After Japan surrendered, although the film law was abolished and the strict censorship system still existed, the US military occupation authorities replaced the government censorship system. Conscious Japanese film artists have personally received the education of war and occupation, and in order to defend the democratic rights of the nation, they put forward the requirements of film democratization. 1946, Keisuke Kinoshita and Akira Kurosawa made their first democratic films, Morning at Osan's House and Worth Our Youth, respectively. The scripts of these two films were written by Eijir? Hisaita who was persecuted in the war. At the same time, Tadashi Imai, who was actively engaged in the student movement in the dark age of fascism, also made public enemies according to Yamagata's strategy and Toshio Yasumi's plays, which took an important step on the road to democratization. On the other hand, as an organizational guarantee, film studios have set up trade unions, demanding not only higher wages, but also democratic rights in management and filming. However, American occupiers and film monopoly capital absolutely prohibit the development of democratic forces. 1948, Dongbao Company is going to dismiss 1200 employees in the name of rectification, and clean up employees and progressives in the enterprise. This attempt was opposed by Dongbao trade union, and all the workers went on strike, which was supported by progressive cultural groups. The strike lasted 195 days. Finally, at the instigation of the American occupation forces, a large number of troops equipped with planes, tanks and machine guns were dispatched to surround and suppress the Anken Village Studio, the stronghold of Dongbao Trade Union. The strike ended with 20 trade union cadres voluntarily withdrawing from Dongbao Company, including producer Taro Ito, director Satsuo Yamamoto, Fumio Kamei, Nan Tianqing and playwright Yukio Yamagata. Finally, the union tried to reduce the number of layoffs to a minimum.

After the war, the Japanese independent film production movement flourished and reached its peak in the mid-1950s. A group of artists, such as Satsuo Yamamoto, who withdrew from Dongbao, set up the Nova Film Club. Kozaburo Yoshimura and Canneto prodigy, who left Songzhu Company to seek creative freedom, formed the Modern Film Association. These two organizations became pioneers of post-war independent production and produced a series of realistic films called Social School. Mainly include: Tadashi Imai's No, We Want to Live (195 1), Echo School (1952), Turbid Flow (1953), and here is the spring water (1955). Satsuo Yamamoto's vacuum zone (1952), Street without the sun (1954), Song of Scooters (1959); The home city was replaced by a cloud floating all over the world (1953), a sister (1955) and a half-brother (1959); Hideo Sekigawa's Listen, the Murderer's Voice (1950) and Hiroshima (1953); It's always good to be alive by Fumio Kamei (1956); Kozaburo Yoshimura's Before Dawn (1953); Orphans under the Atomic Bomb by Caneto prodigy (1952) and Miniature (1953); So the crab boat in the mountain village (1953). By the end of 1950s, Japan's film market was completely monopolized by six major companies: Dongbao, Matsuzaka, Daying, Toyo, Nissho and Xindongbao. Independent filmmakers's films are facing the dilemma of not being able to meet the audience, which has caused serious economic losses, and the whole independent film production movement is on the verge of despair. Some talented artists have been reabsorbed by big companies.

Rashomon

After Japan surrendered, due to social unrest and lack of materials, the film quality improved slowly, and it was not until 1949 that it gradually embarked on the road of revival. Although big companies are exclusive to making progressive works and are keen on making a large number of pure entertainment films, they can't completely ignore the artistry of their works. Late Spring by An Erlang, Waltz at Noon by Kozaburo Yoshimura, Broken Drum by Keisuke Kinoshita and Castle Peak by Tadashi Imai were all shot by 1949. In particular, Broken Drum opened up a new way for Japanese films in the form of satirical comedy. In addition, Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) won the Venice International Film Festival Award with 195 1. Since then, Japanese films have attracted international attention. After Rashomon, Teinosuke Kinugasa's Hell's Gate (1953), Kenji Mizoguchi's West Crane Generation (1952) and Rain Moon Story (1953) also won awards at Cannes or Venice Film Festival respectively, which created conditions for Japanese films to enter the international market. Carmen's House directed by Keisuke Kinoshita is the first Japanese color film.

After 1949, about 10 years, the most obvious trend of Japanese films was the revival of literary films, and the number of works describing social problems increased. Mikio Naruse's Lightning (1952), Brother and Sister (1953), Floating Clouds (1955) and Rude (1957) are excellent literary films. At the same time, due to the improvement of the audience's appreciation level, the six major companies had to invite a group of successful directors to shoot some meaningful works of art, such as "Mai Qiu" (195 1), "The Story of Tokyo" (1953) and "Flowers on the Other Side" (/kloc-0 Kenji Mizoguchi's "The Story of Jinsong" (1954); Kurosawa's Live (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Cobweb Palace (1957); Keisuke Kinoshita's Japanese Tragedy (1953), Twenty-four Eyes (1954) and Mountain Festival Examination (1958); Kozaburo Yoshimura's River of the Night (1956); Tadashi Imai's Before Reunion (1950); Mr. Hu Tu of KonIchikawa (also translated by Apu, 1953) and Bowen (1958); Heinosuke Gosho's Where there are Many Chimneys (1953); Shir? Toyoda's The Good Couple (1955) and so on, have been highly praised. Therefore, film critics believe that these films, together with a series of progressive films made by independent filmmakers, constitute the golden age of Japanese postwar films in 10.

During this period (1956), there were also Sun Shi family films, the main works of which were: The Season of the Sun, The Room of Punishment, The Fruit of Madness, etc. These works are based on the novels of young writer Shintaro Ishihara, describing the rogue life of a group of "grandchildren" (young people born into middle-class families after the war). They have neither clear ideals nor basic moral concepts, but only aimless resistance and anarchist actions that express dissatisfaction with everything. The central content of the film is nothing more than expressing "sex and violence". The bad influence of these films on the younger generation has been severely condemned by public opinion. Therefore, the popular "Sun Family Movie" soon declined. Of course, its exposure to social problems remained in some later works.