“We’re always hearing about the ends of eras, but the recent death of the great actress Setsuko Hara really is the end of an era – the era of the classic Japanese film … Her death at the age of ninety-five, more than fifty years after her voluntary retirement from the screen – and from all public life – still comes as a shock. There’s now no one left of this astounding constellation of talent; and that she was by far the most emblematic figure of the era makes her disappearance reverberate even more strongly.”