Obscure Japanese Film #138
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| Ayako Wakao |
Toshiko (Ayako Wakao) is the madam of a bar in Osaka who tries to keep her private life private and claims not to have a lover. However, she is in fact having a secret affair with Ozeki (Jiro Tamiya), a concert promoter who specialises in booking American artists and dreams of bringing Elvis to Japan. Ozeki is married and reluctant to leave his wife (Tazuko Niki), as she can speak English, which is very helpful to his business. Toshiko is well aware of all this but is apparently satisfied with the arrangement.
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| Jiro Tamiya and Ayako Wakao |
Although Toshiko’s bar is successful and she is a popular hostess, problems begin to arise. Her despised ex-husband (Akihiko Katayama) reappears and keeps bugging her; one of her employees, Nobuko (Kyoko Enami), is being a bit too flirtatious with the customers; Ozeki is making some risky deals and getting in over his head; and her former boss and mentor, Rie (Mitsuko Mori), is unhappy with her because Toshiko’s cheap whisky is tempting customers away from Rie’s bar…
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| Kyoko Enami |
At times watching this, I was reminded of Naruse’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), which is understandable as not only does this Daiei production cover similar territory, but it turns out that, like Naruse’s film, it also has an original screenplay by Ryuzo Kikushima (a frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa). The story is character-driven rather than plot-driven – something which is a major strong point of the script for me, and gives Wakao an excellent role which she plays to perfection. Toshiko undergoes a rather bitter inner journey and is not the same person at the end of the film that we met at the beginning. She Came for Love may well be a case of the script and cast being more important than the director, though the little-known Sokichi Tomimoto handles all aspects well. In any case, it’s a fine film which deserves to be better-known, and it should be a must for all fans of Ayako Wakao.
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| Mitsuko Mori |
Although quite famous in her home country, Mitsuko Mori (who plays the important role of Rie so convincingly) is unlikely to be familiar to many non-Japanese viewers as she had a patchy film career, first appearing in 58 films between 1935 and 1941, most of which were undistinguished B-pictures. After a long hiatus from the big screen, she made two films in 1957, and then worked in films fairly steadily – mainly in supporting roles – from 1961 until the early 1970s. However, during most of her periods of absence from the cinema she was busy with radio, television and stage work. Her signature role was as author Fumiko Hayashi in the stage version of Hayashi’s autobiographical work, A Wanderer’s Notebook; she performed this over 2,000 times from 1961, although when Mikio Naruse filmed it the following year, it was Hideko Takamine who won the part. No surprise, then, that Mori never went on to make a film with Takamine, although Naruse subsequently employed her for a part in his final film, Scattered Clouds (1967).
Thanks to A.K., and to Coral Sundy for the subtitles, which can be found here.
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