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.
The 1961–1963 Japan Window
44 Japan films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. A Wanderer's Notebook sits at position #16.
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 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year in the 1960s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when A Wanderer's Notebook premiered. 202 total titles in this decade from Japan.
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 |