Shunkin monogatari / 春琴物語 / (‘The Story of Shunkin’. 1954)

Obscure Japanese Film #284

Machiko Kyo

O-Koto (Machiko Kyo) is a young blind woman whose parents indulge her every whim out of pity. She takes a liking to Sasuke (Yoshiaki Hanayagi), a young apprentice supposed to be learning her family’s pharmaceutical trade, and it’s not long before he’s the only one she will allow to help her. Her parents decide to make Sasuke her full-time companion and he begins learning the shamisen so that he’ll be able to accompany her on her namesake instrument, the koto, at which she is proficient enough that her music teacher, Harumatsu (Sugisaku Aoyama), honours her by awarding her the name ‘Shunkin’. Love grows between O-Koto and Sasuke, but his low status as a servant makes him an awkward prospect for a potential husband and a wealthy would-be playboy (Eiji Funakoshi) sets out to seduce her…

Yoshiaki Hanayagi

This Daiei production was the second film version of Junichiro Tanizaki’s novella A Portrait of Shunkin following Yasujiro Shimizu’s 1935 version starring Kinuyo Tanaka. Yet to come were Teinosuke Kinugasa’s 1961 version starring Fujiko Yamamoto, Kaneto Shindo’s eccentric 1972 take and Katsumi Nishikawa’s more commercial 1976 version. Having seen these five versions, this one gets my vote as the best, mainly because it’s so well-directed by Daisuke Ito, a filmmaker both bold and clever in the way he made use of a camera. Here, we get some complex tracking and crane shots as well as a brief, effectively jarring bit of handheld camera and even a couple of dramatic shots of faces coming so close to the lens that they block out the light. He also frequently fills the screen with extras performing bits of background business – set around the time of the Meiji Restoration when all manner of Western items began to make their appearance in Japan, at one point he even has a man passing by on a penny farthing followed by three children on stilts. Ito also provides some memorable moments of visual poetry, such as when O-Koto dances alone in the snow, believing herself unobserved.

The screenplay was written by Fuji Yahiro, whose impressive track record includes classics like Ito’s Five Men of Edo (1951), Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and Uchida’s A Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955). It’s an excellent adaptation which adds another main character absent from the other versions – O-Ei, a fellow disciple of Harumatsu who is jealous of both O-Koto’s talent and her status as the teacher’s favourite. This character is played by Haruko Sugimura, who certainly helps to liven things up a bit at times, while Chieko Higashiyama’s narration preserves the literary flavour.

Haruko Sugimura

Another plus is the strong score by Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube and the koto playing is more impressive and sophisticated in this version. Although Machiko Kyo was dubbed by one of Japan’s top players (Kiyoko Miyagi*), Kyo’s fingering is so convincing that it seems likely she must have been able to play it pretty well herself. Her co-star, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, was a stage actor who made few films, but had just played the juvenile lead in Sansho the Bailiff, while Eiji Funakoshi plays what can only be called a typical Eiji Funakoshi part.

Eiji Funakoshi

Shunkin monogatari won the award for best film at the Southeast Asian Film Festival of 1955 (later renamed the Asia-Pacific Film Festival).

*You can listen to an album by Kiyoko Miyagi (aka Kiyoko Makise) on YouTube here.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

English subtitles by Coralsundy

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Night Ladies / 二匹の牝犬 / Nihiki no mesu inu (‘Two Bitches’, 1964)

Obscure Japanese Film #278

Mayumi Ogawa

 

After Tokyo’s brothels have all been forced to close down by the authorities, ‘bath houses’ and ‘massage parlours’ spring up everywhere, unofficially offering more than just a back rub to their predominantly male clientele, but stopping short of providing the ‘full works’. Asako (Mayumi Ogawa), a country girl desperate to escape an unhappy family life and poverty in rural Chiba, gets conniving former madam Tetsu (Sadako Sawamura) to set her up with a job in such a bath house. Working under the name of Rie, she finds that she can make a lot of money quickly and begins investing through a young stockbroker, Sekine (Naoki Sugiura), who’s keen to take their relationship further. When Asako’s younger half-sister, Natsuko (Mako Midori), turns up, Asako tries to send her back to Chiba, but Natsuko is not only determined to stay but has no qualms about what she might have to do to pay her bills…

Naoki Sugiura

According to Japanese Wikipedia, this Toei production originated from an idea by producer Shigeru Okada, who felt that increasing the erotic content of the studio’s films would be one effective way of luring the dwindling audience away from their TV sets and back into cinemas. This was the studio’s first attempt at doing so, and Okada was proved to be correct as the film was a substantial hit. Of course, although it was strong stuff at the time, it seems fairly tame today compared to countless later films. Nevertheless, the subject matter and content meant that casting established stars in the two leading female parts was virtually out of the question.

Ogawa and Mako Midori

Mayumi Ogawa was a member of the Bungakuza Theatre Company, where she had a strict mentor in Haruko Sugimura. She had done some TV work, but only one previous film, Kaneto Shindo’s Mother (1963), in which she had played a minor role. In this film, Ogawa proves to have real acting ability and to be a strong, charismatic presence who can glower to great effect. She found it hard to shake off the ‘wicked woman’ image she got stuck with as a result, but went on to enjoy a long career before becoming a Buddhist nun in 2008, after which she went into semi-retirement. In 2012, her daughter published a book entitled Poison Mama – A 40-Year War with My Mother, Mayumi Ogawa, which led to their permanent estrangement. She passed away in March 2026 at the age of 86.

Mako Midori

Mako Midori, on the other hand, had taken a TV acting training course, but had not a single credit under her belt – apparently, director Yusuke Watanabe happened to see her photo and gave her a screen test. Despite concern at her lack of experience, she proved to be a natural and went on to win a Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Actress for her performances in this and Watanabe’s similarly-themed follow-ups, Akujo and Mesu (both also released in 1964). However, she was fired by Okada in 1968 for complaining about the types of roles she was given. By this point, though, she had become popular enough for her modern style and willingness to disrobe that she was in demand from other studios and continued to have a successful career.

Sadako Sawamura and Ogawa

As far as the rest of the cast are concerned, many of them, like Ogawa, were members of Bungakuza, who were apparently struggling financially at the time and therefore very glad of the work – in fact, this was likely a bargaining chip used by Okada to help persuade Ogawa to take on a controversial role. However, Sadako Sawamura was not affiliated with the company; usually a fine actor, unfortunately in this case she seems to have seen her role as a crafty old procurer as an excuse to go way over the top.

Ogawa and Sugiura

The original screenplay was written by director Watanabe together with Kikuma Shimoiizaka, whose filmography suggests prolific hack work. The story here hinges on a massive coincidence and things become increasingly melodramatic as the film goes on. Having said that, it’s somewhat remarkable for its undiluted misanthropy in its portrayal of a world in which everyone’s a scumbag; that’s far from unique in Japanese films of this period, but it was seldom seen in Hollywood ones – Sweet Smell of Success (1957) being a notable exception. There are also indications that Watanabe was trying to make something a little classier than expected, and there is some artiness in the camerawork, while, during the climactic catfight, the sound drops out and we hear only a plaintive Spanish guitar, lending a strange air of detachment to the proceedings. All in all, then, no masterpiece, but a well-made, entertaining and interesting film.

Ogawa

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

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Midori

Their Legacy / 家庭の事情 / Katei no jijo (‘Family Circumstances’, 1962)

Obscure Japanese Film #243

So Yamamura

Junko Kano and Ayako Wakao

Utako Shibusawa and Mako Sanjo

Upon retiring, widower Misawa (So Yamamura) decides to give each of his four unmarried daughters 500,000 yen to do with as they wish. The eldest, Kazuyo (Ayako Wakao), is regretting having an affair with a married colleague (Jun Negami) and decides to quit and open a café. Second daughter Fumiko (Junko Kano) gives hers to her boyfriend (Jiro Tamiya) so that he can pay off his debts. Third daughter Miyako (Mako Sanjo) only reluctantly accepts the money and just wants to stay at home with her father. The youngest, Shinako (Utako Shibusawa), works in an accounts department and decides to become a moneylender while fighting off the attentions of a persistent co-worker (Hiroshi Kawaguchi). Meanwhile, Misawa has a relationship with gold-digger Tamako (Murasaki Fujima), although a matchmaker (Haruko Sugimura) is trying to interest him in getting married again to Yasuko (Mayumi Kurata)*…

This Daiei production was based on a magazine serial by Keita Genji (1912-85), whose works were also the source for the previously-reviewed Daiei movies The Most Valuable Wife (1959) and Kirai Kirai Kirai (1960), both of which offered similar fare. Like those, this is a light comedy, a genre not typically associated with director Kozaburo Yoshimura or his screenwriter Kaneto Shindo (although it was by no means the only occasion on which either filmmaker dabbled in comedy). Presumably, then, this was a studio assignment, but it’s well-made and entertaining, and I wasn’t left feeling they had just phoned it in.

Although Ayako Wakao – curiously, the only one who seems to be playing it totally straight – is top-billed, in this case she’s really just part of an impressive ensemble cast which also features Eiji Funakoshi, Keizo Kawasaki and Eitaro Ozawa, most of whom make the most out of the material. If you enjoy Daiei films of this era and like these actors, Katei no jijo is an enjoyable time-passer, with Sei Ikeno’s score helping to heighten the comic effect, although the black-and-white rush hour prologue and epilogue, while fun, seem a bit random to me as I couldn’t really see how they related to the main story. (I could also have done without the close-up of Eitaro Ozawa eating...)

Jiro Tamiya

Incidentally, in one impressive scene, real-life karate black-belt Jiro Tamiya gets properly thrown by another real-life karate black belt, Jun Fujimaki, who also appears here playing a love rival to Tamiya’s character.

Keita Genji’s story was remade by Katsumi Nishikawa for Nikkatsu in 1965 as Yottsu no koi no monogatari (‘Four Love Stories’).

*Although both IMDb and eiga.com state that Tamako is played by Yasuko Nakada and Yasuko is played by Murasaki Fujima, this is incorrect.

Murasaki Fujima as Tamako

Mayumi Kurata as Yasuko

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

Thanks to Coralsundy for the English subtitles, which can be found here.

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Totsugu hi made / 嫁ぐ日まで (‘Until Your Wedding Day’, 1940)

Obscure Japanese Film #231

 

Setsuko Hara

Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) lives with her widowed father (Ko Mihashi) and younger sister Asako (Akira Kurosawa’s future wife, Yoko Yaguchi, in her film debut). She’s being courted by Atsushi (Heihachiro Okawa), but feels that she cannot get married until her father finds a new wife to look after him and Asako. A suitable woman is found in the person of Tsuneko (Sadako Sawamura), but Asako is still very attached to the memory of her late mother, so will she accept another woman filling this role? 

 

Yoko Yaguchi

This domestic drama from Toho Eiga seems to prefigure the post-war films of Ozu, even down to the choice of Setsuko Hara as star. It’s well-made and features very natural performances from an impressive cast that also includes Haruko Sugimura as a piano teacher, but it’s arguably a little too low-key for its own good. It also features a couple of rather awkward ellipses and I must say that I found the ending completely unsatisfactory, perhaps largely because writer-director-producer Yasujiro Shimazu chose not to set it up in any way, so that when it comes it’s so out of the blue it feels almost random. 

 

Ko Mihashi

Shimazu, who died aged 48 of stomach cancer just after the war ended, was one of Japan’s most acclaimed directors of the 1930s. Credited with pioneering a new emphasis on realism and the lives of everyday people, it’s likely that he would have been much better known today had he survived and been able to continue directing for another decade or two. Keisuke Kinoshita, one of several fine directors who apprenticed under Shimazu, considered him a tyrant yet admitted he had learnt a great deal from him. 

 

Heihachiro Okawa

Intriguingly, there is a scene in which Asako’s school friends discuss going to see the 1938 French film about a reformatory school for teenage girls, Prison sans barreaux, which had recently been released in Japan, although it was unclear to me whether this was intended to say anything Asako's rebellion, mild as it is.  

 

Sadako Sawamura

 

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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.