Obscure Japanese Film #21
Ayako Wakao
In the tenth of her 20 films for Yasuzo Masumura, Ayako Wakao plays Masuko, the 25-year-old mistress of garage owner Asai (Jiro Tamiya, best known for his portrayal of ambitious and ruthless types in films such as The Great White Tower and Black Test Car). Unbeknownst to Masuko, Asai is married to a fragile and highly-strung woman (Reiko Fujiwara). When the two women finally find out about each other, Masuko is angry but continues the affair, while Asai’s wife has a complete breakdown. Asai decides to get a divorce and move in with Masuko, but when the latter’s attractive young cousin Eiko (Yaeko Mizutani) comes to stay, it looks to be a case of what goes around comes around…
Wakao and Yaeko Mizutani
Screenwriter Kaneto Shindo adapted a 1913 novel by Shusei Tokuda (1872-1943) and gave it a contemporary setting. In Japan, Tokuda is apparently regarded as a pioneer of naturalism in literature. The only one of his novels to have been translated into English is Arakure (1915), published by the University of Hawaii Press in 2001 as Rough Living, and the basis for the Mikio Naruse film known in English as Untamed Woman (1957). The title ‘Tadare’ does not translate easily into English, but according to the blurb for a book entitled The Fiction of Tokuda Shusei by Richard Torrance, it means ‘Festering.’ As you can hardly call a movie ‘Festering’, Stolen Pleasure seems a reasonable substitute.
If looks could kill... Wakao's revenge.
The film is a very well-made and -acted adult drama with a slightly eccentric and whimsical avant-garde jazz score I took to be the work of Toshiro Mayuzumi, but which was actually composed by Sei Ikeno, who did a number of other films for Masumura, including Red Angel. The cinematography by Masumura regular Setsuo Kobayashi (also a favourite of Kon Ichikawa) is first rate, with the widescreen frame used to full advantage and the range of compositions endlessly inventive. Masumura’s characteristically tight editing is also much in evidence, especially during a lengthy and apparently chaotic fight sequence. Indeed, almost all involved are at the top of their game here and in my opinion this is one of Masumura’s best films. Jiro Tamiya and Reiko Fujiwara[1] are perfect in their roles, while Wakao was so obviously an acting genius by this stage in her career that Masumura entrusts her with delivering the film’s ending through facial expression alone.
Jiro Tamiya and Reiko Fujiwara
Despite its many fine qualities, Stolen Pleasure seems unlikely to be everyone’s cup of green tea – the characters are all unpleasant and treat each other shabbily, so there is no-one really to root for. Although it would be possible to see the film as a moralising tale about the price of infidelity, I felt it went deeper than that and was more a study of how so-called civilised people are in reality at the mercy of their primal instincts.
[1] Reiko Fijiwara (1932-2002) was briefly married to Tomisaburo Wakayama; she retired from acting in 1966.
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