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

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Tokyo Onigiri Girl / 東京おにぎり娘 / Tokyo onigiri musume / (aka ‘Triangle Moods’, 1961)

Obscure Japanese Film #149

 

Ayako Wakao and Ganjiro Nakamura

 

 

Ganjiro Nakamura and Murasaki Fujima

Mariko (Ayako Wakao) is the daughter of Tsurukichi (Ganjiro Nakamura), a widowed tailor whose business in Shinbashi, Tokyo, has ground to a halt due to his stubborn refusal to cater to changing fashions. It doesn’t help that he’s also an inveterate gambler who pays frequent visits to a mah-jong parlour owned by sexy widow Hama (Murasaki Fujima). With debt collectors calling, Mariko decides to take matters into her own hands and convert part of the shop into an onigiri (rice ball) eatery with a loan from Tsurukichi’s former apprentice, Murata (Keizo Kawasaki). 

Hiroshi Kawaguchi

 

Junko Kano

Meanwhile, her aunt (Sadako Sawamura) thinks it’s time Mariko was thinking about marriage and, hoping that it will push the two together, tells her that her childhood friend Goro (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) is secretly in love with her. However, in reality he’s more interested in Midori (Junko Kano), a dancer who turns out to be Tsurukichi’s estranged daughter from an illicit relationship with a geisha. While all this is unfolding, Mariko is also being pursued by wealthy businessman Tashiro (Yunosuke Ito), who incurs the displeasure of her over-protective and pugnacious chef Sanpei (Jerry Fujio)…

Yunosuke Ito

 

From an original screenplay by two not very distinguished writers, this Daiei comedy proves to be pretty thinly-stretched and inconsequential stuff. Little more than an excuse to show off its star in another interminable variety of costumes, it’s one for hardcore Ayako Wakao fanatics only and contains one of her least interesting performances. The film is indifferently directed by Shigeo Tanaka, but occasionally enlivened by its supporting cast, with Murasaki Fujima, Yunosuke Ito and Jerry Fujio all quite funny in their very different ways. 

Jerry Fujio

 

Jerry Fujio, who was co-lead with Jo Shishido in A Colt Is My Passport (1967) and also appeared in Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) and Dodes’ka-den (1970), was an interesting person. Born in 1940 to a Japanese father and an English mother in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, where his family all spoke in English, he moved to Japan with his parents after the war. According to Japanese Wikipedia, he and his mother faced discrimination; she became addicted to alcohol and died aged just 28 clutching a bottle of whisky. If that were not bad enough, Fujio’s father abandoned him shortly after. While still in his teens, Fujio became a bodyguard for a yakuza gang, but in 1957 he gave an impromptu performance of Elvis’ ‘Hound Dog’ in a jazz bar and was signed by an entertainment agency, taking the name of Jerry after American comedian Jerry Lewis. Even after becoming successful as a singer and actor, however, he could not quite shake off his yakuza past; on one occasion, finding himself attacked by three yakuza in the street, he fought back so hard that he broke three of his attackers’ ribs and four of their front teeth before the police showed up and arrested him for ‘excessive self-defence’!

As for the title, how this film became known in English as Triangle Moods, or what that even means, is anyone’s guess…

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan. 

Furin / 不倫 (1965)

Obscure Japanese Film #126

Ayako Wakao

 

Saburi (Keizo Kawasaki) is a writer who has just won the Newcomer of the Year Award for his book ‘Sexual Aesthetics’. Despising marriage and thinking monogamy unnatural, he has ongoing sexual relationships with two women and has arranged it so that they visit his apartment on different days. The two women are the traditionally-minded Seiko (Ayako Wakao), who would like to get married but is too deferential to insist on it, and Maki (Kyoko Enami), a more modern type who usually wears Western clothes and is considering getting married to an American. The two women soon become aware of each other’s existence; when they finally meet, Saburi is disconcerted to see them getting on like a house on fire instead of fighting over him as his ego would prefer… 

Kyoko Enami

This sex comedy eschews obvious gags and opts instead for irony – the more Saburo gets embroiled in this ménage à trois, the more of a conservative hypocrite he’s revealed to be. For all his preaching of emancipation, he still feels the need to lie and is no more immune to feelings of guilt and jealousy than anyone else. At one point, he begins to suspect that Seiko and Maki are having a lesbian affair – an idea he finds quite shocking.

 

 

Furin was based on a just-published novel of the same name by the prolific Koichiro Uno (just turned 90 at the time of writing). It’s a well-made and well-acted movie, especially by the two women, with Kyoko ‘Woman Gambler’ Enami making a strong contrast to Wakao’s more demure, but also more manipulative, character. The classical-style soundtrack and crisp black and white photography also lend considerable class, while the direction by forgotten veteran Shigeo Tanaka (see also Mikkokusha) is hard to find fault with. 

 

The one slight bone of contention I have with this film is that Saburi’s life bears no resemblance to that of anyone I’ve ever known (though perhaps I don’t move in the right circles). He seems to do very little work, yet has no money worries whatever. It’s hard to understand why Seiko and Maki are interested in him as, not only is he rather nerdy and plain-looking, he has no particularly positive personality traits to make up for it. And Seiko does all his cooking for him, too – this is one dweeb who’s really got it made!

Keizo Kawasaki

 

The title is sometimes translated as ‘Adultery’ in English, although it’s a poor fit as the protagonists are unmarried. Furin can also mean ‘impropriety’ or ‘immorality’, but these sound too judgemental given the context. For these reasons, it’s understandable that, when Daiei screened it in English at their then recently-opened New Kokusai Theatre in Honolulu, it was retitled ‘Strange Triangle’. 

 

 Thanks to AK.

Mikkokusha /密告者 (‘The Informer’) 1965

Obscure Japanese Film #54

 

Jiro Tamiya

 

This Daiei thriller stars Jiro Tamiya as Segawa, a bankrupt stockbroker now reduced to working as a salesman. He has a huge debt to pay off, but unfortunately he’s been unable to sell a single one of the ‘electric massagers’ he’s supposed to be flogging, so he decides to ask his boss, Sawai (Yusuke Takita), if he can try selling something else instead. Sawai confesses that the massagers are just a front for an industrial espionage agency he’s running, then offers Segawa some well-paid work spying on a pharmaceutical company run by Ogino (Akira Natsuki), also confessing that this was the real reason he had recruited Segawa in the first place and that he has been waiting for the right moment to tell him. Sawai knows that Segawa used to be engaged to Ogino’s wife, Eiko (Kaoru Izumi), and hopes that this connection will give Segawa a valuable ‘in’ through which he can begin gathering information. Segawa finds the task easier than expected and soon begins getting results, but it all goes wrong when he finds himself the prime suspect in a murder case. However,  Eiko’s sister, Toshiko (Shiho Fujimura), seems convinced of his innocence and willing to do anything she can to help him…

Shiho Fujimura

Mikkokusha sees Jiro Tamiya in a typical role as an ambitious womaniser who’s not too big in the morals department – see also Black Test Car, Stolen Pleasure and, most notably, The Great White Tower (among others). Tamiya excelled at playing such characters, and was also an athletic type and proficient in karate – a useful skill when called upon to perform in action scenes, of which this film has a number of good ones in the second half. Unfortunately, his film career would soon go off the rails. In 1968, he complained to the bosses at Daiei studios about having been relegated to fourth billing on the posters for Tadashi Imai’s The Time of Reckoning (1968) below Ayako Wakao, Mariko Kaga and Mariko Okada despite having the lead role. Daiei changed the billing but fired him. Due to an arrangement between the five big film companies in Japan, this meant that none of the other studios would sign him and he had to make do with TV work and roles in occasional independent films (something similar had happened to Fujiko Yamamoto in 1963). In the following years, Tamiya embarked on a number of unsuccessful business ventures and suffered from health issues culminating in depression and a mental breakdown. He committed suicide with a hunting rifle in 1978 aged just 43.

Director Shigeo Tanaka (1907-1992) is generally regarded as a journeyman, but it’s an indication of the quality of Japanese cinema during this period that even the so-called hacks were, at the least, highly competent. Tanaka enjoyed a long career, making his first film in 1931, and his last in 1980. He’s probably best remembered for the ‘Woman Gambler’ series starring Kyoko Enami (who apparently replaced Ayako Wakao when the latter had to pull out for health reasons). Enami also appears here as Segawa’s girlfriend, but the plum female role goes to Shiho Fujimura, who is especially effective in her final scene. Yusuke Takita is also memorable as the suave and slippery Sawai.

Yusuke Takita

 

The industrial espionage thriller became a subgenre of its own in 1960s Japanese cinema, although Mikkokusha focuses mainly on the murder mystery aspect of the plot. This is quite convoluted but pretty clever, and overall the film has a lot going for it, including some fine black-and-white ‘scope photography by Fujio Morita, who went on to shoot many of Hideo Gosha’s films. 

The screenplay by Hajime Takaiwa was based on a just-published novel of the same name by Akimitsu Takagi later published in English translation by Soho Press in 2001 as The Informer. Takaiwa's adaptation is pretty faithful; although the aforementioned action scenes are not present in the book, they are a welcome addition as the story would have made for an overly talky film without them. 

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

DVD on Amazon Japan.