AllMovie

This nostalgic backward glance at the earliest days of Japanese talking pictures was originally titled Kinema no Tenchi. The year is 1933: Narimi Arimori plays a lovely young girl who is groomed for film stardom by director Ittoku Kishibe. Narimi's biggest obstacle is a lack of talent, but Kishibe sees to it that the girl is hired for minor roles so that she can glean experience. Her big break comes when she replaces the star of a major production. When time comes for a crucial emotional scene, Narimi finds she can't play her role convincingly and runs embarrassed from the set. At this point, the girl's father Kiyoshi Atsumi, himself a frustrated actor, tells his daughter a sad story concerning the truth of her parentage. Overcome with grief, Narima successfully pulls off her big dramatic scene and goes on to become a major Japanese star.