Kurosawa prepared The Sea is Watching for nearly 3 years, creating his typically beautiful painted storyboards and writing the screenplay from short stories by Shugoro Yamamoto (Sanjuro, Red Beard, Dodes’ka-den).

Alas, Kurosawa couldn’t begin filming so his family chose veteran director Kei Kumai, who had made Sandakan no 8 - one of Kurosawa’s favourite films and famous for its unusual honesty about the conditions for women sold as ‘comfort’, and the last great performance by Kinuyo Tanaka.

A tale of Edo, focusing on women rather than men (Kurosawa had been stung by criticism that his films didn’t feature women in leading roles), the film faithfully reproduces the images Kurosawa painted on his storyboards, features stunning performances from Misa Shimzu (The Eel) and Nagiko Tohno. Ironically the DVD cover was written by someone who knew nothing of Kurosawa’s intentions, and highlights the male actors (see pic). But make no mistake - this is a film of female energy and agency, akin most of all to the visual style of Dreams and the narrative style of Dodes’ka-den, whilst reminding this viewer of Mizoguchi in its empathetic treatment of subject.

DVD from 2002 has a fine transfer of the film and a 10-min featurette on the background to the film, featuring many of those beautiful storyboards.