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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The Pit of Death / 怪談おとし穴 / Kaidan otoshiana (aka ‘The Ghostly Trap’, 1968)

Obscure Japanese Film #147

Mikio Narita

Kuramoto (Mikio Narita) is an ambitious salaryman working at a company based in a tower block said to be haunted by the ghost of a typist who went missing. He’s in a relationship with her replacement, Etsuko (Mayumi Nagisa), who wants to marry him, but he's also being pursued by the boss' daughter, Midori (Mako Sanjo), and he wants to ditch Etsuko and marry Midori so he can get an easy promotion. Etsuko won’t let him go so easily, however, so he begins scheming about ways to get rid of her…

Narita and Mayumi Nagisa

 

As played by Mikio Narita with a Spock-like haircut, Kuramoto seems an unlikely babe magnet. Japanese Wikipedia observes that this was his only leading role in a film, and it’s not hard to see why – most of the time here, he’s so wooden that he resembles a stick with a human face (though, having said that, it’s only fair to point out that he had a reputation for being excellent at playing nihilistic villains, mainly in yakuza films). Narita is also not helped by having to play opposite an actor as expressive as Mayumi Nagisa. 

 

The film was apparently released on a double bill with Satsuo Yamamoto’s Peony Lantern, so it’s a B-movie, but even so it looks as if the penny-pinching at the struggling Daiei studios was really starting to bite. The exterior scenes are mostly shot in too-bright sunlight, and many of the interior ones are lit by equally overpowering sunshine pouring in through a nearby window or by lamps which are part of the set. It’s almost as if director Koji Shima was told that they couldn’t afford those big, expensive movie lights anymore, so he’d have to make do without. 

Narita looks out at one of Koji Shima's trademark storms

 

Recycling elements from The Ghost of Yotsuya, the script is an original work by Kazuo Funahashi – who had an impressive track record – but the thin story feels stretched out even at 78 minutes. An example of this is when a confrontation scene between Kuramoto and Etsuko on the rooftop is virtually repeated again immediately after in the stationery cupboard. However, despite its obvious flaws, The Pit of Death manages some atmospheric and creepy scenes together with a couple of clever surprises. The highlight is probably the murder scene which takes place in the basement of the office building and is accompanied by a cacophonous score evoking the sound of clanking pipes. Speaking for myself, I had low expectations for this film, but was pleasantly surprised on the whole. The film's unusual office block setting, excellent jazz soundtrack (by Shima's regular collaborator Seitaro Omori) and black-and-white VistaVision cinematography together give it a unique feel for a film of this vintage. 

Director Koji Shima ended his career at Daiei with this film, then went to Hong Kong the following year and made a longer version of the story for the Shaw Brothers (entitled Luo shi hen, aka Dear Murderer). 

 

English subtitles courtesy of Coralsundy can be found here.

DVD at Amazon Japan.