Shroud of Snow / 雪の喪章 / Yuki no mosho (1967)

Obscure Japanese Film #105

Ayako Wakao

The story begins in 1930 in Kanazawa, a city located on the west coast of Japan’s main island and known for its production of gold leaf and heavy snowfall in winter. Taeko (Ayako Wakao) has just married into the Sayama family, who have a successful gold leaf business. Soon after the wedding, her husband, Kunio (Toyota Fukuda), hires a new maid, Sei (Tamao Nakamura), apparently in an act of charity as she’s an orphan and a distant relation of the family. Sei is of a meek disposition, so Taeko is profoundly shocked when she catches Kunio in flagrante with her. Kunio’s mother (Mitsuko Yoshikawa) apologises to Taeko on behalf of her son, but explains pragmatically that it’s better than him spending his money in the red light district. However, Taeko finds herself unable to forgive Kunio so, when one of her husband’s employees, Guntaro (Shigeru Amachi), confesses his love to her, she seems ready to run off to Osaka with him and start a new life. 

Toyota Fukuda

 

When Kunio discovers their plans, Guntaro ends up leaving without her, and Taeko seems to have little choice but to stay with her husband and try to make it work. While resigning herself to her fate, she cannot help having vindictive thoughts, and when a series of tragedies occur – always during a heavy snowfall – she wonders if she has willed them into existence. As the years pass, the family’s fortunes take a dive, the war begins and events lead to an unexpected reunion of sorts with Guntaro…  

Tamao Nakamura

 

Shigeru Amachi

Revolving around the intertwined destinies of the four main characters, Shroud of Snow is not so much the story of a love triangle, but a love square. Despite a number of dramatic events, it’s a strange, enigmatic film in content as the real drama happens inside Taeko’s head. With no voiceover, the film relies heavily on the acting talents of Ayako Wakao; fortunately, she’s adept at expressing the inner thoughts and feelings of her characters, and gives her usual immaculate performance. Nevertheless, I’d love to be able to read the original novel in order to understand the film a little better, but unfortunately it’s never been translated and appears to be out of print in Japan. 

 

The author, Mitsuko Mizuashi (1914-2003), was herself from Kanazawa, where her father ran a gold leaf business before going bankrupt, after which the family moved to Osaka. Yuki no mosho, published in 1962, was her best-known work and the only one to be filmed, although she was a well-regarded writer nominated for both the Akutagawa and Naoki prizes on several occasions. I suspect that the task of adapting her novel must have been challenging and may be why it uncharacteristically took Daiei five years to turn it into a film as well as the reason it has not been filmed since. 

 

The director, Kenji Misumi, is well known for his Zatoichi and Lone Wolf and Cub films. Although Shroud of Snow is far from a typical Misumi film, his direction is impressive while seldom calling attention to itself. He extracts good performances all round and pulls off some difficult shots wonderfully, such as when we see flakes of gold leaf swirling about in the smoke from a fire. Another plus is the score by Sei Ikeno, which is subtle and restrained yet makes the most of the film’s dramatic moments.

Note on the title: A more literal translation of the Japanese title would be something like ‘Snow Mourning Band’. 

Bonus trivia: The gold leaf which covers Kyoto’s famous Kinkaku-ji (the Temple of the Golden Pavilion) was made in Kanazawa. 

 

Onna no kunsho /女の勲章 (‘A Woman’s Medal’, 1961)

Obscure Japanese Film #80

Machiko Kyo

 

This Daiei production is based on a novel by Toyoko Yamasaki (1924-2013), an author of best-selling novels which often dealt with scheming, corruption and scandal in various industries and were based on interviews with insiders. Many of these were turned into successful films, such as The Great White Tower (the medical industry), A Splendid Family (the banking industry) and Barren Zone (the aviation industry). She became the subject of scandal herself for a while when she faced several accusations of plagiarism, but ultimately these failed to do any serious damage to her career. However, Yamasaki was more popular with readers than critics, most of whom saw little of literary merit in her work. Onna no kunsho, published the year of the film’s release, was the first example of what became the familiar Yamasaki formula and is set in the world of the fashion industry. 

 

Jiro Tamiya

Machiko Kyo stars as Shikiko, a talented fashion designer in Osaka* who forms an alliance with an ambitious business manager, Ginshiro (Jiro Tamiya). Unfortunately, behind the fake concern for her welfare, Ginshiro is an unscrupulous character who seeks only to exploit her for his own ends. After seducing Shikiko, he talks her into signing off on a lot of dodgy deals, then proceeds to work his way through her senior designers, Rinko (Ayako Wakao), Katsumi (Junko Kano) and Tomie (Tamao Nakamura), seducing each in turn and using them to expand the company and consolidate his own position. 

 

Ayako Wakao

Junko Kano and Tamao Nakamura

Although Tamiya later played a similarly ruthless character in the 1966 film of Yamasaki’s The Great White Tower – which became his signature role – Ginshiro is an unusual part for him in that he talks a lot and is not at all moody, being almost entirely unfazed by whatever difficult situation may occur. Tamiya handles this well and holds his own among a cast dominated by formidable female stars. Most of the female characters here turn out to be just as duplicitous as Ginshiro, and when somebody finally shows some moral backbone, it’s in the unlikely form of a journalist (the excellent Eiji Funakoshi). Journalists are seldom depicted as the most ethical of people, so the fact that Yamasaki was a former journalist herself might not be entirely coincidental. 

 

Eiji Funakoshi

Kaneto Shindo’s screenplay results in a very talky film with largely unsympathetic characters I found it difficult to care about very much, making it a stark contrast to the last film I reviewed here, A Night to Remember, also starring Ayako Wakao and Jiro Tamiya and directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura. I had the distinct impression that Yoshimura was less invested in this film as the direction is competent but seldom notable. However, Onna no kunsho does have a highly effective ending and was presumably successful at the box office as it has been remade for television three times since.  

*Shikiko is said to have been based on real-life Osakan fashion designer Yasuko Ueda (1906-96).