Last Days of the Samurai / 琴の爪 / Koto no tsume (‘The Koto Pick’, 1957)

Obscure Japanese Film #263

Chikage Ogi and Tojuro Sakata

1702, the 15th year of the Genroku era. After 47 ronin – former retainers of Lord Asano Naganori – avenge their lord by attacking and killing Kira Yoshinaka in Edo, they wait for their punishment to be handed down, knowing they will likely be sentenced to commit seppuku. The leader, Lord Kuranosuke Oishi (Koshiro Matsumoto VIII), has noticed that one of his men, Isogai (Tojuro Sakata), seems especially untroubled by the situation and wonders whether his bravado is genuine. Isogai was engaged to be married to koto player Omino (Chikage Ogi), who had no idea that he had been planning to take part in such an action. She’s desperate to speak to him, but the ronin are not allowed visitors, so she puts pressure on her uncle, Den’emon (Ganjiro Nakamura), a member of the clan, to intervene…

Koshiro Matsumoto VIII

Ganjiro Nakamura

This Toho production was based on Oishi saigo no ichinichi (‘Oishi’s Last Day’), part of the Genroku Chushingura series of kabuki plays written by Seika Mayama in the 1930s which revolved around the famous Ako Incident.* Understandably, then, the cast consists largely of actors from the kabuki theatre, although their performances here are not stagy and are, in fact, perfectly appropriate for the cinematic medium. Running a mere 53 minutes, it was the sixth film in the ‘Toho Diamond’ series, which were stand-alone B-movies adapted from various literary works with running times of around an hour.

It was also the third film directed by Hiromichi Horikawa, a former assistant to Kurosawa who made some good films but perhaps never lived up to his early promise. Here, obviously working on a tight budget, he omits the attack completely and the film mainly consists of people talking on tatami. However, thanks in part to Horikawa’s precise blocking and effective camera placement, it nevertheless makes for compelling drama, and Masaru Sato’s subtle, unintrusive score is also a definite asset. There’s also a nice line in dry humour, perhaps provided by another Kurosawa collaborator, screenwriter Ryuzo Kikushima, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tokuhei Wakao – at one point, the men realise that none of them know the correct etiquette for committing seppuku as they’ve never seen anyone actually do it, while when Omino attempts to disguise herself as a man in order to gain access to her fiancé, Oishi takes one look at her and says something to the effect of, ‘You wouldn’t happen to be a woman by any chance, would you?’ For me at least, this modest little film is a gem which deserves a higher rating than the 5/10 it currently has on IMDb.

Ogi in feminine and masculine guises

*This series of plays had already been the basis for Kenji Mizoguchi’s two-part film of 1941-2.

BONUS TRIVIA: The film led to the marriage of actors Tojuro Sakata and Chikage Ogi, the latter of whom later became a politician. 

If you enjoy this blog, feel free to Buy Me a Coffee.

Onna no saka / 女の坂 (‘A Woman’s Uphill Struggle’, 1960)

Obscure Japanese Film #190

 

Mariko Okada

 

After one of her uncles dies, Akie (Mariko Okada), a spirited young woman from Hakone, inherits his confectionary business in Kyoto. The company, Kagimura, is famous for an agar-based sweet called Kyo shigure, but the master confectioner, Taniji (Minpei Tomimoto), is the only one who knows how to prepare it properly and he’s in prison after accidentally killing an employee in a fight (which, oddly, nobody seems too bothered about). Akie originally intends to turn the premises into a dressmaking business instead, but when Tajiji is released, he makes Kyo shigure for her and she’s so impressed that she decides to revive her late uncle’s business. 

 

Nobuko Otowa

 

One day, Akie’s mother, Keiko (Nobuko Otowa), arrives with a companion, Yaoi (Keiji Sada). He’s a woodblock artist who has come to Kyoto to sketch some maiko (apprentice geisha), and Keiko has suggested that he stay with Akie instead of at an inn as she has plenty of space. Akie and Yaoi fall in love, but he’s already married with two children – and what exactly is the nature of his relationship with Keiko?

 

Keiji Sada

 

Like the previously-reviewed Wedding Day, Sweet Secret and Ai sureba koso, this was distributed by Shochiku but produced by Kindai Eiga Kyokai, an independent company formed in 1950 by director Kozaburo Yoshimura, screenwriter Kaneto Shindo and Taiji Tonoyama, the latter of whom appears here as one of Akie’s uncles. The story was cobbled together from two novels by Hisao Sawano (1912-92), both of which were published the same year the film was released. Sawano was best-known for his novel River of the Night, filmed by Yoshimura in 1956. 

 

 

For the first hour, the film is as light and insubstantial as a soufflé, and appears to be a simple rom-com made as a vehicle for Mariko Okada, who undergoes innumerable costume and hairstyle changes and whose charm the picture relies heavily upon. However, the tone eventually becomes more serious, even throwing in a suicide that seemed to me entirely superfluous. The message of the movie is very clear by the end, but it’s also a rather simple and conservative one, basically implying that one should not break the conventional rules of society as there are good reasons for them and the best thing to do if disappointed in love is repress your feelings and work, work, work! 

 

In my view, this is a minor effort from director Kozaburo Yoshimura, though it’s not without interest. For no good reason, it throws in Ganjiro Nakamura as an avant-garde potter, and there’s a surprisingly sensual moment when Akie sucks the pipe smoke from Yaoi’s mouth, while Toshiro Mayuzumi’s score is inventive and steers admirably clear of cliché. On the whole, though, Onna no saka is likely to be best enjoyed by fans of Mariko Okada. 

 

 

Bonus trivia: Kyo shigure appears to be a genuine dessert, although I have no idea whether it was created before or after the film existed, or even especially created for it. Those with a sweet tooth can find out more here (in Japanese). 

 

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

Tokyo Onigiri Girl / 東京おにぎり娘 / Tokyo onigiri musume / (aka ‘Triangle Moods’, 1961)

Obscure Japanese Film #149

 

Ayako Wakao and Ganjiro Nakamura

 

 

Ganjiro Nakamura and Murasaki Fujima

Mariko (Ayako Wakao) is the daughter of Tsurukichi (Ganjiro Nakamura), a widowed tailor whose business in Shinbashi, Tokyo, has ground to a halt due to his stubborn refusal to cater to changing fashions. It doesn’t help that he’s also an inveterate gambler who pays frequent visits to a mah-jong parlour owned by sexy widow Hama (Murasaki Fujima). With debt collectors calling, Mariko decides to take matters into her own hands and convert part of the shop into an onigiri (rice ball) eatery with a loan from Tsurukichi’s former apprentice, Murata (Keizo Kawasaki). 

Hiroshi Kawaguchi

 

Junko Kano

Meanwhile, her aunt (Sadako Sawamura) thinks it’s time Mariko was thinking about marriage and, hoping that it will push the two together, tells her that her childhood friend Goro (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) is secretly in love with her. However, in reality he’s more interested in Midori (Junko Kano), a dancer who turns out to be Tsurukichi’s estranged daughter from an illicit relationship with a geisha. While all this is unfolding, Mariko is also being pursued by wealthy businessman Tashiro (Yunosuke Ito), who incurs the displeasure of her over-protective and pugnacious chef Sanpei (Jerry Fujio)…

Yunosuke Ito

 

From an original screenplay by two not very distinguished writers, this Daiei comedy proves to be pretty thinly-stretched and inconsequential stuff. Little more than an excuse to show off its star in another interminable variety of costumes, it’s one for hardcore Ayako Wakao fanatics only and contains one of her least interesting performances. The film is indifferently directed by Shigeo Tanaka, but occasionally enlivened by its supporting cast, with Murasaki Fujima, Yunosuke Ito and Jerry Fujio all quite funny in their very different ways. 

Jerry Fujio

 

Jerry Fujio, who was co-lead with Jo Shishido in A Colt Is My Passport (1967) and also appeared in Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) and Dodes’ka-den (1970), was an interesting person. Born in 1940 to a Japanese father and an English mother in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, where his family all spoke in English, he moved to Japan with his parents after the war. According to Japanese Wikipedia, he and his mother faced discrimination; she became addicted to alcohol and died aged just 28 clutching a bottle of whisky. If that were not bad enough, Fujio’s father abandoned him shortly after. While still in his teens, Fujio became a bodyguard for a yakuza gang, but in 1957 he gave an impromptu performance of Elvis’ ‘Hound Dog’ in a jazz bar and was signed by an entertainment agency, taking the name of Jerry after American comedian Jerry Lewis. Even after becoming successful as a singer and actor, however, he could not quite shake off his yakuza past; on one occasion, finding himself attacked by three yakuza in the street, he fought back so hard that he broke three of his attackers’ ribs and four of their front teeth before the police showed up and arrested him for ‘excessive self-defence’!

As for the title, how this film became known in English as Triangle Moods, or what that even means, is anyone’s guess…

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan. 

Hot Spring Doctress / 温泉女医 / Onsen joi (1964)

Obscure Japanese Film #143

When a new doctor arrives to replace the old drunk Dr Yabuuchi (Ichiro Sugai) at a hot spring resort in Izu, the residents are shocked to learn that his replacement is (gasp!) a woman, Dr Shiotsuki (Ayako Wakao). She proves to be strong-willed and soon gains the respect of the often badly-behaved residents, who include Dr Yabuuchi’s best friend, randy old codger Tahei (Ganjiro Nakamura playing to type); Yabuuchi’s rotund son, Masahiko (Taro Marui), who looks after the local orphans; and cynical geisha Omura (Utako Shibusawa), who Dr Shiotsuki tries to talk out of having an abortion…

 

 

This Daiei production was the final entry in their series of five ‘onsen’ B-pictures which began with Onsen geisha in 1963 (not to be confused with Toei’s later ‘Onsen Geisha’ series which ran from 1968-75). It’s one of nine films that Wakao made with director Keigo Kimura (1903-86), a veteran who made his first film in 1930 and retired two films after this one, having directed 93 pictures. His filmography covers a wide range of genres, including a number of prestigious literary adaptations, and his 1955 film Sen-hime was nominated for the Palme d’Or. Like many of his movies, that one starred Machiko Kyo, whom he had been responsible for bringing to prominence with his 1949 film, A Fool’s Love. Hot Spring Doctress seems to represent something of a comedown for Kimura, whose work is hard to judge overall as so little of it is currently accessible. 

Taro Marui

 

On the whole, this is a rather dated but harmless comedy which is not as sexist as it might have been and passes the time pleasantly enough, getting by largely on the considerable charm of its star, Ayako Wakao. It’s also hard to dislike a film in which the romantic male lead is the portly Taro Marui, a Daiei contract actor who had scored a hit in Zuzushii yatsu (‘Shameless Guy’), a TV drama produced by Daiei in 1963. Marui subsequently received many offers from other TV production companies, but Daiei refused to loan him out. His career suffered when he spoke out about this, and he committed suicide in 1967.

Thanks to A.K., and to Coral Sundy for the English subtitles, which can be found here.

DVD at Amazon Japan