First Steps Ashore

Shimazu's first all-sound film transplants Josef von Sternberg's Docks Of New York to a Japanese port town. When a suicidal woman jumps into the sea, sailor Sakata saves her life, and in return, she steals his heart. But that's just the beginning of their troubles. As the two try to escape underworld intrigue, Shimazu makes the most of murky piers and quick flashes of violence - in sound as much as in vision. A historic blending of Japanese and Western modernism in the sadness of the big city.