Shunkin monogatari / 春琴物語 / (‘The Story of Shunkin’. 1954)

Obscure Japanese Film #284

Machiko Kyo

O-Koto (Machiko Kyo) is a young blind woman whose parents indulge her every whim out of pity. She takes a liking to Sasuke (Yoshiaki Hanayagi), a young apprentice supposed to be learning her family’s pharmaceutical trade, and it’s not long before he’s the only one she will allow to help her. Her parents decide to make Sasuke her full-time companion and he begins learning the shamisen so that he’ll be able to accompany her on her namesake instrument, the koto, at which she is proficient enough that her music teacher, Harumatsu (Sugisaku Aoyama), honours her by awarding her the name ‘Shunkin’. Love grows between O-Koto and Sasuke, but his low status as a servant makes him an awkward prospect for a potential husband and a wealthy would-be playboy (Eiji Funakoshi) sets out to seduce her…

Yoshiaki Hanayagi

This Daiei production was the second film version of Junichiro Tanizaki’s novella A Portrait of Shunkin following Yasujiro Shimizu’s 1935 version starring Kinuyo Tanaka. Yet to come were Teinosuke Kinugasa’s 1961 version starring Fujiko Yamamoto, Kaneto Shindo’s eccentric 1972 take and Katsumi Nishikawa’s more commercial 1976 version. Having seen these five versions, this one gets my vote as the best, mainly because it’s so well-directed by Daisuke Ito, a filmmaker both bold and clever in the way he made use of a camera. Here, we get some complex tracking and crane shots as well as a brief, effectively jarring bit of handheld camera and even a couple of dramatic shots of faces coming so close to the lens that they block out the light. He also frequently fills the screen with extras performing bits of background business – set around the time of the Meiji Restoration when all manner of Western items began to make their appearance in Japan, at one point he even has a man passing by on a penny farthing followed by three children on stilts. Ito also provides some memorable moments of visual poetry, such as when O-Koto dances alone in the snow, believing herself unobserved.

The screenplay was written by Fuji Yahiro, whose impressive track record includes classics like Ito’s Five Men of Edo (1951), Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and Uchida’s A Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955). It’s an excellent adaptation which adds another main character absent from the other versions – O-Ei, a fellow disciple of Harumatsu who is jealous of both O-Koto’s talent and her status as the teacher’s favourite. This character is played by Haruko Sugimura, who certainly helps to liven things up a bit at times, while Chieko Higashiyama’s narration preserves the literary flavour.

Haruko Sugimura

Another plus is the strong score by Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube and the koto playing is more impressive and sophisticated in this version. Although Machiko Kyo was dubbed by one of Japan’s top players (Kiyoko Miyagi*), Kyo’s fingering is so convincing that it seems likely she must have been able to play it pretty well herself. Her co-star, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, was a stage actor who made few films, but had just played the juvenile lead in Sansho the Bailiff, while Eiji Funakoshi plays what can only be called a typical Eiji Funakoshi part.

Eiji Funakoshi

Shunkin monogatari won the award for best film at the Southeast Asian Film Festival of 1955 (later renamed the Asia-Pacific Film Festival).

*You can listen to an album by Kiyoko Miyagi (aka Kiyoko Makise) on YouTube here.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

English subtitles by Coralsundy

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Fukkatsu / 復活 (‘Resurrection’, 1950)

Obscure Japanese Film #283

Keiju Kobayashi

Machiko Kyo

The 12^th year of the Showa era (1937). Kunihiko (Keiju Kobayashi) is a young soldier from an aristocratic family of Christians. Having just completed his training, he returns home to Shirahama in Wakayama Prefecture to say goodbye to his family before being sent to serve in China. While there, he seduces the young maid, Yukiko (Machiko Kyo), not realising that he’s made her pregnant in the process. Despite pressure from the family, Yukiko refuses to name the father and is dismissed, while Kunihiko forgets about her.

Four years later, Kunihiko returns and, asked to be a witness for Ushio (Osamu Takizawa), a socialist and fellow Christian accused of spreading anti-war propaganda, he is shocked to run into Yukiko at the court, where he learns she has been accused of murder after the madam at the brothel she had been working at tricked her into giving poison to a client in order to rob him. Seeing Yukiko’s downfall as the result of his own sinful lapse, the guilt-stricken Kunihiko resolves to do everything in his power to help her, even if it means breaking ties with his family…

This is certainly a more faithful adaptation of Tolstoy’s Resurrection than Mizoguchi’s very loose version of 1937 (known in English as The Straits of Love and Hate), and retains the books deeply Christian perspective, which no doubt meant that it was easily approved by the occupying American authorities at the time. In the novel, Prince Nekhlyudov is serving on a jury when he realises that one of the defendants is the maid he had seduced and abandoned years before; the Mizoguchi film dispensed with the Christian theme and had the inspired idea of having the male protagonist a theatre audience member who sees the former maid – now a comedienne – mocking their affair in a comedy sketch.

Adapted by Yoshikata Yoda, this Daiei production is well-made by director Akira Nobuchi, but it’s also probably the most heavily Christian-influenced Japanese film I’ve seen and the preachiness does become tiresome after a while. Kobayashi and Kyo do good work in the leads, although Kyo was still a relative newcomer at this point and her inexperience occasionally shows. Nevertheless, she puts across Yukiko’s conflicting emotions very effectively at times, such as in the scene where Kunihiko first visits her in prison. Interestingly, Osamu Takizawa plays a character much like himself in some respects – he had been arrested during the war for a similar offence and spent 16 months in prison.

Osamu Takizawa

The director, Akira Nobuchi (1896-1968), came from the theatre and made around 30 films from 1935-55, but this is the only one I’ve seen so far.

Thanks to A.K.

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Okoto to Sasuke / お琴と佐助 (‘O-Koto and Sasuke’, 1961)

Obscure Japanese Film #282

Kojiro Hongo and Fujiko Yamamoto

O-Koto (Fujiko Yamamoto) is a young blind woman whose parents indulge her every whim out of pity. She takes a liking to Sasuke (Kojiro Hongo), a young apprentice who is supposed to be learning her family’s pharmaceutical trade, and it’s not long before he’s the only one she will allow to help her. Her parents decide to make Sasuke her full-time companion and he begins learning the shamisen so that he’ll be able to accompany her on her namesake instrument, the koto, at which she is proficient. Love grows between the two, but Sasuke’s low status as a servant makes him an awkward prospect for a potential husband and a wealthy would-be playboy (Keizo Kawasaki) sets out to seduce her…

Keizo Kawasaki

This Daiei production was the third film version of Junichiro Tanizaki’s novella A Portrait of Shunkin following Yasujiro Shimizu’s 1935 version starring Kinuyo Tanaka and Daisuke Ito’s 1954 version with Machiko Kyo. Yet to come were Kaneto Shindo’s eccentric 1972 take and Katsumi Nishikawa’s more commercial 1976 version. In my review of the latter, I also discuss the 1935 and 1972 versions.

Unlike the Audrey Hepburn approach, the part of O-Koto has traditionally been played with eyes fully closed which might make it easier for the actor on the one hand but obviously hampers their expressiveness on the other. Nevertheless, Fujiko Yamamoto puts across the character’s spoilt, proud and stubborn nature very well here but it hardly makes her very likeable, so it’s hard to have much sympathy for O-Koto until she eventually becomes the victim of a horrendous crime. Yamamoto repeated the role in a 1965 TV adaptation. Her co-star, Kojiro Hongo, was – appropriately for the role – of considerably lower status and makes little impression at first, though his performance does improve as the film goes on.

Following the international success of his early colour picture Gate of Hell in 1953, director Teinosuke Kinugasa, who also wrote the screenplay for this and co-wrote the 1976 version, had been entrusted by Daiei with several big-budget colour productions, but the dark green hues which dominate Okoto to Sasuke are considerably less memorable than Gate of Hell’s striking visual design. In fact, there’s little to be said about Kinugasa’s direction here other than it is certainly careful and, of course, competent, so I’d only really recommend this film if you’re a particular fan of Fujiko Yamamoto or, perhaps, the story itself, which in this case is treated as a tragic, sentimental love story with its more perverse elements not entirely absent, but certainly not emphasized as they were by Kaneto Shindo.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

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Kagero ezu / かげろう絵図 (‘The Dragonfly Motif’, aka ‘Stop the Old Fox’, 1959)

Obscure Japanese Film #281

Osamu Takizawa

The 11^th year of the Tenpo era (1840). Sekio Nakano (Osamu Takizawa) is a senior retainer and trusted advisor to Ienari Tokugawa (Eijro Yanagi), the retired shogun, who remains the most powerful of the Tokugawas despite having been succeeded by his son, Ieyoshi (Ichiro Izawa). Nakano is also the adoptive father of Ienari’s senior concubine, Omiyo-no-kata (Michiyo Kogure). When Ienari impregnates the younger lady-in-waiting, Otaki-no-kata (Hiroko Yajima), Nakano arranges for her to have an accident leading to a miscarriage so as not to threaten Omiyo’s position, but when Otaki also dies as a result, the young maid Tomi (Fujiko Yamamoto), who had helped set up the accident, is promoted to take her place.

Michiyo Kogure

Tomi has an identical sister, Toyoharu (also played by Fujiko Yamamoto), who lives with young samurai Shinnosuke (Raizo Ichikawa), who is rather lazy but an expert swordsman. Living next door to him is Ryoan, a friendly, saké-loving doctor (Takashi Shimura), who is called to the castle to examine lady-in-waiting Kikukawa (Michiko Ai) and discovers she’s pregnant. As no men are permitted to enter the Ooku (inner chambers of the palace), this could cause a scandal, so Nakano orders a cover up. Ryoan’s life is now in danger, and Shinnosuke comes to his defence...

Raizo Ichikawa

Most Japanese online reviewers seem to regard this Daiei production as a disappointment, and in general it’s not hard to see why – with a talky and confusing first half, it feels like it takes ages to get anywhere, while eventually ending abruptly with nothing resolved. It was based on a novel by Seicho Matsumoto – better known for his contemporary crime dramas – which was not yet finished and was still in the process of being serialised in the Tokyo Shinbun when the film went into production. Half an hour longer than most Daiei films and helmed by a prestigious director (Teinosuke Kinugasa, whose 1953 film Gate of Hell had been a prize-winning international success), it was planned as the first part of a grand trilogy, but the sequels were never made. According to one online commentator, this was due to objections from Matsumoto, who was displeased with the first film, though on its release Kinema Junpo stated that the opening weekend had been ‘somewhat disappointing’, so this may well have been another factor.

Takashi Shimura

The film was heavily promoted as a vehicle for Daiei’s popular stars Raizo Ichikawa and Fujiko Yamamoto, whose 16^th film this was together, yet Ichikawa is entirely absent for the first 35 minutes and the main protagonist actually seems to be the bald villain Nakano, who was presumably the ‘old fox’ of the film’s silly English title. Unfortunately, as played by the stage-trained Osamu Takizawa – once acclaimed for playing Willy Loman in a theatre production of Death of a Salesman – Nakano is too one-dimensional to be terribly interesting. And although Yamamoto plays two roles, she was hardly an actor known for her versatility, so there’s little discernible difference between the two Yamamotos.

Fujiko Yamamoto x2

Having said all that, there’s actually quite a bit to enjoy here, and things do pick up a bit halfway, with more exterior scenes and more action. Kinugasa’s direction is elegant and makes the most of the excellent art direction and colour cinematography (although everything looked oddly pale and beige in the copy I watched, so I had to tweak the colour settings to make it look its best). The music score by Mizoguchi / Naruse favourite Ichiro Saito veers from bombastic to so subtle it’s almost subliminal, but always helps to heighten the sometimes underpowered drama. On a purely aesthetic level, then, I’d call this one a success and say that the flaws are mostly with the story.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

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Kohitsuji / 小羊 (‘The Lamb’, 1923)

Obscure Japanese Film #280

Tsuzuya Moroguchi

A 19-year-old engineering student, Toshihiko (Tsuzuya Moroguchi), falls in love with a stage actress (Yuriko Hanabusa) and writes her adoring letters, but when he finally summons up the courage to speak to her, she laughs at him and flings his letters back in his face. Heartbroken, he takes to wandering the country alone until he finally arrives in Hokkaido, where he collapses from hunger and exhaustion. He’s rescued by a shepherdess, O-Toyo (Yoshiko Kawada), whose father (Heijiro Osono) takes him in and gives him a job on the farm, but a fellow farmhand, Otokichi – known as ‘the Wolf’ – (Yotaro Katsumi), is jealous and wants to get rid of him…

Yoshiko Kawada, Moroguchi and Yotaro Katsumi

Like the previously-reviewed film Diary of a Drunkard, this Shochiku Kamata production was directed by Zanmu Kako, but in this case the film seems to have survived more or less in its entirety. Also as in that film, Kako elicits natural performances and demonstrates a good eye for composition. However, the downside here is that the overly-contrived plot has dated badly and hinges on a couple of massively unlikely coincidences. It’s also somewhat confusing at times – perhaps at the time some accompanying benshi narration would have made things clearer.

Kohitsuji clearly has a strong Christian influence, even quoting the story of Jacob’s Ladder from the Book of Genesis in the opening and closing title cards, while in the Bible, the lamb is of course a symbol of innocence, purity and sacrifice, although it was unclear to me whether the lamb of the title is supposed to refer to Toshihiko or O-Toyo (or possibly neither). In any case, the rather uninspired message is simply that the wicked will eventually be punished and the good rewarded.

The film is thought to have been based on an unfinished screenplay by one Norikuni Yasuda, who has 19 director credits on IMDb between 1924-29, and shot by Hiroshi Nomura, who later worked for Hiroshi Shimizu, Heinsosuke Gosho and Yasushi Sasaki. The two leads, Tsuzuya Moroguchi and Yoshiko Kawada, were big stars of the day who were frequently cast together – here, they were about halfway through the (at least) 40 films in which they co-starred. However, it’s Yuriko Hanabusa who would go on to have the longest career, racking up 242 credits on IMDb stretching from 1920 until shortly before her passing in 1970. Among these are starring roles in Souls on the Road (1921), often cited as Japan’s first important film, and Naruse’s Wife! Be Like a Rose (1935).

Yuriko Hanabusa

The director and cast came to films from the theatre, where they had worked not in kabuki or Noh, but in the new Western-influenced Shingeki (or Shin-engeki) movement. For further info (in Japanese) and to watch the film (without English subtitles), visit the Eiga Meets Shin-engeki website. 

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Shuchu nikki / 酒中日記 / (‘Diary of a Drunkard’, 1921)

Obscure Japanese Film #279

Yukichi Iwata

Okawa (Yukichi Iwata) has been a teacher on an island in the Inland Sea for three years. Despite the fact that he’s also a self-confessed drunkard, he’s popular with the children and most of the other islanders, especially O-Tsuyu (Chiyoko Mimura), a young woman who has become his mistress. His past is a mystery but he writes his thoughts in a private diary; in flashback, it’s revealed that he was once a respected headmaster on the mainland. However, he once stumbled upon a bag with a considerable amount of money inside (left unattended by the treasurer for the school rebuilding fund) and decided to keep it; when his conscience began to protest too much, he decided to confess publicly and informed his wife of his decision. Unfortunately, before he could carry out his intentions, she had committed suicide and taken their young son with her…

Chiyoko Mimura

This Shochiku Kamata* production was (like the vast majority of silent Japanese films) long thought completely lost until this 25-minute fragment turned up recently. The original film ran for around 66 minutes and would presumably have been screened with live commentary by a narrator, or benshi; of course, that’s also missing here, as is a music score. What survives – which seems to be most of the first half – is in surprisingly good condition, but the film ends abruptly and we never get to see how things turn out. That’s a pity, because this was obviously a film of some quality – the performances are very natural and the photography, though static, is well-composed.

The film was based on a 1902 story by Doppo Kunikida (1871-1908)**, while the screenplay was written by Daisuke Ito, who made his directorial debut with his own version in 1924 (since lost, of course) and went on to become a major filmmaker. Director Zanmu Kako (1869-1938) also came from the theatre, where he had worked as a playwright and stage director. He made around 90 films between 1921 and 1927, almost all of which are entirely lost. That this substantial fragment survived even the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 – which severely damaged the studio where it was made – is a near miracle.

Leading actor Yukichi Iwata (1887-1980), who is excellent here, was a major star of the Japanese silent screen. A former theatre actor, he made his film debut in 1920 and went on to make over 150 films before retiring from the screen around 1942. Today, his most widely-seen film is Ozu’s A Mother Should Be Loved (1934). His co-star, Chiyoko Mimura (1903-74) was recruited from the theatre by Kako and signed to Shochiku. Film critic and historian Junichiro Tanaka (1902-89) singled out her performance in Diary of a Drunkard, saying, ‘She is small and lacks a striking face, but her acting ability is undeniable.’ She became a popular star before retiring to look after her family in 1927. Mimura had married film director Kiyohiko Ushihara in 1922; today he’s remembered (if at all) for The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen (1938) and Rainbow Man (1949).

*Shochiku Kamata was a studio founded in Kamata, Tokyo, in 1920 as an off-shoot of the theatre company Shochiku Gomei Kaisha. It lasted until 1936, when noise from nearby factories caused problems in making films in the new talking picture format and led Shochiku to close it down and transfer their operations to Shochiku Ofuna in Kamakura.

**Kunikida is sufficiently well-regarded that some of his stories have appeared in English translation, although I believe that ‘Diary of a Drunkard’ is not among them. 

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Night Ladies / 二匹の牝犬 / Nihiki no mesu inu (‘Two Bitches’, 1964)

Obscure Japanese Film #278

Mayumi Ogawa

 

After Tokyo’s brothels have all been forced to close down by the authorities, ‘bath houses’ and ‘massage parlours’ spring up everywhere, unofficially offering more than just a back rub to their predominantly male clientele, but stopping short of providing the ‘full works’. Asako (Mayumi Ogawa), a country girl desperate to escape an unhappy family life and poverty in rural Chiba, gets conniving former madam Tetsu (Sadako Sawamura) to set her up with a job in such a bath house. Working under the name of Rie, she finds that she can make a lot of money quickly and begins investing through a young stockbroker, Sekine (Naoki Sugiura), who’s keen to take their relationship further. When Asako’s younger half-sister, Natsuko (Mako Midori), turns up, Asako tries to send her back to Chiba, but Natsuko is not only determined to stay but has no qualms about what she might have to do to pay her bills…

Naoki Sugiura

According to Japanese Wikipedia, this Toei production originated from an idea by producer Shigeru Okada, who felt that increasing the erotic content of the studio’s films would be one effective way of luring the dwindling audience away from their TV sets and back into cinemas. This was the studio’s first attempt at doing so, and Okada was proved to be correct as the film was a substantial hit. Of course, although it was strong stuff at the time, it seems fairly tame today compared to countless later films. Nevertheless, the subject matter and content meant that casting established stars in the two leading female parts was virtually out of the question.

Ogawa and Mako Midori

Mayumi Ogawa was a member of the Bungakuza Theatre Company, where she had a strict mentor in Haruko Sugimura. She had done some TV work, but only one previous film, Kaneto Shindo’s Mother (1963), in which she had played a minor role. In this film, Ogawa proves to have real acting ability and to be a strong, charismatic presence who can glower to great effect. She found it hard to shake off the ‘wicked woman’ image she got stuck with as a result, but went on to enjoy a long career before becoming a Buddhist nun in 2008, after which she went into semi-retirement. In 2012, her daughter published a book entitled Poison Mama – A 40-Year War with My Mother, Mayumi Ogawa, which led to their permanent estrangement. She passed away in March 2026 at the age of 86.

Mako Midori

Mako Midori, on the other hand, had taken a TV acting training course, but had not a single credit under her belt – apparently, director Yusuke Watanabe happened to see her photo and gave her a screen test. Despite concern at her lack of experience, she proved to be a natural and went on to win a Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Actress for her performances in this and Watanabe’s similarly-themed follow-ups, Akujo and Mesu (both also released in 1964). However, she was fired by Okada in 1968 for complaining about the types of roles she was given. By this point, though, she had become popular enough for her modern style and willingness to disrobe that she was in demand from other studios and continued to have a successful career.

Sadako Sawamura and Ogawa

As far as the rest of the cast are concerned, many of them, like Ogawa, were members of Bungakuza, who were apparently struggling financially at the time and therefore very glad of the work – in fact, this was likely a bargaining chip used by Okada to help persuade Ogawa to take on a controversial role. However, Sadako Sawamura was not affiliated with the company; usually a fine actor, unfortunately in this case she seems to have seen her role as a crafty old procurer as an excuse to go way over the top.

Ogawa and Sugiura

The original screenplay was written by director Watanabe together with Kikuma Shimoiizaka, whose filmography suggests prolific hack work. The story here hinges on a massive coincidence and things become increasingly melodramatic as the film goes on. Having said that, it’s somewhat remarkable for its undiluted misanthropy in its portrayal of a world in which everyone’s a scumbag; that’s far from unique in Japanese films of this period, but it was seldom seen in Hollywood ones – Sweet Smell of Success (1957) being a notable exception. There are also indications that Watanabe was trying to make something a little classier than expected, and there is some artiness in the camerawork, while, during the climactic catfight, the sound drops out and we hear only a plaintive Spanish guitar, lending a strange air of detachment to the proceedings. All in all, then, no masterpiece, but a well-made, entertaining and interesting film.

Ogawa

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

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Midori