Obscure Japanese Film #236
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| Masayuki Mori |
Iwaki (Masayuki Mori) is a gold
prospector who has been in the mountains for 13 years – including
the entire war – and finally struck it rich. He had originally gone
there after being rejected by Tsukie (Chieko Soma), the woman he
loved, for not having enough money. Returning to society, he is at
first mocked for his uncouth appearance until people realise he’s
carrying a fortune, at which point he becomes the toast of the town.
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| Chieko Soma |
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| Takashi Shimura |
Iwaki’s
prospecting partner, Akutsu (Takashi Shimura), had died from exposure
not long after they struck gold, so he hires Azuma (Eijiro Tono), a
drunk who claims to be a detective, to track down Akutsu’s son.
Meanwhile, Tsukie turns up, but she’s now married to a sick
architect (Jukichi Uno) and is after Iwaki’s money. The only honest
person Iwaki encounters is the maid, Tokiko (Michiko Hoshi), at the
hotel he stays at, but she’s involved with a poor fisherman, Ichiro
(Ichiro Izawa)...
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| Eijiro Tono |
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| Jukichi Uno |
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| Ichiro Izawa |
This
Daiei production was based on a novel by the largely forgotten Shu
Sekikawa (1912-87) and was the fourth major feature film to be
directed by Senkichi Taniguchi. It was also the first of Taniguchi’s
features not to have been co-written by Akira Kurosawa, which may be
one reason why it’s not as good as the director’s previous three
– I doubt that Kurosawa would have been satisfied with the script
of this one, which Taniguchi co-wrote with newcomer Takeo Matsuura.
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| Michiko Hoshi |
Taniguchi
was an avid mountaineer and, as in his debut feature Snow Trail
(1947), there’s some impressive location shooting in the wintry
mountains, but the bulk of the story takes place in an urban setting.
As a film, it’s not very characteristic of Japan and the influence
of Hollywood is obvious throughout. The score by Godzilla composer
Akira Ifukube is effective, but unfortunately this is a story which
not only unfolds all too predictably, but relies on a couple of
annoyingly implausible coincidences.
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| Mori before and after his trip to the barber |
It’s
a surprise to see the usually suave Masayuki Mori in such a rough
part, but he rather overdoes it and I couldn’t help wonder if
Takashi Shimura – wasted here as he all too often was in a small
(and in this case poorly-written) role – might have been a better
fit. In fact, much of the acting is too broad for my taste, although
the women are a notable exception. I personally think they’re
usually better actors than the men on the whole, perhaps because they
feel less need to show off, and this seems especially true in
Japanese films of the post-war period for some reason. As for the two
female stars here, Chieko Soma retired from acting at the age of 40
in 1962 and is presumably deceased, whereas Michiko Hoshi was acting
as recently as 2013 and appears to be still with us at the time of
writing at the ripe old age of 98.
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