Onna no kunsho /女の勲章 (‘A Woman’s Medal’, 1961)

Obscure Japanese Film #80

Machiko Kyo

 

This Daiei production is based on a novel by Toyoko Yamasaki (1924-2013), an author of best-selling novels which often dealt with scheming, corruption and scandal in various industries and were based on interviews with insiders. Many of these were turned into successful films, such as The Great White Tower (the medical industry), A Splendid Family (the banking industry) and Barren Zone (the aviation industry). She became the subject of scandal herself for a while when she faced several accusations of plagiarism, but ultimately these failed to do any serious damage to her career. However, Yamasaki was more popular with readers than critics, most of whom saw little of literary merit in her work. Onna no kunsho, published the year of the film’s release, was the first example of what became the familiar Yamasaki formula and is set in the world of the fashion industry. 

 

Jiro Tamiya

Machiko Kyo stars as Shikiko, a talented fashion designer in Osaka* who forms an alliance with an ambitious business manager, Ginshiro (Jiro Tamiya). Unfortunately, behind the fake concern for her welfare, Ginshiro is an unscrupulous character who seeks only to exploit her for his own ends. After seducing Shikiko, he talks her into signing off on a lot of dodgy deals, then proceeds to work his way through her senior designers, Rinko (Ayako Wakao), Katsumi (Junko Kano) and Tomie (Tamao Nakamura), seducing each in turn and using them to expand the company and consolidate his own position. 

 

Ayako Wakao

Junko Kano and Tamao Nakamura

Although Tamiya later played a similarly ruthless character in the 1966 film of Yamasaki’s The Great White Tower – which became his signature role – Ginshiro is an unusual part for Tamiya in that he talks a lot and is not at all moody, being almost entirely unfazed by whatever difficult situation may occur. Tamiya handles this well and holds his own among a cast dominated by formidable female stars. Most of the female characters here turn out to be just as duplicitous as Ginshiro, and when somebody finally shows some moral backbone, it’s in the unlikely form of a journalist (the excellent Eiji Funakoshi). Journalists are seldom depicted as the most ethical of people, so the fact that Yamasaki was a former journalist herself might not be entirely coincidental. 

 

Eiji Funakoshi

Kaneto Shindo’s screenplay results in a very talky film with largely unsympathetic characters I found it difficult to care about very much, making it a stark contrast to the last film I reviewed here, A Night to Remember, also starring Ayako Wakao and Jiro Tamiya and directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura. I had the distinct impression that Yoshimura was less invested in this film as the direction is competent but seldom notable. However, Onna no kunsho does have a highly effective ending and was presumably successful at the box office as it has been remade for television three times since.  

*Shikiko is said to have been based on real-life Osakan fashion designer Yasuko Ueda (1906-96).