While Yet a Wife / 妻の日の愛のかたみに / Tsuma no hi no ai no katamini (1965)

Obscure Japanese Film #141

Ayako Wakao

Chieko (Ayako Wakao) and Kitahara (Eiji Funakoshi) are country schoolteachers who get married and appear to be the perfect couple. Liked but a little envied by the locals for having such a happy relationship, the two are looking forward to having a child. Then one day Chieko begins to suffer from mysterious pains which won’t go away. A doctor diagnoses arthritis, and the young couple find their lives changed forever…

Eiji Funakoshi

 

This Daiei production was based on a memoir by Mieko Ikegami and adapted by Keisuke Kinoshita, but directed by Daiei contract director Sokichi Tomimoto, who made six films with Ayako Wakao. It has something of the feel of a Kinoshita film – albeit a minor one – due to the rural setting and score by Kinoshita’s brother and regular collaborator, Chuji Kinoshita. Unfortunately, this is one of those times when the composer does not seem to realise that silence would sometimes be preferable, and the film suffers from an overuse of maudlin harp and strings throughout. 

 

The story’s pretty thin for a 90-minute picture, hence the brevity of my synopsis, and it’s not convincing as a portrait of someone suffering from severe arthritis, probably because the studio didn’t want to risk making Wakao look unattractive. It’s nice to see the underrated Eiji Funakoshi in a serious leading role for a change, and he does as good a job as anyone could be expected to under the circumstances, as does his more celebrated co-star. Although he was often cast in comic roles, the highlight of Funakoshi’s career was undoubtedly in Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain (1959), an atypical part for him, but a good example of successful casting against type. 

All in all, this is a decent enough tearjerker, but nothing more.

 

Note on the title: The Japanese title translates as something like ‘In the Spirit of Love on My Wife’s Day’

Thanks to A.K. 

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles).