュンは父に頼らず、働いて学校に行くことを両親に告げる。ジュンの考えが理解できない両親だが、反対はしない。悪さばかりしていた弟も、中学校進学を控え、姉の苦労が身にしみるようになり、新聞配達のアルバイトを始める。ある朝、新聞配達の途中だった弟は、就職試験に向かうジュンに頼まれ、駅まで見送る。駅に向かう二人の背中が小さくなり、映画は幕を閉じる。

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