The Most Beautiful is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel

The Most Beautiful (1944)85 minDramaRating 55/100

This portrait of female volunteer workers at an optics plant during World War II, shot on location at the Nippon Kogaku factory, was created with a patriotic agenda. Yet thanks to Akira Kurosawa's groundbreaking semidocumentary approach, The Most Beautiful is a revealing look at Japanese women of the era and anticipates the aesthetics of Japanese cinema's postwar social realism.

Cast: Takashi Shimura, Shōji Kiyokawa, Ichirō Sugai, Takako Irie, Yôko Yaguchi, Sayuri Tanima, Sachiko Ozaki

Director: Akira Kurosawa