Kabei - Our Mother The film is based on a childhood memoir by NOGAMI Teruyo, who was KUROSAWA Akira's longtime script supervisor and close collaborator. In KUROSAWA's hands the film probably would have been too direct, too abrasive. NOGAMI and YAMADA express everything they want to say, but understatedly, diffusing controversial aspects by telling its story in muted tones, and through a traditional mother character played by the uncannily beautiful YOSHINAGA Sayuri, a woman as much the Japanese ideal as Audrey HEPBURN was everywhere in the world.