The Women around the Shogun / 続大奥 (秘) 物語 / Zoku ooku maruhi monogatari (‘Secret Tales of the Inner Palace Sequel’, 1967)

Obscure Japanese Film #258

Tomoko Ogawa

This Toei production is a sequel to The Shogun and His Mistresses of the same year, and I recommend reading my review of that film first, even though this one has an entirely separate story.

It’s now 1786 and the 10^th shogun, Ieharu (Masao Mishima), is in power. Ochisa (Tomoko Ogawa), the adopted daughter of Lord Abe (Eitaro Ozawa), is sent to serve the shogun at Edo Castle, where her older sister Oshino (Hiroko Sakuramachi) is one of the shogun’s concubines. It’s not long before Ochisa is forced into the same position, but the sisters try not to become enemies despite the bitchy machinations of the other women around them. However, when the shogun suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, Ochisa finds herself sent to a nunnery with the other concubines, where they’re expected to spend the rest of their lives praying for Ieharu’s soul. The head nun (Chieko Hagashiyama) ensures that the women are cut off from the outside world with the result that one goes mad, another turns to lesbianism and a third starts an affair with a priest – but what will become of Ochisa?

Ogawa with Masao Mishima

Dropping the anthology structure of the first film and released just three months later, it’s no surprise that this rushed-into-production sequel is weaker, especially as it relies on an inexperienced actor to carry it – in her first leading role, 18-year-old Tomoko Ogawa was a last-minute replacement for Yoshiko Sakuma (who reportedly objected to what she saw as an increasing sexual emphasis, although the finished product is probably tamer than the first). As if this were not challenging enough, Ochisa is not a terribly interesting character in the first place, although she does eventually reveal another dimension towards the end and Ogawa does a fair job under the circumstances. However, although her performance was well-received and Toei planned to star her in further similar pictures, disappointing box office led them to insist that she do nude scenes from then on, causing her to quit films and turn to singing, where she found considerable success. Incidentally, Yoshiko Sakuma was not the only one to be replaced – shooting began with Michiko Saga as the older sister, but she apparently got in a strop due to too much waiting around and left after three days, forcing Toei to replace her with Hiroko Sakuramachi.

Hiroko Sakuramachi

Casting shenanigans aside, this is still a decent movie, and one which also benefits from the splendidly villainous presence of Ko Nishimura, who instigates an impressively bloody sword fight with multiple opponents at the film’s climax. Composer Sei Ikeno’s score might have been better suited to a horror movie, but it’s not ineffective, while director Sadao Nakajima (who also made the previous film) is adept at extracting the maximum amount of drama from every scene. The original screenplay by Takeo Kunihiro and Takehiro Nakajima might seem too similar to the original at first, but goes off in some interesting directions before finally revealing its surprising theme of an individual rebelling against the oppressive feudal system. Unusually, in this case, the turning worm is no put-upon samurai, but a concubine who has finally had enough of having no say in her own destiny.

Ko Nishimura

DVD at Toei Video (no English subtitles)

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The Maid’s Kid / 女中ッ子 / Jochukko (1955)

Obscure Japanese Film #239

Sachiko Hidari

This Nikkatsu production stars Sachiko Hidari – best-known for The Insect Woman (1963) and A Fugitive from the Past (1965) – as Hatsu, a young woman from snowy Akita Prefecture who goes to Tokyo to work as a maid in the house of middle-class couple Kyohei (Shuji Sano) and his wife Umeko (Yukiko Todoroki). 

Shuji Sano

Yukiko Todoroki

At first, Hatsu seems like the stereotypically naive country bumpkin, but she’s also a hard-working, cheerful bundle of energy who turns out, in many ways, to be the perfect maid. The family also includes two young boys who have been left to their own devices by their parents and become totally out of control. When Hatsu develops a strong bond with the younger child, Katsumi (Teruo Iba), he begins to be mocked by his classmates, who call him the ‘son of a maid’...

Teruo Iba

Based on a just-published novel by female author Yuki Shigeko (1900-69), The Maid’s Kid was directed by the underrated Tomotaka Tasaka, who also co-wrote the screenplay together with Katsuya Susaki. Tasaka had a tendency to make long films, and this one is no exception at 142 minutes, but he also had a rare gift for never making them feel overlong. In fact, his readiness to linger on a shot feels quite modern today in the wake of the Slow Cinema movement. He also makes excellent use of real locations and elicits fine performances from all involved – most notably Hidari, of course; it’s difficult to imagine any other actor pulling this role off as well as she does here. It’s the sort of drama that stands or falls on its main performance, and Hatsu could easily have ended up seeming too unconvincingly saintly if played by a less skilled or less suitable star. Other familiar faces among the supporting cast include Chieko Higashiyama, Tanie Kitabayashi and, in one of his earliest film appearances, a pre-cheeky Joe Shishido.

Perhaps the main point of the story is that a person’s social status bears no correlation to their worth as a person; Kyohei and Umeko say they don’t believe in titles like ‘master’ and ‘mistress’, but they act with oblivious selfishness and disregard for Hatsu, at times treating her more like a slave than a servant so that she barely gets a moment’s rest. At one point, she’s even rebuked for not understanding that some people are more important than others. However, another strength of the film is that, although the couple’s hypocrisy is quite evident to the viewer, they are not reduced to one-dimensional villains and are portrayed as basically decent, if misguided, people.

Tasaka’s avoidance of melodrama and intelligent handling of the material is complemented by the work of his regular cinematographer Saburo Isayama as well as by Akira ‘Godzilla’ Ifukube’s fine score. The film was ranked 7^th best of its year by Kinema Junpo magazine, but is less well-known than it deserves today. It was remade in 1976 as Dongurikko by director Katsumi Nishikawa in a version starring the singer Masako Mori.

Thanks to A.K.

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A Woman’s Life / 女の一生 / Onna no issho (1962)

Obscure Japanese Film #142

Machiko Kyo

Jun Hamamura and Fumiko Murata

 

1905. Kei (Machiko Kyo) is a young woman orphaned by the Russo-Japanese war who now lives with her alcoholic uncle (Jun Hamamura) and his shrewish wife, Okura (Fumiko Murata). They treat her like a slave and Okura beats her with a stick at the slightest excuse. One night, Kei finds herself thrown out of the house and told not to return. 

Jiro Tamiya and Machiko Kyo

 

Wandering the streets, she is attracted by the sound of singing and enters a garden, which leads to an encounter with young soldier Eiji (Jiro Tamiya), who is about to resume his studies after completing his military service. Hearing of her troubles, he is moved and invites her in to meet his family, who end up adopting her. 

Jiro Tamiya and Chieko Higashiyama

 

The family are headed by widow and matriarch Shizu (Chieko Higashiyama), who – since her husband's death – has been running the family trading company with some help from Eiji’s uncle (Eitaro Ozawa), a crippled war veteran. The family also includes Shizu’s other son, the artistically-inclined Shintaro (Masaya Takahashi), as well as two grown-up daughters, Fusako (Yoko Uraji) and Fumi (Yoko Miki). 

Tamiya and Takashi Nakamura

 

Eiji has become close friends with a fellow student, Song (Takashi Nakamura), who is from China, and this has made him very sympathetic to the Chinese. However, the family’s trading company imports goods from China and scant attention is paid to the ethics of how these goods are acquired. 

Kyo and Masaya Takahashi

 

Meanwhile, Kei is so grateful for having been saved from homelessness and probable prostitution that she does everything she can to please the family who have taken her in, working tirelessly and never complaining. After five years of this, Shizu has become so impressed by Kei that she wants her to marry Shintaro and take over the family business. Kei loves Eiji, but her sense of obligation will not allow her to go against Shizu’s wishes, so she agrees. She proves adept at handling the trading business, but unfortunately develops a kind of moral tunnel vision which leads her to prioritise the success of the company over all human relationships…

 

Cover of programme for 1973 stage performance starring Haruko Sugimura

Despite the title, A Woman’s Life is unrelated to the famous Guy de Maupassant novel and is in fact based on the final play written by Kaoru Morimoto,* which premiered in April 1945 at the Toyoko Cinema in Shibuya during a gap between air raids. Morimoto’s lover, actress Haruko Sugimura, originated the role of Kei, which was said to have been written for her, and she went on to perform it 947 times. Morimoto and Sugimura were both affiliated with the Bungakuza theatre company, who produced the play. A shingeki company (meaning they performed translations of Western works as well as new Japanese dramas influenced by the West), Bungakuza was a friendly rival to Haiyuza and has counted among its members such luminaries as Kyoko ‘Woman of the Dunes’ Kishida, Kirin Kiki, and even – for a while – Yukio Mishima. Morimoto revised the play after the war ended, making it more critical of the Japanese government and military, but he passed away shortly after as a result of tuberculosis, aged just 34. 

Masaya Takahashi

 

Covering a period of 40 years and ending shortly after the Second World War, the story involves most of the major characters growing old. Fortunately, this ageing is very well done both in terms of performances and make-up, with Masaya Takahashi especially convincing as an old man. Major new characters are also introduced late in the story, such as Kei’s daughter, played by Junko Kano. It’s hard to think of a director other than Yasuzo Masumura who would have crammed so much into a mere 94 minutes. The script is the work of prolific screenwriter Toshio Yasumi, who specialised in adaptations of literary works, and it’s clear that Masumura put a lot of care and attention into this one, making it one of his best (if not most characteristic) films. The cinematography by Yoshihisa Nakagawa is first-rate and Sei Ikeno’s score is also effective, though perhaps a little too ominous. As for the cast, all are fine actors at the top of their game and it’s astonishing that not even Machiko Kyo was nominated for an award.  

Jiro Tamiya and Junko Kano

 

All in all, A Woman’s Life feels like a real classic of Japanese cinema, so why it’s not better known is beyond me. As there is a credit at the beginning stating that “This film participated in the 1962 Festival of Arts”, Daiei studios must have felt at the time that they had produced something of real artistic merit, and in this case they were undoubtedly right.

Kyo and Eitaro Ozawa

 

*There are at least six other Japanese films entitled Onna no issho, none of which are based on Morimoto’s play.

Natsuko’s Adventure in Hokkaido / 夏子の冒険/ Natsuko no boken (1952)

Obscure Japanese Film #103

Rieko Sumi

 

 

Natsuko (Rieko Sumi) is a spoiled and stubborn young woman bored by the various men chasing her and the thought of becoming a housewife or socialite. Instead, she dreams of a man who pursues his passion no matter what obstacles he must face. Unable to find such a person, she decides to become a nun, but on her way to enter a convent in Hokkaido she takes the ferry and meets Tsuyoshi (Masao Wakahara). He’s a hunter returning to the island to shoot the bear which, according to the subtitles, ‘dismembered and killed’ his fiancée, Akiko (Keiko Awaji).

Masao Wakahara

 

Convinced that she has finally found the man of her dreams, Natsuko abandons the idea of becoming a nun and decides to follow Tsuyoshi and help him to kill the bear whether he likes it or not. When they reach Sapporo, Tsuyoshi tries to get rid of Natsuko by dumping her on his journalist friend, Noguchi (Teiji Takahashi), who promptly falls in love with her. However, she proves impossible to shake off and follows Tsuyoshi into the countryside to the house of Akiko’s father, Juzo (Takeshi Sakamoto), who accepts her as a guest. 

Yoko Katsuragi and Takeshi Sakamoto

 

Despite her efforts to assist Tsuyoshi in his quest, Natsuko proves more of a hindrance than a help, while Akiko’s younger sister, the 17-year-old Fujiko (Yoko Katsuragi), seems to have become interested in Tsuyoshi herself and to regard Natsuko as a rival. Accustomed to rural life, Fujiko skips along the mountain trails with ease while Natsuko can barely keep up. Meanwhile, Natsuko’s grandmother, mother and auntie (Chieko Higashiyama, Teruko Kishi and Sachiko Murase) want her back home and are hot on her trail…

This Shochiku comedy was the second Japanese feature film in full colour. As the process was so new to Japan, some of the crew had to travel to Hollywood to get advice from the experts there. Like many early colour films, subtlety was not the idea and the costumes and backgrounds were designed to be as colourful as possible in order to dazzle the cinemagoers of the day. Unfortunately, some brief parts of the film are missing, although the soundtrack is complete apart from one sequence; however, the vast majority of the film survives in excellent condition.

Natsuko’s Adventure in Hokkaido is a moderately amusing piece of fluff, so it’s something of a shock to see that it was based on a novel by Yukio Mishima, of all people. The book has not so far been translated into English, but it appears that the film is actually quite faithful and the novel is a similarly lightweight piece. In the Asahi Weekly newspaper (29 July 1951), Mishima explained his motivation for writing it. Here is a rough translation:

Although the story is set in Hokkaido, the main characters are young men and women from the city. However, in the city, young people cannot find anything worthy of their energy. They leave Tokyo with different dreams. I am dissatisfied with the fact that the current era does not provide the means of fulfilling youthful dreams, so I wanted my characters to pursue their dreams among the lakes and forests of Hokkaido, where present-day Japan feels more like a foreign country. 

Fans of the writer Haruki Murakami may also be interested to know that Mishima’s book is said to have influenced Murakami’s novel A Wild Sheep Chase.

 

Rieko Sumi

 

Another surprising aspect of the film is that the star of this expensive production is not terribly well-known. Rieko Sumi (1928-2005) was from Hiroshima, where she suffered exposure to the atomic bomb, though thankfully she made a full recovery and became the first Miss Hiroshima in 1948, leading to her being signed as a new face by Toho. Most of her leading roles were in the early ‘50s, after which she was mainly relegated to supporting parts. I felt that she failed to give much depth to her portrayal of Natsuko, who comes across as a little too unsympathetic, and perhaps that indicates why her career as a leading woman ended early. However, she contributed a moving cameo as an A-bomb survivor who refuses to feel sorry for herself in Kozaburo Yoshimura’s A Night to Remember. 

 

Yoko Katsuragi

In Natsuko’s Adventure in Hokkaido, it’s Yoko Katsuragi who steals the show as the coquettish Fujiko. Given that the film feels like an imitation of the Hollywood style even down to avant-garde composer Toshiro Mayuzumi’s uncharacteristically conventional music score, it’s ironic that Fujiko explicitly criticises Natsuko’s American values at the end of the film. As the Americans had just left when the film went into production, perhaps the filmmakers were unable to resist having a dig at their former occupiers even as they continued to enthusiastically absorb their culture.

In regard to director Noboru Nakamura, at this stage in his career he was just beginning to gain a reputation as a reliable director of literary adaptations. On the basis of Natsuko’s Adventure, there’s little to distinguish him from any other competent director, but his best work was yet to come in films like Downpour (1957) and Koto (1963).  

 

Bonus trivia: actor Yoko Katsuragi married composer Toshiro Mayuzumi in 1953.