Obscure Japanese Film #145
Haruko Wanibuchi and Isuzu Yamada
Teenager Kimiko (Haruko Wanibuchi) helps out at a ryokan (traditional inn) in Hakone owned by her widowed mother, Kuniko (Isuzo Yamada). One of the regular guests is a writer named Shimizu (Chishu Ryu), who likes to stay there and use the nearby golf course. On one visit he brings a student assistant, Keiichi (Eiichi Sugasawara), with him, and Keiichi and Kimiko fall in love. However, the course of true love never runs smooth, and matters are complicated by a proposal from a rival suitor as well as by a young man who works at the inn, Taiji (Shoji Yasui), who secretly loves Kimiko, and then there’s Keiichi’s domineering mother (Sachiko Murase), who has other plans for her only son…
Eiichi Sugasawara
Although it throws in a couple of sub-plots involving a couple of Kuniko’s employees who have an illicit relationship resulting in a pregnancy and a former employee who now works in a restaurant to pay for her brother’s medical care, this Shochiku production feels a little thin in the story department even though it was based on a 1955 novel entitled Hana mizukara oshie ari (‘Flowers Teach Themselves’) by Jun Takami (1907-65).
Haruko Wanibuchi
It’s a sentimental film, and I found Haruko Wanibuchi’s wide-eyed naivety a tad cloying (I assume her character was supposed to be a little older), but it’s also well-shot and has a nicely varied music score by Mitsuo Kato. Chishu Ryu’s character is not much more than a plot device to bring Kimiko and Keiichi together, but he does manage to invest it with some personality. The dramatic highlight of the film, however, is the face-off between Isuzu Yamada and Sachiko Murase, two fine veteran actresses best-known for their work with Kurosawa – Yamada was, of course, the Lady Macbeth equivalent in Throne of Blood, while Murase was the elderly A-bomb survivor in Rhapsody in August.
Isuzu Yamada
Sachiko Murase
Of the director, Masao Nozaki, I’ve been able to find out almost nothing, other than the fact that he directed seven films between 1952 and 1960, all for Shochiku. On the basis of this well-made film, I very much doubt that the abrupt end to his career could have been due to incompetence, so perhaps he passed away around 1960 or slept with the studio head’s wife.
 |
| Haruko Wanibuchi and Eiichi Sugasawara |
No comments:
Post a Comment