I’ll Cry Alone / 帯をとく夏子 / Obi o toku Natsuko (‘Natsuko Unties Her Obi’, 1965)

Obscure Japanese Film #235

Ayako Wakao

Eiji Funakoshi

Natsuko (Ayako Wakao) is a former hot spring geisha who has become the exclusive mistress of company president Sakuma (Eiji Funakoshi in unconvincing old man make-up). He’s under pressure from his sister Kanako (Yumeji Tsukioka) to marry Taeko (Noriko Hodaka) as it will be good for the company and, although he wants to continue seeing Natsuko on the side, Natsuko is not happy with the idea.

Yumeji Tsukioka

Kyoko Enami

A chance of a different future seems to present itself when Sakuma begins a liaison with unlikely window cleaner Sumiko (Kyoko Enami) and Natsuko runs into (literally) the teacher she had a crush on at school, Kenji (Mikijiro Hira). However, he’s now reduced to working as a garage mechanic and unable to keep her in the luxury to which she has become accustomed…

Mikijiro Hira

This Daiei production was based on the ‘Natsuko’ series of stories by Seiichi Funahashi* serialised in the literary magazine Shincho between 1952 and 1961. The first batch was published as a novel entitled Geisha Konatsu in 1952, and Toho had produced two films about Natsuko using that title in 1954/55 with Mariko Okada starring. Funahashi was also the author of the source material for Story of a Blind Woman (also 1965) and the two versions of Portrait of Madame Yuki (1950 and 1968). Unfortunately, as I felt was the case for those stories, this is another that’s unlikely to resonate much with viewers these days.

Although the film has a clear message in favour of female independence, coming as it does after we have watched Natsuko fawning over two undeserving men for most of the film, it feels tacked on almost as an afterthought. Considering the deeply-ingrained sexism of the society that Natsuko is forced to inhabit, a more hard-hitting approach would have been preferable, but the tone is fairly light here, with some scenes simply played for laughs (of which, admittedly, there are a couple). This half-heartedness is probably because the real reason for the film’s existence was simply to provide another vehicle for Ayako Wakao; at the time, much was made of the fact that she wore only kimono in this picture – but, of course, a different kimono for each scene.

Directed by veteran Shigeo Tanaka with the same competent indifference he brought to the earlier Wakao costume-change flick Tokyo Onigiri Girl (1961).

*Sometimes listed as Seiichi Funabashi, but I think that’s incorrect.

DVD at Amazon Japan

Thanks to A.K. and to Coralsundy for the English subtitles

If you enjoy this blog, feel free to buy me a coffee! 

Kokosu sezu / 告訴せず / (‘No Charges Filed’, aka ‘Without Complaint’, 1975)

Obscure Japanese Film #172

Kyoko Enami and Yukio Aoshima

 

Kitani (Fumio Watanabe) is a conservative politician running for re-election with the help of his sister-in-law, Haruko (Kirin Kiki), and adviser, Mitsuoka (Ko Nishimura).  When they need someone to go to Tokyo in order to collect 30 million yen in cash for bribery purposes, Kitani’s brother (i.e. Haruko’s husband), seems the perfect choice. He is Shogo (Yukio Aoshima), a schmuck who works as a chef and does whatever his wife tells him. However, he’s also a big fan of crime fiction, and after picking up the cash he immediately absconds with it, hiding out at a hot spring inn where he hooks up with one of the maids, Shino (Kyoko Enami)…

 

Fumio Watanabe

 

Based on an untranslated 1973 novel of the same name by prolific crime writer Seicho Matsumoto, this co-production between Toho and their affiliate, Geiensha, treats the material like a comedy, although it’s seldom very funny. The casting of Yukio Aoshima in the lead and the way he plays the role suggested to me that director Hiromichi Horikawa was looking for a new Keiju Kobayashi, who had starred in many of his earlier films. However, as this film revolves partly around the world of politics and takes a swipe at the way that elections are influenced by money, it’s also possible that Aoshima was cast due to his other career – he had actually entered politics as a Member of the House of Councillors in 1968 and, in 1971, “criticised the large amount of political donations made to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by the business community” (Japanese Wikipedia). He eventually became Governor of Tokyo from 1995 until 1999, when he lost out to another celebrity politician, Shintaro Ishihara. Like Ishihara, he also dabbled in many different fields, being at various times a screenwriter, lyricist, TV personality, novelist, singer and even film director. His independent 1966 film Kane (The Bell), which he wrote, produced, directed and starred in, screened at Cannes, but sounds like a terribly self-indulgent affair – IMDb offers the following synopsis: “Yukio Aoshima and several of his friends go to the seashore for a weekend, and Yukio films them as they enjoy the sand, the surf, and each other.” (Don’t think I’ll be rushing to seek that one out…) In any case, he’d never been called on to carry a movie before, and on this evidence it’s not hard to see why, as he’s clearly nobody’s idea of a leading man and lacks Keiju Kobayashi’s subtlety and range as well. 

 

The obligatory Eitaro Ozawa appearance

 

One of the more interesting aspects of the film is that it features something called a futomani ritual, which I'd never heard of before. It’s a Shinto method of divination in which the shoulder-blade of a stag is heated over a fire until it cracks, at which point the pattern of the cracks is interpreted for fortune-telling purposes. Incidentally, in the film this is performed by a priest played by Jun Hamamura, who looks almost healthy for once. 

 

Jun Hamamura

 

Overall, though, this film just doesn’t really know what it wants to be. A sequence featuring some weird freeze frames around halfway through does not help and made me think there was a technical fault at first. And if it was supposed to be a comedy – which seems to have been the intention – you have to wonder why on earth they would choose to go with the ending this film is lumbered with. It’s an acceptable time-passer, sure, but on the whole I’d have to call it a misfire. 

 

 

When Women Lie / 嘘 / Uso (‘Lies’, 1963)

Obscure Japanese Film #160

L-R: Eiko Takashiro, Junko Kano, Nobuko Otowa

Following the template of their earlier picture A Woman’s Testament (1960), this omnibus comedy from Daiei studios is essentially three separate half-hour films by different directors cobbled together with no linking story, only a loose theme to unite them. 

 

Takashi Nakamura and Eiko Takashiro

Episode 1, ‘Playgirl’, written by Yoshio Shirasaka and directed by Yasuzo Masumura:

Mariko (Eiko Takashiro) is a young woman dating four different men but carefully preserving her virginity as she works out which is the best candidate for marriage. She keeps detailed notes on each one and even adopts a different persona depending on the tastes of the man she is meeting next. However, her cool calculations are upset when she discovers that she has a rival (Kyoko Enami) for her current favourite (Jerry Fujio)… 

Junko Kano

 

Episode 2, ‘Mistress on the Books’, written by Ryozo Kasahara and directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura:

Shinko (Junko Kano) is a soap opera actress dismayed to learn that her character has suddenly been killed off because she’s considered a ‘daikon’ (white radish, meaning ‘bad actor’). She complains to the show’s sponsor, who is also the head of a pharmaceutical company and her sugar daddy, but she’s been milking him for too much money, so he’s considering cutting her loose and sends one of his minions (Keizo Kawasaki) to deal with the situation…

Nobuko Otowa

 

Episode 3, ‘Three Women’, written by Kaneto Shindo and directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa

A woman enters an apartment and shoots a man dead. When she is questioned by a police officer (Ken Utsui), it emerges that the woman, Michiyo (Nobuko Otowa), had left her live-in job at an inn to come and live in the apartment with a salesman, Tashiro (Eiji Funakoshi), and that she had shot him when he wanted to break it off. We also learn that Tashiro had a wife (Mitsuko Mori) who forced him to stop seeing Michiyo. But where did Michiyo get the gun?   

Eiji Funakoshi

 

The English title of this picture seems almost unfair as the men here do quite a bit of lying themselves! In fact, the unifying theme might more accurately be described as infidelity rather than lying, but in any case the tone is one of comic irony with a dash of cynicism. With its moody lighting and camera angles, Kinugasa’s episode briefly threatens to become more serious, but not for long. 

Mitsuko Mori

 

What the picture may lack in depth, it makes up for in entertainment value, and I would certainly recommend it to fans of Daiei movies of this era. The three female stars all acquit themselves well, but Junko Kano in particular gets one of her best roles and proves a dab hand at comedy. She never quite reached the heights of Daiei’s top female stars Machiko Kyo, Ayako Wakao and Fujiko Yamamoto, perhaps partly because she started later (1957) and retired at the height of her popularity in 1963 due to an eye issue which was exacerbated by working under the bright studio lights. At the time of writing, she’s still alive at 88. 

 DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

She Came for Love / 女が愛して憎むとき / Onna ga aishite nikumu toki (‘When a Woman Loves and Hates’, 1963)

Obscure Japanese Film #138

Ayako Wakao

Toshiko (Ayako Wakao) is the madam of a bar in Osaka who tries to keep her private life private and claims not to have a lover. However, she is in fact having a secret affair with Ozeki (Jiro Tamiya), a concert promoter who specialises in booking American artists and dreams of bringing Elvis to Japan. Ozeki is married and reluctant to leave his wife (Tazuko Niki), as she can speak English, which is very helpful to his business. Toshiko is well aware of all this but is apparently satisfied with the arrangement. 

Jiro Tamiya and Ayako Wakao

 

Although Toshiko’s bar is successful and she is a popular hostess, problems begin to arise. Her despised ex-husband (Akihiko Katayama) reappears and keeps bugging her; one of her employees, Nobuko (Kyoko Enami), is being a bit too flirtatious with the customers; Ozeki is making some risky deals and getting in over his head; and her former boss and mentor, Rie (Mitsuko Mori), is unhappy with her because Toshiko’s cheap whisky is tempting customers away from Rie’s bar…

Kyoko Enami

 

At times watching this, I was reminded of Naruse’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), which is understandable as not only does this Daiei production cover similar territory, but it turns out that, like Naruse’s film, it also has an original screenplay by Ryuzo Kikushima (a frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa). The story is character-driven rather than plot-driven – something which is a major strong point of the script for me, and gives Wakao an excellent role which she plays to perfection. Toshiko undergoes a rather bitter inner journey and is not the same person at the end of the film that we met at the beginning. She Came for Love may well be a case of the script and cast being more important than the director, though the little-known Sokichi Tomimoto handles all aspects well. In any case, it’s a fine film which deserves to be better-known, and it should be a must for all fans of Ayako Wakao.

Mitsuko Mori

 

Although quite famous in her home country, Mitsuko Mori (who plays the important role of Rie so convincingly) is unlikely to be familiar to many non-Japanese viewers as she had a patchy film career, first appearing in 58 films between 1935 and 1941, most of which were undistinguished B-pictures. After a long hiatus from the big screen, she made two films in 1957, and then worked in films fairly steadily – mainly in supporting roles – from 1961 until the early 1970s. However, during most of her periods of absence from the cinema she was busy with radio, television and stage work. Her signature role was as author Fumiko Hayashi in the stage version of Hayashi’s autobiographical work, A Wanderer’s Notebook; she performed this over 2,000 times from 1961, although when Mikio Naruse filmed it the following year, it was Hideko Takamine who won the part. No surprise, then, that Mori never went on to make a film with Takamine, although Naruse subsequently employed her for a part in his final film, Scattered Clouds (1967). 

 Thanks to A.K., and to Coral Sundy for the subtitles, which can be found here. 

 DVD at Amazon Japan.