Obscure Japanese Film #88
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| Shima Iwashita |
This Shochiku production was based on a 1941 poetry collection of the same name by Kotaro Takamura (1883-1956) together with a 1957 novel entitled Shosetsu Chieko-sho by Haruo Sato, which were themselves based on the true story of Takamura’s wife, Chieko (1886-1938), a painter and feminist. The story begins in 1911, a time when it was fashionable among the upper-middle class of Japan to cultivate an interest in Western art. Painter and sculptor Kotaro Takamura (Tetsuro Tanba) has recently returned from studying in Paris when he agrees to take on a disciple, Chieko (Shima Iwashita). The two gradually fall in love and get married. Although both are from fairly wealthy families, their chosen occupation of art means they often struggle to get by. Nevertheless, for the following 20 years they are mostly happy and their love remains undiminished. Then an unexpected tragedy occurs, causing Chieko to receive a severe shock, in the wake of which she begins to act strangely. It soon becomes apparent that she is suffering from the onset of mental illness…
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| Shima Iwashita |
By 1967, sentimental love stories of this sort were becoming a rarity in Japanese cinemas flooded with yakuza flicks and monster movies, but Shochiku must have felt confident enough in the popularity of this particular story to give it the green light – an earlier film had been made in 1957 starring Setsuko Hara and So Yamamura, while there had also been a TV series, a radio drama, a number of popular songs and various books and stage plays based on the lives of Kotaro and Chieko.
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| Tetsuro Tanba |
I found the first hour of the film to be a rather bland, picture-postcard type of love story briefly enlivened by a moment of unintentional humour when an overly-earnest young artist slashes a painting to ribbons in a gallery, then jumps out the window Father Ted-style. However, it’s mostly a matter of watching Kotaro and Chieko being very happy together, which – let’s face it – is seldom the sort of thing to make for interesting viewing, so things improve dramatically (in both senses of the word) once events take a tragic turn.
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| Shima Iwashita |
The film’s greatest strength is the performances of Tetsuro Tanba and Shima Iwashita, who are both perfect in their roles, with Iwashita deservedly winning a couple of awards for her highly convincing performance in a challenging part, while Tanba is equally good in his less showy role. Although better known for her collaborations with her director husband, Masahiro Shinoda, this was actually one of ten films that Iwashita made for director Noboru Nakamura. The only other one of these I’ve seen is Koto (1963), a superior film to this one (in my opinion).
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| Shima Iwashita |
Portrait of Chieko was Japan’s entry for the year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar, but lost out to Jiri Menzel’s Closely Observed Trains. It’s hard to argue with the Academy’s choice because, although I found it on the whole to be a well-made and moving film, with decent music by Masaru Sato and cinematography by Hiroshi Takemura, in my view it’s too calculated in its sentimentality to be a great film. The character of Taro ‘the Howling Dog’ (Tetsuo Ishidate), the village idiot constantly banging a tin in an attempt to summon his lost love, I could especially have lived without; the true story of Kotaro and Chieko is already more than sufficiently sad to satisfy the demands of the most avid tearjerker fan without resorting to such a crude device.
Thanks to rarefilmm for making this available here.
Thanks for the valuable historical info on the film's literary sources and character background. I only recently learned about this film and found it on the same site you did and then was directed here by your comment. I’ve been watching Japanese films for 50 years and only recently learned about this film and TWIN SISTERS OF KYOTO (aka KOTO), both of which got nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscars, yet remain shamefully neglected. And why is this director so obscure? I had to look through every book I have on Japanese cinema before I found an adequate mention of Nakamura or these films and that was in Alexander Jacoby’s “A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors.” Donald Richie only mentions Nakamura in passing in one of his books.
ReplyDeleteTo address the film itself, I was not at all bothered by the idyllic romantic aspects of the film’s first half, but then I was so thrilled to discover this film and the gentle, careful, sensitive treatment of the subject that I didn’t question any of it. For me, the build-up in the first half provides the foundation for the viewer to realize how much has been lost as Chieko sinks into schizophrenia and the extent of Kotaro’s suffering. I’m always grateful when Japanese filmmakers spell these things out for those of us who need it.
Thank you for this blog post. Please check out my blog when you can: Brian Camp’s Film and Anime Blog. Here’s a link to a sample piece you might find interesting: https://briandanacamp.wordpress.com/2020/10/05/naruses-flowing-1956-the-fall-of-a-geisha-household/
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Brian. I look forward to checking out your blog.
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