Woman Unveiled / 女であること / Onna de aru koto (‘Being a Woman’, 1958)

 

Yoshiko Kuga

 

Masayuki Mori and Setsuko Hara

Sadatsugu (Masayuki Mori), a lawyer, and his wife Ichiko (Setsuko Hara) are a childless couple who are looking after the daughter of one of Sadatsugu’s clients, who is facing a death sentence, though we never learn precisely what for. The daughter, named Taeko (Kyoko Kagawa), appears to be in her late teens, and is sensitive, timid and rather gloomy, perhaps mostly due to her father’s situation.

 

Kyoko Kagawa

Sadatsugu and Ichiko then find themselves having to look after another young woman of a similar age, Sakae (Yoshiko Kuga), who has run away from home and is the daughter of Ichiko’s best friend. Unlike Taeko, Sakae turns out to be a spoilt, insensitive troublemaker with no filter and no control over her emotions. It’s not long before she’s annoying Taeko with her directness, flirting with Sadatsugu and even coming home drunk and kissing Ichiko on the lips. Meanwhile, Ichiko has a chance meeting with old flame Goro (Tatsuya Mihashi), whom she hasn’t seen for 17 years. Then Sakae finds out and starts sticking her oar in… 

 

Tatsuya Mihashi

 

This production by Tokyo Eiga (a subsidiary of Toho) was director Yuzo Kawashima’s first for them after leaving Nikkatsu. It was based on an untranslated novel of the same name by Yasunari Kawabata originally serialised in the Asahi Shinbun during 1956. Despite the fact that it’s not considered one of future Nobel laureate Kawabata’s most notable works, Kawashima – along with his collaborators Sumie Tanaka (female) and Toshiro Ide (male) – is said to have gone to a great deal of trouble over the screenplay. By all accounts a pretty faithful adaptation, nevertheless Kawashima apparently regarded the film as a failure, feeling that he had failed to make of it any more than an illustrated version of the novel’s key scenes. It’s also likely that some important aspects had to be implied in the film version due to censorship – for example, that Sadatsugu and his wife haven’t slept together much in their ten years of marriage, and that Ichiko’s interest in sex is revived partly due to her kiss with Sakae and partly as a result of meeting Goro again. There’s also some suggestion that Sadatsugu sleeps with Sakae, but it’s not really made clear. However, what’s more frustrating is that we learn nothing of the crime for which Taeko’s father is facing a death sentence and, in fact, never even lay eyes on him – it’s simply a convenient device to give her something to feel troubled about. It seems to me that the inclusion of such a story element rather obliges the writers to expand a little (I would assume that Kawabata went into more detail in his book).

 

Masayuki Mori

 

The film opens with a montage sequence of Yoshiko Kuga shot from behind riding around on her bike and shouting out greetings to various passers-by. This is followed by Akihiro Miwa, the drag queen from Black Lizard (1968), dancing and singing the title song (i.e. ‘Being a Woman’) over the opening credits before two American military planes go roaring overhead, scaring Kyoko Kagawa’s pet bird. It’s hard to know what to make of this opening – apart from whimsy on the part of Kawashima – as none of it seems to bear much relation to what follows. 

 

Setsuko Hara

Though by no means a bad film, Woman Unveiled also features a disappointingly corny, Hollywood-style score by Toshiro Mayuzumi and wraps things up in mostly conventional fashion, although the change undergone by Kyoko Kagawa’s character is somewhat unexpected. The posters promoted Setsuko Hara as the main star, but it’s Yoshiko Kuga who steals this one – the term  ‘charm offensive’ springs to mind here, as she simultaneously manages to be both charming and offensive. Incidentally, the role is strikingly similar to the one she played in the previous year’s Banka (aka Northern Elegy), in which she also caused trouble for a middle-aged and married professional played by Masayuki Mori. For all its flaws, Woman Unveiled remains a well-made and intelligent film arguably more in the Naruse mould than the Kawashima one (if such a thing existed) with a trio of very different but interesting and well-rounded female characters at its centre.

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles) 

 

 

Kaei / 花影 / (‘The Shade of Blossoms’, 1961)

Obscure Japanese Film #194

Junko Ikeuchi

 

Yoko (Junko Ikeuchi) is an ageing Ginza bar hostess who has never been sufficiently calculating to hook a wealthy patron and get herself set up with her own bar or restaurant. Seeing little future for herself, she plans to commit suicide with pills she’s been saving up. As she prepares to do so, her story is told in flashback and we learn that she was adopted as a child and, as an adult, has had a series of disappointing relationships with a variety of men. These include university lecturer Matsuzaki (Ryo Ikebe), middle-aged lawyer Hata (Tadao Takashima), young TV producer Shimizu (Ichiro Arishima), and old-flame-made-good Nogata (Tatsuya Mitsuhashi). However, the only one she’s ever really loved is older art critic Takashima (Shuji Sano), as he’s the only one who’s never made a pass at her, but perhaps she’s idealised him too much…

 

Ikeuchi and Shuji Sano

 

Based on a prize-winning novel of the same name by Shohei Ooka – best known for Fires on the Plain – the story of this Tokyo Eiga production (distributed by Toho) was inspired by the life of Mutsuko Sakamoto (1915-58), a Ginza bar hostess with whom Ooka had had an eight-year-long affair before she committed suicide. The adaptation by Ryuzu Kikushima (one of Kurosawa’s regular collaborators) is extremely faithful to the book, which was translated into English as The Shade of Blossoms by Dennis Washburn and published in 1998 by the University of Michigan Press (the title refers to the shade under blossoming cherry or plum trees). Both film and novel have an almost shockingly sad ending without a trace of sentimentality, and director Yuzo Kawashima has done a fine job of bringing the story to life without imposing his own ego upon it. When he (or perhaps Kikushima) does add something – like Hata’s adopted daughter killing a worm in the garden after her father has thoughtlessly pointed out to Yoko that she’s not his by blood – it’s entirely appropriate and helps to illustrate the emotions of the characters. 

 

 

Yoko, a hostess who is weary of men, knows every seduction trick in the book only too well and seems in danger of sliding into alcoholism, is 38 years old in the novel, and would have been a perfect fit for Hideko Takamine, then 37. However, Tokyo Eiga went with the 28-year-old Junko Ikeuchi, whom they had just signed after her previous studio Shintoho had gone bankrupt. Although she’s a little young for the role, Ikeuchi could perhaps pass for a very well-preserved 38, but in any case she gives an excellent performance and manages to put Yoko’s complex emotions across very well. The remainder of the cast are left fighting for screen time as there are an unusually large number of important characters – indeed, it’s unusual to see Ryo Ikebe and Chikage Awashima in such small roles (Awashima plays the former mistress of Nogata’s deceased father). Sei Ikeno’s harpsichord-dominated score also adds a touch of class to the proceedings and never tries to manipulate our emotions in an obvious way. 

 

Tatsuya Mihashi, Ikeuchi and Chikage Awashima 

 

Shohei Ooka is on record as saying that Yukio Mishima was effusive in his praise of the book and that, after Mishima’s suicide, he felt convinced that it was this theme of Yoko wanting to end her own life while she was still beautiful that had appealed to him so much. 

 

Ryo Ikebe and Ikeuchi

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles) 

Main Line to Terror / 動脈列島 / Domyaku retto (1975)

Obscure Japanese Film #192

 

Masaomi Kondo

 

Akiyama (Masaomi Kondo) is a young doctor furious about the death of one of his patients, which he believes was the result of her living right next to a shinkansen (bullet train) track as the intense noise and vibration brought on memories of World War 2 air raids and induced repeated panic attacks which wrecked her health. It’s been around a decade since the advent of the bullet train, and many other people living near to the lines have also suffered greatly, but the rail bosses have done little to address the problems, so Akiyama decides it’s time to take matters into his own hands. He persuades his girlfriend Tomoko (Keiko Takahashi), a nurse, to steal a phial of nitro-glycerine from the hospital and uses it to create a bomb, threatening to destroy a bullet train in ten days’ time if Japanese National Railways (JNR) fail to address the issues immediately. The Police Commissioner (Eitaro Ozawa) calls in investigator Takigawa (Jiro Tamiya), who marshals all the forces at his disposal in a race against time to catch Akiyama and avert a major disaster…

 

Jiro Tamiya and Eitaro Ozawa

 

This Tokyo Eiga production has the type of story that can hardly fail to be gripping, but also calls attention to the issue of noise pollution from high-speed trains, which was something of a hot topic at the time. The film was based on a 1974 novel by the leftist writer Ikko Shimizu (1931-2010) which won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award. His work had a strong element of social commentary and often dealt with themes such as corruption in big business, but was only occasionally adapted for the big screen. In this case, the book was inspired by a lawsuit filed against JNR by 575 residents of Nagoya City which would drag on for over a decade (the residents eventually received substantial compensation and the original bullet trains were gradually replaced by quieter models). However, the idea of one of these protestors turning terrorist appears to have been Shimizu’s invention. As the story makes JNR look pretty bad, it’s unsurprising that they refused to co-operate with the film company, so how certain scenes could have been pulled off without their help is anyone’s guess. 

 

Masaomi Kondo and Meiko Kaji

 

Co-written and directed by Yasuzo Masumura, by this time a freelancer after the collapse of Daiei, it’s efficiently made but one of the least characteristic of his works. The plot has its implausibilities, but also a strong police procedural element and a memorable climax involving a bulldozer which made me wonder whether the filmmakers had seen the previous year’s American TV movie Killdozer. 

 

 

Star Jiro Tamiya was a Masumura favourite who had previously featured in the latter’s Black Super-Express (1964), which also had a plot revolving around the shinkansen. His co-star, Masaomi Kondo, had been around for a while, having debuted in Shohei Imamura’s The Pornographers (1966), but was mostly known for his TV work at this point, and the part of Akiyama marked his biggest film role to date. The rest of the cast features some well-known faces – including Meiko Kaji as a barmaid who falls for Akiyama and So Yamamura as the president of JNR – but the characters are generally on the thin side and don’t give the actors many opportunities to impress. Not that it matters much – the film rattles along at high speed much like the trains it features, and there’s also a pretty decent score by Hikaru Hayashi, who often worked with Kaneto Shindo as well as Masumura. 

 

So Yamamura

 

Toei released the similarly-themed Shinkansen daibakuha aka Bullet Train the same year.

Note on the title: The film is sometimes referred to in English as Dynamic Islands, but a more accurate translation of the Japanese title is ‘Artery Archipelago’, which would make sense if one added ‘of the’ in the middle. 

 

Masaomi Kondo and Meiko Kaji

 

Sweet Sweat / 甘い汗 / Amai ase (1964)

Obscure Japanese Film #155

Machiko Kyo

Kyo with Sadako Sawamura

Umeko (Machiko Kyo) is a 36-year-old unmarried mother of a teenage daughter, Takeko (Miyuki Kuwano). They live in poverty in a cramped dwelling shared with her brother’s family and their mother (Sadako Sawamura). Umeko is used to trading on her looks in various ways to get by but has an unfortunate habit of drinking too much. She thinks she has it made when sleazy bartender Fujii (Shoichi Ozawa) fixes her up with wealthy art dealer Gondo (Eitaro Ozawa), who intends to make her his long-term mistress, but Gondo kicks her out when he discovers that she has not been entirely straight with him. Another chance of salvation seems to present itself when she runs into old flame Tatsuoka (Keiji Sada), but this is a world in which there are no fairly tale endings… 

 

Kyo with Shoichi Ozawa

On 1 July 1964, Fuji TV broadcast an original 1-hour drama entitled Abura deri (‘Oily Weather’) as part of their Theatre of 10 Million People series. Marking the first appearance of Machiko Kyo in a TV drama, it was written by Yoko Mizuki, a screenwriter known for her collaborations with film directors Mikio Naruse and Tadashi Imai. Sweet Sweat, released on 19 Sep 1964, is an expanded version of the same story with a screenplay also written by Mizuki. It’s impressive that Tokyo Eiga, the studio that produced it, were able to have an entirely new 2-hour version in cinemas just three and a half months later, especially as their film betrays no sign of having been knocked out in a hurry. On the contrary, it gives the impression of having been made with a great deal of care and attention to detail by everyone involved, not least Shiro Toyoda, a director known for bringing a high level of visual flair to his films, many of which were literary adaptations. 

Kyo with Eitaro Ozawa

 

Yoko Mizuki won a Kinema Junpo Award for Best Screenplay for this film, while Kyo deservedly won both the Kinema Junpo Award and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Actress. She’s first seen here having a drunken cat-fight with another bar hostess, but we quickly learn that Umeko herself is a consummate actress – when she puts on her best kimono and visits Gondo for the first time, he’s initially convinced that she really is the demure victim of misfortune she appears to be. It’s the type of role that’s a gift for an actress, and Kyo is a joy to watch when she gets a role like this one that doesn’t require her to be too restrained. 

Kyo with Keiji Sada

 

It’s also interesting to see Keiji Sada subverting his usual nice guy image in his final film role before his untimely death in a car crash. Sada seemed keen to stretch himself in his later films – Escape from Hell being another example – so it would have been interesting to see what he would do next had he lived. At one point in Sweet Sweat, his character even throws salt at Umeko as if she’s an evil spirit he must ward off, though she would perhaps be more justified in throwing salt at him. Also notable in the cast is 22-year-old Miyuki Kuwano, who is entirely convincing as a 17-year-old high school student. Although this may not seem much of an acting feat, when compared with her leading role in The Shape of Night the same year, it becomes obvious that she was also a versatile talent. 

 

Kyo with Miyuki Kuwano

Mostly set in the run-down Tokyo neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa, then being torn apart for redevelopment, this is a terrific film with a tangible atmosphere of discomfort; everyone seems to be constantly fanning themselves or wiping the sweat off. It also benefits from the nicely unintrusive music score by Hikaru Hayashi and excellent cinematography of Kozo Okazaki. Newly released on DVD in Japan, this is a film ripe for rediscovery and one which I think will start to receive more attention in the near future.

 

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)