Japan Synopsis
放浪記
Considered one of the finest late Naruses and a model of film biography, A Wanderer’s Notebook features remarkable performances by Hideko Takamine – Phillip Lopate calls it “probably her greatest performance” – and Kinuyo Tanaka as mother and daughter living from hand to mouth in Twenties Tokyo. Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, the novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, A Wanderer’s Notebook traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the twentieth century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with A Wanderer's Notebook. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
The 1961–1963 Japan Window
A Wanderer's Notebook holds position #16 of 44 Japan films in the 1961–1963 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when A Wanderer's Notebook premiered alongside 18 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 18 other Japan films in 1962.
The 163rd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
10 audience reviews — more than 6% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 15th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on A Wanderer's Notebook, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- waitress · 3
- novelist · 3
- peddler · 1
- 1920s · 18
- japan · 454
- based on novel or book · 288
- tokyo · 78
- biography · 75
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,901 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (58th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.3 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #835 of 1,933 (top 43%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Takarazuka Eiga Company Ltd. |
| Runtime | 2h 4m |
| Release Date | September 29, 1962 |
| IMDb | tt0056081 |