Obscure Japanese film #34
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| Hideko Takamine |
After making his feature film debut as director[1] with the Shintoho production A Flower Blooms (1948) starring Hideko Takamine and Ken Uehara, Kon Ichikawa was assigned the task of directing another vehicle for the same two stars. He was handed a screenplay by Kennosuke Tateoka based on a 1946 novel by Masajiro Kojima (1894-1994)[2] entitled 365 Nights. Although unimpressed with the script, he agreed in the hope that a studio-pleasing success would enable him to make a film version of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story ‘In a Grove’, but he was to be disappointed in this as Akira Kurosawa pipped him to the post and used the story as the basis for Rashomon (1950). Ichikawa allegedly rewrote the screenplay for 365 Nights with his newly-wed wife Natto Wada while leaving Tateoka sole credit. However, in my view he failed to raise it above the level of melodramatic tosh and I lost count of the number of coincidences on which the overly-contrived plot relies.
Ken Uehara
Kawakita (Ken Uehara) is an up-and-coming young architect being relentlessly pursued by spoilt rich bitch Ranko (Hideko Takamine), who claims to love him for his ‘sincerity’ (this seems unlikely – the real reason is perhaps that he shows not the slightest interest in her). In order to avoid Ranko, Kawakita changes address, lodging with a middle-aged woman and her attractive daughter, Teruko (Hisako Yamane), with whom he quickly falls in love. However, the young couple’s hopes of marriage and future happiness are foiled by Kawakita’s old enemy, Tsugawa (Yuji Hori), an unscrupulous businessman who wants to marry Ranko and hates Kawakita partly out of jealousy, but mainly because the idealistic Kawakita regards him with contempt for his crass materialism.
Hisako Yamane
Tsugawa is such a comic-book villain I’m sure Ichikawa would have had him twirling his moustache had it been longer, while the actions of Kawakita and Teruko are so foolish throughout that one soon loses patience with them. The fact that these three characters are so unrealistic makes it difficult to assess the abilities of Uehara, Yamane and Hori on this evidence. However, it’s no surprise that the best performance here comes from the great Hideko Takamine – as egotistical and arrogant as her character is, she at least resembles a real human being for whom it’s possible to feel some sympathy. It’s also Takamine with whom Ichikawa chooses to end the movie rather enigmatically practising golf. As this is a Western sport, it may be symbolic, especially as Ranko is always seen dressed in Western clothes, while Teruko – the embodiment of purity – is usually shown in Japanese dress. Takamine left Shintoho in 1950 and went freelance, but surprisingly never worked for Ichikawa again after 365 Nights.
Yuji Hori
For his part, despite his failure to rescue the script, Ichikawa does impress as a director, staging many sequences with considerable flair – there is a terrific prolonged fight scene when Kawakita confronts a burglar, for example, and he even breaks the rules by having Tsugawa rant directly to the camera at one point. Ichikawa is ably assisted by the fluid camerawork of Akira Mimura, although the music by Tadashi Hattori is cloying and has not dated well.
Hideko Takamine
Like Ichikawa’s later picture, The Burmese Harp (1956), the film was originally released in two parts. The first half (set in Tokyo) appeared in cinemas on 21 September 1948, the second half (set in Osaka) a week later, running 78 minutes and 73 minutes respectively. The following year, a re-edited omnibus edition was released running 119 minutes – this is apparently the only version to have survived. Personally, I felt that this shorter version felt overlong, but then again sentimental tearjerkers of this type are not my favourite genre. However, 365 Nights was very popular in its day and was remade in 1962 by director Kunio Watanabe with Ken Takakura as Kawakita and Hibari Misora as Ranko. On the whole, I would say that the original remains worth seeing for some interesting direction by Ichikawa and for Hideko Takamine.
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