Post-war Career
Hara starred in Akira Kurosawa’s first post-war film, No Regrets for Our Youth (1946). She also worked with director Kimisaburo Yoshimura in A Ball at the Anjo House (1947) and Keisuke Kinoshita in Here’s to the Girls (1949). In all of these films, she was portrayed as the “new” Japanese woman, looking forward to a bright future. However, in most of her movies, especially those directed by Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse she plays the typical Japanese woman, either as daughter, wife, or mother.
Hara’s work with Ozu began with In Late Spring in 1949 and would last for the next twelve years. In Late Spring, she plays Noriko, a devoted daughter who prefers to stay at home and take care of her father than to marry, despite the urgings of her family members. In Early Summer (1951), the story was continued with an older Noriko wanted to get married, and finding the courage to do so without her family’s approval. This was followed by Tokyo Story (1953), perhaps her most famous role. Noriko is now widowed, with her husband killed during the war, and her devotion to her dead husband worries her in-laws, who insist that she should move on and remarry.
Hara's last major role was Riku, wife of Ōishi Yoshio, in the 1962 film, Chushingura.
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