M.R. Dowsing's Blog

Obscure Japanese Film #232

Niizu(Shin Saburi) is a newspaper reporter who drops dead in the streetafter a night of heavy drinking. At the wake, his wife (YatsukoTan’ami) is surprised when a mysterious guest turns up to pay herrespects. This is Kiyo (Ineko Arima), a young woman who has beenNiizu’s mistress for the past three years while he was in themountains working on a labour of love, a book entitled A Historyof the Chinese Salt Industry (sounds riveting!). 

Inflashback, we learn how Kiyo first met Niizu during the war when shewas a teenager and was living with her aunt and a geisha named Hideya(Nobuko Otowa), who Niizu regularly slept with. One night, Niizu,Hideya and Kiyo were all sharing the same room when Niizu made loveto Hideya while Kiyo kept her head turned away and covered her ears.When they were finished, Hideya went to use the bathroom and Niizutook the opportunity to say to Kiyo, ‘When you grow up, let’shave an affair.’ Instead of being creeped out by this, she fell inlove with him and started keeping a scrapbook of his newspaperarticles. When they met again a few years later, it was she whoinitiated their affair...

ThisShochiku production involved many of the same talents that made thepreviously-reviewed film The Hunting Rifle (1961). Like thatlater picture, it was directed by Heinosuke Gosho, shot by HaruoTakeno, scripted by Toshio Yasumi based on a Yasushi Inoue story,scored by Yasushi Akutagawa and featured Shin Saburi and NobukoOtowa. It’s safe to assume, then, that Waga ai was acommercial success as Shochiku would not have green-lit TheHunting Rifle otherwise. However, it suffers from several of thesame fatal flaws as that later picture and I doubt it would bewell-received by audiences today, which is perhaps why the only wayto see it is via an old VHS transfer.

NobelPrize nominee Yasushi Inoue was a very talented writer but, like manyJapanese authors of the 20th-century, he was extremely prolific anddivided his efforts between writing highbrow literary material andmore commercial works to pay the rent, so that the quality of hiswork varied greatly. Without an English translation, I’m not surehow the 1952 story ‘Tsuya no kyaku’ (‘A Guest at the Wake’)which provided the basis for this film sits on that spectrum, but,for me anyway, the story is the fundamental problem here, consisting as it mostly does of  sentimental claptrap meets malewish-fulfilment. Indeed, it’s a complete mystery why Kiyo would fall inlove with a craggy-faced, middle-aged, married drunk old enough to beher father and basically insist on becoming his uncomplaining slave;feminism must have been a completely alien concept to the peopleresponsible for this film. Perhaps if Niizu had been played by someonemore charismatic than Saburi, it might have helped a little, butprobably not much – the picture is also sabotaged by the cloyingclichés which make up Yasushi Akutagawa’s dreadful score.

Obscure Japanese Film #231

Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) lives withher widowed father (Ko Mihashi) and younger sister Asako (AkiraKurosawa’s future wife, Yoko Yaguchi, in her film debut). She’sbeing courted by Atsushi (Heihachiro Okawa), but feels that shecannot get married until her father finds a new wife to look afterhim and Asako. A suitable woman is found in the person of Tsuneko(Sadako Sawamura), but Asako is still very attached to the memory ofher late mother, so will she accept another woman filling this role? 

Thisdomestic drama from Toho Eiga seems to prefigure the post-war filmsof Ozu, even down to the choice of Setsuko Hara as star. It’swell-made and features very natural performances from an impressivecast that also includes Haruko Sugimura as a piano teacher, but it’sarguably a little too low-key for its own good. It also features acouple of rather awkward ellipses and I must say that I found theending completely unsatisfactory, perhaps largely becausewriter-director-producer Yasujiro Shimazu chose not to set it up inany way, so that when it comes it’s so out of the blue it feelsalmost random. 

Shimazu,who died aged 48 of stomach cancer just after the war ended, was oneof Japan’s most acclaimed directors of the 1930s. Credited withpioneering a new emphasis on realism and the lives of everydaypeople, it’s likely that he would have been much better known todayhad he survived and been able to continue directing for anotherdecade or two. Keisuke Kinoshita, one of several fine directors whoapprenticed under Shimazu, considered him a tyrant yet admitted hehad learnt a great deal from him. 

Intriguingly,there is a scene in which Asako’s school friends discuss going tosee the 1938 French film about a reformatory school for teenagegirls, Prison sans barreaux, which had recently been releasedin Japan, although it was unclear to me whether this was intended to say anything Asako's rebellion, mild as it is.  

Watch on my YouTube channel with English subtitles

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 Obscure Japanese Film #230

Jiro (Mitsuo Hamada) is a teenageyakuza who rescues high school girl Mami (Sayuri Yoshinaga) frombeing harassed in the street by a couple of young yakuza from a rivalgang. When one pulls a knife, Jiro gets stabbed and his assailantends up dead by his own blade. Despite his injury, Jiro manages tocomplete the drug delivery he had been assigned before collapsing.After receiving medical attention he makes a full recovery and endsup meeting Mami again when she wants to thank him. The two fall inlove, but she’s an ambassador’s daughter while he was brought upin poverty – is there any way for them to be together in a societydetermined to keep them apart? 

ThisNikkatsu production was based on a 1962 short story by the prolificShinji Fujiwara (1921-84), whose fictionalso provided the basis for Imamura’sEndless Desire (1958) andIntentions of Murder (1964), Yoshida’s Akitsu Springs(1962) and many others. The adaptation is by Masaru Baba (1926-2011),a screenwriter associated with the new wave who went on to win anaward for penning Imamura’s Vengeance is Mine (1979). 

Thestory is the sort which could easily have been treated with an excessof sentimentality, but fortunately the director is Ko Nakahira, adirector definitely not known for that particular characteristic.Having said that, this is an unusually warm-hearted film for him.Jiro is basically a good-natured kid who’s pretty likeable when nottrying to show off and impress other yakuza, while Mami has somehowgrown up free from the snobbery of most of her class. After theirfirst date, Jiro starts watching wildlife programmes and reading theBible like Mami; she reads a boxing magazine and tries whisky so thatshe’ll be able to understand him better. Upping the ante, Jiro evenagrees to attend a concert of contemporary music, where he’sbaffled by the strange racket of the avant-garde. 

Youngstars Mitsuo Hamada and Sayuri Yoshinaga were a joint box officephenomenon in Japan in the 1960s, and this was the 15th of43 films in which they co-starred, all of which were made in thatsingle decade. Mitsuo Hamada (then 19) later came very close to beingpermanently blinded in an assault in 1966, but gradually recoveredand continued acting until 2015. Like Yoshinaga (then 17), he wasalso a popular singer. She had won the Blue Ribbon Best Actress awardfor Foundry Town the previous year and is still acting at thetime of writing. It’s not difficult to see why they were popular,and the fact that this film – one of their biggest hits – worksas well as it does is partly down to them, even if Hamada goes overboard at times. It also helps that thefilm’s point about class is made effectively without the filmmakersfeeling the need to patronise the audience by spelling it out.Furthermore – in my opinion anyway – the ending of the picture isexactly the right one. 

Dorodarakeno junjo was remade in Korea the following year as Maenbaleuicheongchun (‘Barefoot Youth’), again in Japan in a 1977version directed by Sokichi Tomimoto and starring Momoe Yamaguchi asMami and Tomokazu Miura as Jiro, and finally as a Japanese TV moviein 1991. 

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

English subtitles at OpenSubtitles 

Obscure Japanese Film #229

Kikuchi (Tsutomu Yamazaki, the kidnapper from High and Low) isa police detective investigating the murder of a young woman. Thetrail leads to company boss Shibata (Rokko Toura), but he suddenlyfinds himself falsely accused of accepting bribes from a drug dealerand is kicked out of the police force and sent to prison for twoyears. After his release, he manages to find work with a privatedetective agency on condition that he drops any notion of trying toclear his name. He agrees, then promptly sets about trying to clearhis name, during the course of which he finds himself involved withSetsuko (Michiyo Aratama), a young woman he sees falling victim to apickpocket on the subway…

This co-productionbetween Toho and Takarazuka Eiga was based on a 1962 novel of thesame name by Shinobu Hashimoto, who co-wrote the screenplay withSakae Hirosawa and the director, Hiromichi Horikawa. Horikawa andHashimoto had previously collaborated on The Lost Alibi (1960)and Shiro to kuro (1963), two similarly dark and twisty crimethrillers, and both had begun their film careers under the tutelageof Kurosawa. The master’s influence is apparent here in the waycertain scenes are shot and the use of weather to heightenatmosphere. In fact, the moody high-contrast cinematography comescourtesy of Yuzuru Aizawa, who had shot The Bad Sleep Well(1960). Another asset is a strong jazz score by one of Japan’s topcomposers, Toshiro Mayuzumi, while the excellent cast also includesKyoko ‘Woman in the Dunes’ Kishida, Keiji Sada and, wasted in atiny role as the head of the detective agency, Takashi Shimura. 

Hashimoto’s view of the world tended towards the misanthropic, andnone of the characters in Brand of Evil are terribly nice. Infact, one of the most memorable scenes involves the supposed herotorturing a hapless yakuza stooge to the strains of a Strauss waltz(‘Rosen aus dem Süden’), which reminded me of the way Tarantinoused ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ in Reservoir Dogs,although Tarantino certainlytook it to another level. 

In my view, the filmis slightly less effective than The Lost Alibi or Shiro tokuro because the combination of the lack of a sympatheticprotagonist combined with a rather convoluted plot and slightlyexcessive running time of around two hours and eleven minutes makesit hard to feel emotionally invested in the story all the way to theend. It’s also hard to forgive the demeaning portrayal of adisabled character, Setsuko’s friend Tsuyako, played by ToshikoYabuki. 

Rokko Toura
 

Today (which happens to beRemembrance Day) I woke up and turned on my phone to find a WhatsAppmessage from a friend in Japan informing me that the great Japaneseactor Tatsuya Nakadai had died on November 8 at the age of 92. Assome readers will know, I spent around three years writing a bookabout Nakadai, published in 2021 under the title The Face of anActor – The Life and Films of Tatsuya Nakadai.

Inever met the man myself, although I tried my best to make it happen.In early 2020, I flew to Japan armed with a letter of introductionfrom the BBC’s Alan Yentob and tickets to see Nakadai on stage inMoliere’s Tartuffe, only to learn on arrival that theperformances had been cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, which wasstill in its very early days at the time. I thought it was justpossible that this might work out in my favour as Nakadai would nowhave more time on his hands at least, so I persuaded my Japanesefriend Masa to phone his theatre school, Mumeijuku, and see what hecould do. It didn’t come to anything in the end, probably because –understandably – they didn’t want to risk exposing the elderlyactor to anyone while the pandemic was in progress, although theywere too polite to say so.

Icame to write the book in a roundabout kind of way. I had written oneprevious biography, Beware of the Actor – The Rise and Fall ofNicol Williamson (2017), as a result of which I came to know awonderful gentleman named Leslie Megahey, who had directed Williamsonin the film The Hour of the Pig and on stage in Jack – ANight on the Town with John Barrymore. Leslie had also made adocumentary about Akira Kurosawa for the BBC back in 1986 and, afterI finished my Williamson biography, it just so happened that he was writing the text to accompanya book showcasing Kurosawa film posters entitled Akira Kurosawa –A Life in Film. When he discovered that I was knowledgable on thefilms of Kurosawa and, to some extent, on Japanese culture, Lesliehired me to help him with some fact-checking and it was as a resultof this that I came to decide upon Nakadai as the subject of my nextbook.

Beforebeginning my research, I knew very little about Nakadai beyond hisfilm performances, and I was to be constantly surprised and impressedwith what I discovered. He was born into a poor family in 1932 andhis father died young from tuberculosis while Nakadai was still achild. During a bombing raid in World War II, a young girl he wastrying to help to find shelter was killed in front of his eyes. Latein life, he confessed that he was still tormented by this image inhis dreams decades later. It’s no wonder, then, that he took everyopportunity to speak out against the horrors of war for his entireadult life.

Consideringthat Nakadai was an actor famous partly for samurai sword-wieldingroles in films such as Sanjuro, Hara Kiri, Swordof Doom and several for directorHideo Gosha, it was surprising to learn that he was a theatreactor who had trained in shingeki, a theatre movement thatsought to emulate Western realism and mainly performed Western worksin translation – in other words, Nakadai actually began his careerplaying Westerners on stage! Although he made his 4-second film debutas a ronin wandering through town in Kurosawa’s SevenSamurai (1954), it was not until Sanjuro (shot in 1961)that he played a proper samurai role on film. 

pre-fame in Oban (1957)
 

Themost important influences on Nakadai’s career were, firstly, KoreyaSenda, the founder of the Haiyuza theatre school where Nakadaitrained; secondly, Masaki Kobayashi, who gave him his first reallynotable screen role in Black River (1957) and went on to casthim in the highly-coveted lead role in his Human Conditiontrilogy (1959-61) and finally, of course, Kurosawa, who cast him asthe pistol-packing opponent of Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo(1961) and would eventually choose him for the lead in his latemasterpieces Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985).

Despiteall his film success, Nakadai maintained his independence, turningdown offers of contracts from the major studios. He stubbornlyremained a freelancer in film and never gave up the theatre. Hecontinued as a member of Haiyuza for many years and eventuallyfounded his own theatre school, Mumeijuku, in the late 1970s, aproject that he continued right up until his passing. He used themoney from his films to fund it, trained hundreds of actors over theyears – including international star Koji Yakusho – and nevercharged an admission fee. It was also not just a school, but atheatre company that staged at least one production per year. In thisendeavour, he was greatly helped by his wife, actor and writer YasukoMiyazaki, who succumbed to cancer in 1996. The late 1990s were, as aresult, a low point for Nakadai as he struggled to cope with thisloss, but, fortunately, he decided to keep Mumeijuku going, partly asa tribute to his wife. In the 1960s, Yasuko had become pregnant butlost the baby and Mumeijuku had filled a void in their lives,something which was also helped by their adoption of Yasuko’s then4-year-old niece, Nao, in 1978. 

 Until the Break of Dawn (2012)

Nakadai’slate film career was disappointing and I’ve never understood whyJapanese filmmakers failed to make good use of his talents in the21st century. The exception was Masahiro Kobayashi, whocreated three excellent roles for Nakadai in the films Haru’sJourney (2010), Japan’s Tragedy (2012) and Lear onthe Shore (2017).

WhenI began researching for my book, I had no idea what I might find.It’s one thing to admire an actor’s performances, but this maynot necessarily lead to admiration for them as a human being.However, the more I found out about Nakadai, the more my respect forhim grew. He worked hard for what he achieved and, when fame arrived,he showed little interest in accumulating personal wealth, preferringinstead to focus his energies on doing work he felt to be worthwhilefor other reasons. As far as I know, he also remained faithful to hiswife - it was difficult, in fact, to find a bad word saidabout him, at least in terms of the man as a human being (like allactors, he received bad notices occasionally). And just in case thispiece has made him sound like some kind of goody-two-shoes, well –there are stories of him getting into drunken fights with fellowactors as well, so he certainly had a colourful side to him too! But there’s nodoubt in my mind that we have lost a man who enriched the world byhis presence.

Theofficial announcement on the Mumeijuku website reads:

ActorTatsuya Nakadai passed away at 12:25 AM on Saturday, November8th due to pneumonia. This year, he played the leadrole in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake Recovery Performance "MotherCourage and Her Children" and had just begun rehearsals forhis next performance. Known worldwide for his work in thefilms of directors Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi, he was aunique actor who was dedicated to his acting and remained activethroughout his life. In accordance with Nakadai's wishes ,the wake and funeral will be held only for close relatives, and thereare no plans for a farewell party. We ask that you pleaserefrain from offering any offerings or condolence money. We wouldlike to express our sincere gratitude for your support upto this day.

Obscure Japanese Film #228

ThisToho production was based on a 1974 novel* by Jiro Nitta (1912-80),who also supplied the source material for the previously-reviewedMount Hakkoda, another big movie shot on rugged locations andreleased the same year. Nitta’s novel was itself based on the lifeof Frank Yasuda (1868-1958), sometimes dubbed the ‘Japanese Moses.’Yasuda emigrated to the USA as a young man and served on the USSBear, a coast guard vessel which became entrapped in ice offthe coast of Alaska in 1893. Sent to get help, he walked a vastdistance before eventually collapsing, then was rescued by some Inuitin the nick of time. They sent a party to the aid of his shipmates,but Yasuda decided to remain with the Inuit and was taken under thewing of a man named Amaohka, who taught him whaling and hunting.Yasuda ended up marrying Amaohka’s daughter, Nebiro. However, whenfood became scarce in the area, Yasuda hooked up with Thomas Carter,an American gold prospector, hoping to strike it rich and make enoughto lead his adoptive people to a better land (hence the ‘JapaneseMoses’ moniker)…

Adaptedfor the screen by Masato Ide (known for his work with Kurosawa), thefilm follows Yasuda’s story quite closely, but throws in somefictional scenes to spice up the drama, such as the rather absurd buthighly entertaining one in which a pack of wolves try to break intoYasuda’s cabin while his wife’s trying to give birth. There wasan opportunity to make a more thoughtful, serious film here, but whatwe get is a disappointingly superficial entertainment. The director,Hiromichi Horikawa, was a former assistant to Kurosawa who made atleast two very good films, The Lost Alibi (1960) and Shiroto kuro (1963), but failed to live up to that early promise.

Havingsaid that, The Alaska Story was by no means a chore to sitthrough and remains worth a look for its breathtaking locations shotby cinematographer Kozo Okazaki, who worked with many of Japan’stop directors. Masaru Sato’s elaborate score is also inspired attimes. Leading man Kinya Kitaoji was likely cast for his physicaltoughness and endurance rather than acting ability, but he’sadequate anyway. The only other Japanese character is played by JoeShishido, who steals the show here as the forthright George Oshima,Yasuda’s real-life friend, who seems to have been a sort ofwandering lone adventurer. Other well-known Japanese actors appear asInuit, including Eiji Okada as Amaohka, Kyoko Mitsubayashi asNebiro, and Hideo Gosha favourite Isao Natsuyagi, while Tetsuro Tanbapops up as a Native American chief – and I must say he does lookthe part! But the real star of this film is nature herself.

Asusual with Japanese films featuring Western characters (of which there are quite a few), the directorappears to have just grabbed the nearest Westerners to fill theseroles regardless of acting ability or experience, and they’remostly terrible. The one honourable exception is William Ross, whoplays Tom Carter, and is quite decent. Ross was an American whoemigrated to Japan and found work in the film industry in manycapacities, but basically whenever a gaijin was needed.

Thosewho enjoy tales of real-life adventure may well enjoy this film, buta word of warning for animal-lovers – it looks like Kitaoji killeda seal for real in one scene, and there’s also a sequence featuringa whale hunt which I don’t think was faked. As the British Board ofFilm Censors prohibits such scenes, I suspect that this is the reasonwhy the film has had no UK release that I know of.

*An English translation was published in 1980 as An Alaskan Tale

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Obscure Japanese Film #227

1949.Teenage orphan Hamako (Sumiko Hasegawa) arrives at a grand residenceat Shinobazu Pond in Ueno, Tokyo, to serve as maid to thearistocratic Madame Yuki (Yoshiko Sakuma), whose father, a formerviscount, has just died. Various relatives and opportunisticacquaintances flock to the scene like vultures hoping to secure apiece of the carcass for themselves. Among them are Yuki’s husband,Naoyuki (Isao Yamagata), who spends most of his time in Kyoto withhis mistress, Ayako (Yuko Hama). However, it turns out that Yuki’sfather has left nothing but debts, so the house is sold and thefamily’s other home in snowy Nagano is turned into an inn.Meanwhile, Yuki has been having an affair with Kikunaka (TetsuroTanba), a married writer, but even though she detests her ownhusband, he retains a mysterious sexual hold over her from which sheseems unable to break free...

Althoughthe official English title of this film chooses ‘Picture’ over‘Portrait’, it is, of course, based on the same novel as thebetter-known Kenji Mizoguchi film of 1950. The novel, by SeiichiFunahashi* (1904-76), first appeared in serial form between 1948-1950and remains untranslated into English. To be frank, I can’t standthe story in either film version. One reason is the portrayal ofunquestioning devotion, even idolatry, of a servant for her mistress,which seems to give tacit approval to the class system. AlthoughHamako becomes disillusioned with her mistress and Funahashi may havebeen trying to make a broader point about the disillusionment of theyounger generation in the post-war years regarding the ruling class,the problem is that Yuki is presented as someone to be pitied and, ifnot deserving of the elevated status she enjoyed, it’s only becauseof her lack of courage. Indeed, while her self-pitying, acquiescentvictimhood is irritating, she’s still painted as a tragic heroine.It also doesn’t help that the bad behaviour of the villains of thepiece – the cruel husband and his predictably cheap and vulgarmistress – is so blatant that it’s never convincing.

Atheart, the story is an old-fashioned melodrama, and, while the writer-director ofthis version, Masashige Narusawa – who had been a screenwriter forMizoguchi on four of the latter’s final films – has for the mostpart clearly tried to downplay this as much as possible, still it iswhat it is. He certainly made a very different film to his mentor’s and was,reportedly, more faithful to the original novel. However,well-photographed though it is, it lacks the often inspired cameraplacement and composition found in the original, and so is not reallyan improvement overall, only in certain aspects. Transferring thebulk of the story to a snowy location (yuki means snow inJapanese) was a good idea, but it’s those crane shots with therolling mist by the lake at the end of Mizoguchi’s film that lingerin my mind.

Comparedto the wimpy character portrayed by Ken Uehara in 1950, Tetsuro Tanbais a much more commanding, masculine presence, yet none of theperformances in either film are especially notable, perhaps becauseFunahashi – who also wrote the source novel for The Story of a Blind Woman – failed to put much life into them in the firstplace. Still, it’s a shame that this proved to be the final filmdirected by Narusawa as he clearly had talent, even if it’s lessevident here than in his previous two pictures.

Producedby Toei, who had been pushing Yoshiko Sakuma as a star of literaryerotica since their 1963 film of Tsutomu Mizukami’s GobanchoYugiri-ro (aka A House in the Quarter), this version wasshelved and not released until it was bought by Nikkatsu in 1975.

*Sometimeslisted as Funabashi, but I think that’s incorrect.

Thanksto Coralsundy for the subtitles, which can be found here.

Thanksto A.K.

 Obscure Japanese Film #226

Here’sa weird one! This Toho production was based on a story byMasanao Mori (1761-1803) with the slightly longer title of ‘OishiHyoroku yume monogatari’, though that was not a totally originalwork, but rather Mori's version of a folk tale. Of course, being made inJapan during the war years, the filmmakers had little choice but tointroduce a propaganda element, so the film begins with a scene inthe modern day in which young children with wooden swords are beingtaught to defend the motherland from attack by foreign soldiers. Iguess somebody thought that was motivational at the time, but, fromtoday’s perspective, it’s hard to see it as anything other than asad indictment of a sick society (I suppose the other possibleinterpretation is that director Nobuo Aoyagi was subtly critiquingthe militaristic government in a way they were too dumb toappreciate). 

Jumpingback a couple of centuries, we’re introduced to Hyoroku (Ken’ichiEnomoto), a teenage samurai who lives with his mother and ispractising for an upcoming kendo competition. With his small statureand prematurely-aged face, he cuts a ridiculous figure, but happensto be the grandson of a master swordsman and so feels obliged to tryto act like one. Unfortunately, his efforts to impress not onlyembarrass himself, but bring shame to the others in his kendo group,who want to kick him out. 

WhenHyoroku’s mother asks him to deliver a letter to a monk five milesaway, he discovers that he must first get past the various yokai(supernatural entities)* in the forest, and hopes to restore hishonour by slaying them. However, these shape-shifting creatures –which include a fox who turns into a young girl (Hideko Takamine) –prove to be not so easy to defeat… 

Forthose unfamiliar with the story (probably everyone not Japanese),there’s little clue in the first half of the film that this comedyis going to turn into an out-and-out fantasy with a good number ofspecial effects. In fact, it’s surprising that the film’s not alittle better-known given that it features a number of yokaicreated by legendary effects whiz Eiji Tsuburaya, who went on tobring Godzilla to life in 1954. Although the 69-minute running timesuggests a B-movie, budgets were low during the war years, and thisfilm may well have been considered quite lavish at the time. Indeed,it’s also a musical and features an elaborate dance number at onepoint, as well as several popular stars of the era, even if onlyKen’ichi Enomoto and Takamine are remembered at all today. 

Playinga curiously old-looking teenager, the comic actor Ken’ichi Enomoto,better-known as Enoken, was 38 at the time and one of the mostwell-known faces in Japanese entertainment. Outside of his home country, he’s onlylikely to be familiar to those who have seen The Men WhoTread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945), one of Akira Kurosawa’s early films. In Hyoroku’s Dream Tale,his unsmiling demeanour is sometimes reminiscent of Buster Keaton. 

Thedirector, Nobuo Aoyagi, helmed over 80 films between 1940 and 1964,including the modest masterpiece World of Love (1943), alsowith Takamine, and over a dozen other Enoken vehicles. Despite itsunfortunate message – which seems to be that even physicalweaklings have a part to play in defeating the enemy – Hyoroku’sDream Tale is often quite nicely shot and I somehow couldn’tbring myself to dislike it.

BONUSTRIVIA: The production manager was none other than Kon Ichikawa.

* For more on yokai, check out this interesting page. Thanks to Michel for the link. 

Watch on YouTube here (no English subtitles)

Obscure Japanese Film #225

This oddity is an independent Japanese-British co-production from acompany called Akari, which seems to have been formed by star JiroTamiya and director Terence Donovan especially for this movie. Tamiyaplays Kimura, a secret service man who goes to London on a covertmission. A Professor Bewsley (John Welsh) has found a way to producesynthetic fuel from hydrogen (or sommat) and Kimura must prevent itfrom falling into the wrong hands – but of course that’s all justa Hitchcock-like MacGuffin to set the plot in motion. Along the way,Kimura forms an uneasy alliance with British secret service manAlexander (Robert Hardy) and is seduced by the mysterious Della(Carolyn Seymour). 

Carolyn Seymour

Unfortunately, theplot is convoluted to the point of incomprehensibility at times. Thescreenplay is by Shinobu Hashimoto, justly famous for hiscollaborations with Akira Kurosawa among others, but who sometimesseemed to go off the rails when not working from a literary sourceand left to his own devices (see also Lake of Illusions).Here, Hashimoto has based his story on the fact that Japan had nospecific law against espionage at the time, making it a so-called‘paradise for spies’ (Japan’s State Secrecy Law finally wentinto force in 2014). It’s perhaps worth noting that, precedingHashimoto’s screenplay credit, the opening credits state (in thisorder) ‘New Dialogue by John Bird / Original Translation from theJapanese by Professor Alan Turney / From an Idea by Terence Donovan.’John Bird (1936-2022) was a very well-known figure in the UK, famousfor his satirical writing and comic acting, mainly on television, andwas no doubt responsible for making the dialogue more colloquial. Inany case, a bizarre climax involving Tamiya rubbing rice balls allover himself and an actual yellow dog (which has been died thatcolour) is something only the eccentric Hashimoto could have cookedup.

Of course, the titleis also partly a racial epithet – another strange scene featuresKimura pretending to be hopeless at judo before his opponent callshim a ‘yellow Jap’, at which point he snarls, ‘I don’t mindthe “Jap” so much, but don’t ever call me “yellow”!’ Hethen loses it and proceeds to fuck up his opponent by dislocatingboth his arm and his jaw for him (incidentally, Tamiya was a blackbelt in karate, so why the filmmakers failed to make use of thisreal-life skill instead of featuring a judo match is anyone’sguess). Helpfully, Kimura later explains the second word in the titlemore fully, saying, ‘In Japan, detectives and informers are calleddogs – they’re always sniffing around. Not a very politeexpression,’ while another canine quirk of this film is that Kimurahas a phobia of dogs. However, perhaps a further motivation for the useof ‘dog’ in the title is that Tamiya had starred in the series ofnine Inu (‘dog’) films made by Daiei between 1964 and1967. 

Tamiya with Robert Hardy

God knows how Tamiyahooked up with fashion photographer Terence Donovan and chose him asdirector. Donovan had never made a film before and never would again,with the exception of a number of music videos such as the one forRobert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’. On this evidence, it’snot hard to see why Donovan made no further features. Almosteverything falls flat here and, considering Donovan’s background,one might expect the film to look good at least, but most of it’sindifferently photographed and looks like cheap TV. A tragic footnoteto this film is the fact that both Tamiya and Donovan suffered fromdepression and would die by suicide – Donovan not until 1996, butTamiya in 1978, the year after this film was finally released inJapan (by Shochiku) and flopped both with the critics and at the boxoffice. While Yellow Dog was certainly not the reason for hissuicide, it may have been one of many contributing factors. 

Tamiya doessurprisingly well in terms of his English pronunciation, though hisintonation is rather strange and I suspect that he learned his linesphonetically. This must have been quite a challenge, and you can onlyadmire him for taking it on, especially considering that he’ssurrounded by such experienced and confident British actors as RobertHardy and co. Cross-cultural collaborations of this sort rarely turnout well, and this one certainly didn’t, but it’s not entirelywithout entertainment value as we watch Tamiya as a fish out of waterslurping his soup, pretending incompetence and bemusing the Brits,who (I’m ashamed to say) mostly come across as a cold andchauvinistic bunch of entitled snobs. 

Robert Hardy and Angela Thorne
 

 Obscure Japanese Film #224

1932.Intending to kill herself in a beautiful place, high school girlYukiko (Keiko Tsushima) travels to Lake Towada in northern Honshu,but her plans are foiled by Kyosuke (Jukichi Uno), an older artistwho happened to be contemplating suicide in the same spot. Kyosuke isdisabled as a result of contracting polio at the age of 30 and ismiserable because his wife has left him and run off with hisapprentice.

AsYukiko tells her story to Kyosuke, we learn in flashback that she isan orphan brought up by her cold-hearted aunt (Sachiko Murase), whoconsiders Yukiko’s mother to have been a slut as she had Yukiko outof wedlock and who thinks that Yukiko will go the same way. Yukiko’sbest friend, Tatsuko (Chieko Seki), has already dropped out of schooland become a dancer at the Casino Follies in Asakusa, run by dappergangster Aoto (Eitaro Ozawa), who has already broken up Tatsuko’srelationship with her fiancéMiyoshi (Isao Kimura). 

Yukikofinds herself in the awkward position of becoming an intermediarybetween Tatsuko and Miyoshi, but the result is that she falls outwith Tatsuko and becomes close to Miyoshi, who gets in a fight withAoto, stabs him in self-defence and is forced to flee. Yukiko is thenexpelled from school for having been friends with Miyoshi, who is nowwanted by the police. 

Isao Kimura
 

Backin the present, Yukiko and Kyosuke become close companions. Fouryears pass, and it’s now 1936. When the attempted coup of February26 occurs, they head south to escape the chaos, and she suggestsgoing to Innoshima island. Her hidden motive is that she knows thisis where Miyoshi fled to and is hoping to see him again. She findshim in a remote fishing village where he has now become engaged tofisherman’s daughter Tome (Hitomi Nozoe)…

Thisindependent production by by Chuo Eiga (who made thepreviously-reviewed Sisters the same year) was based on apopular radio serial of the time by the prolific Kazuo Kikuta (male,1908-73), who also provided the source material for Kurosawa’s TheSilent Duel (1949), Hideo Oba’s What’s Your Name?(trilogy 1953-54) and wrote the play version of Fumiko Hayashi’sautobiographical Horo-ki filmed by Mikio Naruse in 1962 (thefilm is known in English as A Wanderer’s Notebook). 

It’sdifficult to see what director Tadashi Imai saw in this corny andsentimental misery fest – certainly, it’s quite a dull watch andthere’s little of interest in it in terms of direction, although hedoes do an excellent job of recreating the Asakusa of 1932. Thisneighbourhood was largely destroyed in bombing raids during the war,but the Casino Follies was a real venue located, oddly enough, abovean aquarium, and the mock-up constructed for this film looksidentical.*

Keiko Tsushima

Matters are not helped by the miscasting ofthe 29-year-old Keiko Tsushima, who’s entirely unconvincing as ahigh school teenager and immediately looks more comfortable as soonas her character’s finally grown up a bit and shed the sailor suituniform. The organ music featured prominently on the soundtrack isanother poor choice.

Theonly people to come out of this film well are Sachiko Murase (laterthe elderly heroine of Kurosawa’s 1991 film Rhapsody in August),whose performance suggests a thin line between puritanism and sadism,and Eitaro Ozawa as the foppish, narcissistic bully Aoto. Ozawa seemsto have got into his role a bit too much, in fact, as I swear he’shitting poor Isao Kimura for real during their big confrontationscene.

*Goto this link if you’d like to compare the two.

Watchedwith dodgy subtitles.