Yume miru hitobito / 夢見る人々 (‘People Who Dream’, 1953)

 

Yoko Katsuragi

 

 

 

Shinya (Masao Wakahara) is an architect who returns home from ‘the South’ for the first time since the war to find that his fiancée, writer Yuriko (Mieko Takamine) has married someone else, his family home has been destroyed in an air raid and his parents killed, and his half-sister and her husband have spent his inheritance. Needless to say, he’s not a happy bunny. However, his father’s friend’s granddaughter, Sumiko (Yoko Katsuragi), still loves him even though he only thinks of her as a younger sister…

 

Masao Wakahara

 

This Shochiku production was based on a 1952 newspaper-serial novel by Nobuko Yoshiya, the Christian-lesbian writer who also supplied the source material for Flower-Picking Diary (1939). In this case there’s no sign of Christianity nor lesbian love, and the two more unconventional female characters – company president Fujie (Sadako Sawamura) and her tomboyish daughter Ioko (Kyoko Kami) – seem to be present mainly to serve as comedy relief. Speaking of comedy, one amusing moment which feels unintentional comes at the beginning when a blind war veteran solicits donations on a train and seems able to tell when people are holding out money to him even when they say nothing. 

 

Kyoko Kami, Wakahara and Sadako Sawamura

 

The awkward subject of the war is always present in the background of the story, but only occasionally comes to the fore, and it’s entirely unclear what Shinya has been doing for the seven or eight years since the conflict ended. We know only that he has testified on behalf of a former sergeant, Arakawa (Jun Tatara), to save him from being sentenced as a war criminal. Many of the characters are portrayed as victims of the war in various ways, and there’s never really an acknowledgement of any guilt – the closest we get is a scene in which Shinya’s father’s friend, Shibata (Eijiro Yanagi), finally forgives his son, who had incurred his wrath during the war by daring to express the opinion that Japan would lose. 

 

Mieko Takamine

 

In terms of the cast, the forgotten Masao Wakahara as Shinya – described at one point as looking ‘like (Charles) Boyer’ – seems to have been quite a big star at the time, but his performance here is on the wooden side, which is perhaps why his career petered out early once his Boyer-esque looks began to fade. Mieko Takamine does her best with an underwritten role, but it’s Yoko Katsuragi as Sumiko who really becomes the heart of the film. She was an underrated actor whose girlish looks often prevented her from getting the more interesting dramatic parts, but it’s not for nothing that she was a favourite of Keisuke Kinoshita as well as this film’s director, Noboru Nakamura, for whom she made six pictures. One of these was Nakamura’s previous film, Natsuko’s Adventure in Hokkaido, in which she had also co-starred with Masao Wakahara. Regarding Nakamura, his direction is certainly highly competent, but his best work was yet to come in films such as Koto (1963), The Shape of Night (1964) and The Kii River (1966). 

 

 

Thanks to A.K. 

Watch with English subtitles on my YouTube channel here.

Flower-Picking Diary / 花つみ日記 / Hana-tsumi nikki (1939)

Hideko Takamine

 

 

 Mitsuru (Misako Shimizu) is a girl from Tokyo whose family have just moved to the Soemoncho district of Osaka. She’s in her early-mid teens and her mother is a Christian. When she begins attending her new school, she soon becomes best-friends with classmate Eiko (Hideko Takamine), who used to live in Tokyo herself when she was small. Her family have a business training maiko (apprentice geisha) to sing, dance and play instruments. When the two girls come up with a plan to make a gift together with which to surprise their kindly teacher (Kuniko Ashihara) on her birthday, a misunderstanding ensues and they fall out. Both girls are miserable as a result, and Eiko gets to the point where she can’t even face school anymore, so she drops out to become a maiko herself…

 

Misako Shimizu

 

Produced by Toho Eiga before they became known simply as Toho from 1943, Flower-Picking Diary was based on a story by Nobuko Yoshiya (1896-1973). Being both a Christian and a lesbian, she wrote from an unusual perspective for a Japanese author of the time, but her books were highly popular with female students – so much so, in fact, that there had already been around 30 movies based on her work. The main source of this particular picture is a story entitled ‘Tengoku to maiko’ (‘Heaven and maiko’) from her 1936 collection Chisana hanabana (Little Flowers), but it seems that some elements may have been borrowed from other stories by Yoshiya as the story of the film (as adapted by female screenwriter Noriko Suzuki) differs considerably. The main difference is that there is apparently no falling out between the two girls in the original – a fact I found quite surprising considering that this is absolutely central to the film. Indeed, the extent to which it should be interpreted as the story of a lesbian love is debatable  – there’s certainly nothing overt – but it’s certainly a film about friendship and the devastating feelings that can occur when two close friends fall out. It’s difficult to think of other examples of films dealing seriously with broken friendships, but this one is very moving once it gets going (there may be rather too much singing of sentimental songs in the earlier stages). 

 

 

The shadow of war looms large over the film, and the scenes of largely unquestioning and joyful celebration when Mitsuru’s brother gets called up have not dated well, but are revealing of their time. (Incidentally, Nobuko Yoshiya’s reputation suffered somewhat after the war as she was said to have toed the authoritarian government line a little more than necessary.) Ironically, though, it’s the war that gives some hope for the future of Eiko and Mitsuru’s friendship as Eiko decides to make a senninbari for Mitsuru’s brother, which involves her standing at the bridge on Shinsaibashi Street and asking passing women to sew a stitch to make up the 1000 needed for this type of amulet belt.

 

 

Hideko Takamine was 15 when she made this, but already an old pro who had made dozens of films since her film debut in 1929 at the age of 5. Her co-star, Misako Shimazu, was a very young-looking 20 years of age, and was featured in a few other films but disappeared from the screen after 1941. Takamine may well have related to her role more than usual here as, shortly before making the film, like Eiko, she had been forced to leave school and pursue a career she did not particularly care for (acting in movies was something she felt obliged to do as no less than nine family members were relying on her financially).

The sensitive direction is by Tamizo Ishida (1901-72), who made around 90 films between 1926 and 1947, but the only other one which is relatively easy to find in decent quality with English subtitles is Fallen Blossoms (1938).

BONUS TRIVIA: If the actor playing Eiko’s father looks familiar, that’s probably because it’s Eitaro Shindo, who went on to play the title role in Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterpiece Sansho Dayu (1954)

Some of the information above comes from a review on Amazon Japan by ‘Beautiful Summer.’

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan