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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Hot Spring Doctress / 温泉女医 / Onsen joi (1964)

Obscure Japanese Film #143

When a new doctor arrives to replace the old drunk Dr Yabuuchi (Ichiro Sugai) at a hot spring resort in Izu, the residents are shocked to learn that his replacement is (gasp!) a woman, Dr Shiotsuki (Ayako Wakao). She proves to be strong-willed and soon gains the respect of the often badly-behaved residents, who include Dr Yabuuchi’s best friend, randy old codger Tahei (Ganjiro Nakamura playing to type); Yabuuchi’s rotund son, Masahiko (Taro Marui), who looks after the local orphans; and cynical geisha Omura (Utako Shibusawa), who Dr Shiotsuki tries to talk out of having an abortion…

 

 

This Daiei production was the final entry in their series of five ‘onsen’ B-pictures which began with Onsen geisha in 1963 (not to be confused with Toei’s later ‘Onsen Geisha’ series which ran from 1968-75). It’s one of nine films that Wakao made with director Keigo Kimura (1903-86), a veteran who made his first film in 1930 and retired two films after this one, having directed 93 pictures. His filmography covers a wide range of genres, including a number of prestigious literary adaptations, and his 1955 film Sen-hime was nominated for the Palme d’Or. Like many of his movies, that one starred Machiko Kyo, whom he had been responsible for bringing to prominence with his 1949 film, A Fool’s Love. Hot Spring Doctress seems to represent something of a comedown for Kimura, whose work is hard to judge overall as so little of it is currently accessible. 

Taro Marui

 

On the whole, this is a rather dated but harmless comedy which is not as sexist as it might have been and passes the time pleasantly enough, getting by largely on the considerable charm of its star, Ayako Wakao. It’s also hard to dislike a film in which the romantic male lead is the portly Taro Marui, a Daiei contract actor who had scored a hit in Zuzushii yatsu (‘Shameless Guy’), a TV drama produced by Daiei in 1963. Marui subsequently received many offers from other TV production companies, but Daiei refused to loan him out. His career suffered when he spoke out about this, and he committed suicide in 1967.

Thanks to A.K., and to Coral Sundy for the English subtitles, which can be found here.

DVD at Amazon Japan