In those five classic silent films of the 1930s reissued on video - Seven Seas (Nanatsu No Umi, 1931-2), Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Minato No Nihon Musume, 1933), The Boss's Son Goes to College (Daigaku No Waka-Danna, 1933), Eclipse (Kinkanshoku, 1934), and A Hero of Tokyo (Tokyo No Eiyu, 1935) - Shimizu uses the language of silent film with poetic eloquence to capture on the screen memorable depictions of the Japanese society of his time. Portraying in minute detail the Japanese mores of the early 1930s, the films convey the conflict between the desire for individual happiness and the stern requirements of a sense of duty to the social order. Vividly evoking class inequities and hypocrisies, they simultaneously dramatize the encounter between Japanese civilization and that of the West. There is poignancy in the contrast between the traditional agrarian way of life in old Japan with all its serene beauty and the exciting, fast-paced but ultimately corrupting world of modern urban civilization. To his realistic depictions, Shimizu brought an artist's eye for composition, a love of experimentation in cinematic technique, and an ability to draw from his players, seasoned veterans of the Shochiku stock company, moving and utterly natural.
