Obscure Japanese Film #26
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| Koreya Senda |
In order to avoid preconceptions, I try to read as little as possible about a film prior to watching it, but I usually have a rough idea of the genre at least. However, in this case I was way off as I had expected Temptation to be a crime thriller, but it turned out to be a sentimental romantic comedy. I think the title had conjured up images of a femme fatale enticing some poor sap to his doom, but there is nothing of the kind to be found in Temptation, and even after watching it I’m far from sure of the reason for the title.
This Nikkatsu production provides a rare leading role on film for Koreya Senda, founder of the left-wing Haiyuza theatre company and mentor to Tatsuya Nakadai, no less. Despite being billed sixth (a reflection of his non-film-star status), the film revolves around his character: Shokichi Sugimoto, a rather vague 55-year-old widower who owns a clothing store in Ginza, where he lives with Hideko, his unashamedly materialist daughter.
Sachiko Hidari
Hideko is played by top-billed Sachiko Hidari, best-known for later films such as The Insect Woman (1963) and Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972). In contrast to the serious actress she later became, the younger Hidari seen here is typical of her earlier screen persona: lithe, petite, cheerful and fast-talking. In real life, she was of a more sober temperament; a highly intelligent feminist, she later directed a film of her own, The Far Road (1977).
For some reason, her father decides to open a gallery above the store and launch it with a show organised by Hideko featuring the work of her avant-garde artist friends, an assortment of female ikebana artists and male painters. He thinks it might be about time that Hideko found a husband, while she is beginning to think her father should remarry. In reality, he is still moping about a lost love from 30 years ago; meanwhile, an unlikely romance develops between a gauche female shop assistant and one of Hideko’s bohemian friends, a brilliant but scruffy artist who has lice.
Also notable in the cast are Shoichi Ozawa (star of Imamura’s The Pornographers), who generates many of the laughs as a naïve shop assistant, and Izumi Ashikawa, the ‘Audrey Hepburn of Japan’ who turns up towards the end as the daughter of Sugimoto’s lost love.
Temptation is an odd little film – it’s difficult to see what the point of it all is, or who the intended audience could have been, and the beret-wearing artist types depicted in the film never quite convince. However, its origin as a just-published novel of the same title by Sei Ito, a modernist writer in vogue at the time, probably explains its reason for existence. In any case, director Ko Nakahira certainly keeps things moving along and throws every piece of quirkiness and slapstick he can at it. Inevitably, this approach is hit and miss, but the film is mostly quite charming and fun, although definitely the least impressive of the four I’ve seen by Nakahira (the others being Mikkai, The Hunter’s Diary and Crazed Fruit).
Sofu Teshigahara
Ikebana fans should look out for a cameo by Sofu Teshigahara as himself; the founder of the Sogetsu school of ikebana and father of Woman of the Dunes director Hiroshi Teshigahara, he is also credited as a consultant on Temptation. Well-known avant-garde artists Taro Okamoto and Seiji Togo also appear as themselves. Considering all the avant-garde references throughout, the film features a surprisingly conventional score by the usually out-there Toshiro Mayuzumi.
For a more detailed synopsis of Temptation, see Hayley Scanlon's review at Windows on Worlds.
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