The Twilight Years / 恍惚の人 / Kokotsu no hito (‘Senile Person’, 1973)

Obscure Japanese Film #153

Hideko Takamine and Takahiro Tamura

Akiko (Hideko Takamine) is a middle-aged woman with an office job who lives with her husband, Nobuyoshi (Takahiro Tamura), her teenaged son, Satoshi (Izumi Ichikawa), and her parents-in-law, Shigezo (Hisaya Morishige) and his wife Haruyo (Matsuo Ono). After Haruyo dies suddenly, Shigezo begins acting strangely and ceases to recognise Nobuyoshi, but continues to recognise Akiko. When Shigezo’s other child, Kyoko (Nobuko Otowa), who is also Nobuyoshi’s sister, visits, he fails to respond to her as well and it gradually becomes apparent that he’s suffering from senile dementia. His behaviour turns increasingly child-like, unpredictable and embarrassing and, being the only person he pays any kind of attention to, it is left to Akiko to look after him while also trying to hold down her job and be a wife and mother…

Hisaya Morishige

 

With a screenplay by Hideko Takamine’s husband, Zenzo Matsuyama, The Twilight Years was based on a 1972 novel of the same name by Sawako Ariyoshi* which had become an unlikely bestseller, shifting nearly two million copies in Japan.  It’s an admirably unsentimental film which pulls no punches and is not an easy watch. However, if you’re up for a film about senile dementia – and I certainly wouldn’t blame you if not – there’s much to appreciate here. The performances are excellent all round, and it’s a little surprising that neither Hideko Takamine nor Hisaya Morishige (unrecognisable as the star of The Naked Executive, made just 9 years previously) were nominated for any awards for their excellent work here. Morishige was 60 at the time but plays an 84-year-old most convincingly (though this is partly due to good make-up as well). Nobuko Otowa also makes a memorable character out of the pragmatic and rather slovenly Kyoko. 

Nobuko Otowa

 

As the book had been so successful, a film version probably seemed a safe investment, although it does look like it was made on a fairly low budget. It was the first film produced by the Geiensha Company, which was affiliated with Toho and was to produce a further nine films over the following decade. Veteran director Shiro Toyoda proves himself very adaptable here, shooting in academy ratio black and white and often using handheld camera and natural light. Considering Toyoda’s age at the time (67) as well as the subject matter, it’s impressive that this never feels like an ‘old man’s movie’ – the younger characters, such as Akiko’s son and the students who come to live in the spare room in exchange for helping to look after Shigezo – do actually seem like believable people rather than some old fuddy-duddy’s idea of teenagers. There’s also a fine, tasteful music score courtesy of Masaru Sato. 

Hisaya Morishige

 

The story was thrice remade for television, most recently in 2006 starring Rentaro Mikuni.

*Although out of print, an English translation of the novel was published and is not difficult to find in used copies for sale online. 

 Thanks to A.K.