M.R. Dowsing's Blog

Obscure Japanese Film #281

The 11th year of the Tenpo era (1840). Sekio Nakano (OsamuTakizawa) is a senior retainer and trusted advisor to Ienari Tokugawa(Eijro Yanagi), the retired shogun, who remains the most powerful ofthe Tokugawas despite having been succeeded by his son, Ieyoshi(Ichiro Izawa). Nakano is also the adoptive father of Ienari’ssenior concubine, Omiyo-no-kata (Michiyo Kogure). When Ienariimpregnates the younger lady-in-waiting, Otaki-no-kata (HirokoYajima), Nakano arranges for her to have an accident leading to amiscarriage so as not to threaten Omiyo’s position, but when Otakialso dies as a result, the young maid Tomi (Fujiko Yamamoto), who hadhelped set up the accident, is promoted to take her place.

Tomi has anidentical sister, Toyoharu (also played by Fujiko Yamamoto), wholives with young samurai Shinnosuke (Raizo Ichikawa), who is ratherlazy but an expert swordsman. Living next door to him is Ryoan, afriendly, saké-lovingdoctor (Takashi Shimura), who is called to the castle to examinelady-in-waiting Kikukawa (Michiko Ai) and discovers she’s pregnant.As no men are permitted to enter the Ooku (inner chambers of thepalace), this could cause a scandal, so Nakano orders a cover up.Ryoan’s life is now in danger, and Shinnosuke comes to hisdefence...

Most Japanese onlinereviewers seem to regard this Daiei production as a disappointment,and in general it’s not hard to see why – with a talky andconfusing first half, it feels like it takes ages to get anywhere,while eventually ending abruptly with nothing resolved. It was basedon a novel by Seicho Matsumoto – better known for his contemporarycrime dramas – which was not yet finished and was still in theprocess of being serialised in the Tokyo Shinbun when the filmwent into production. Half an hour longer than most Daiei films andhelmed by a prestigious director (Teinosuke Kinugasa, whose 1953 filmGate of Hell had been a prize-winning international success),it was planned as the first part of a grand trilogy, but the sequelswere never made. According to one online commentator, this was due toobjections from Matsumoto, who was displeased with the first film,though on its release Kinema Junpo stated that the openingweekend had been ‘somewhat disappointing’, so this may well havebeen another factor.

The film was heavilypromoted as a vehicle for Daiei’s popular stars Raizo Ichikawa andFujiko Yamamoto, whose 16th film this was together, yetIchikawa is entirely absent for the first 35 minutes and the mainprotagonist actually seems to be the bald villain Nakano, who waspresumably the ‘old fox’ of the film’s silly English title.Unfortunately, as played by the stage-trained Osamu Takizawa – onceacclaimed for playing Willy Loman in a theatre production of Deathof a Salesman – Nakano is too one-dimensional to be terriblyinteresting. And although Yamamoto plays two roles, she was hardly anactor known for her versatility, so there’s little discernibledifference between the two Yamamotos.

Having said allthat, there’s actually quite a bit to enjoy here, and things dopick up a bit halfway, with more exterior scenes and more action.Kinugasa’s direction is elegant and makes the most of the excellentart direction and colour cinematography (although everything lookedoddly pale and beige in the copy I watched, so I had to tweak thecolour settings to make it look its best). The music score byMizoguchi / Naruse favourite Ichiro Saito veers from bombastic to sosubtle it’s almost subliminal, but always helps to heighten thesometimes underpowered drama. On a purely aesthetic level, then, I’dcall this one a success and say that the flaws are mostly with thestory.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

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Obscure Japanese Film #280

A 19-year-old engineeringstudent, Toshihiko (Tsuzuya Moroguchi), falls in love with a stageactress (Yuriko Hanabusa) and writes her adoring letters, but when hefinally summons up the courage to speak to her, she laughs at him andflings his letters back in his face. Heartbroken, he takes towandering the country alone until he finally arrives in Hokkaido,where he collapses from hunger and exhaustion. He’s rescued by ashepherdess, O-Toyo (Yoshiko Kawada), whose father (Heijiro Osono)takes him in and gives him a job on the farm, but a fellow farmhand,Otokichi – known as ‘the Wolf’ – (Yotaro Katsumi), is jealousand wants to get rid of him…

Likethe previously-reviewed film Diary of a Drunkard, thisShochiku Kamata production was directed by Zanmu Kako, but in thiscase the film seems to have survived more or less in its entirety.Also as in that film, Kako elicits natural performances anddemonstrates a good eye for composition. However, the downside hereis that the overly-contrived plot has dated badly and hinges on acouple of massively unlikely coincidences. It’s also somewhatconfusing at times – perhaps at the time some accompanying benshinarration would have made things clearer.

Kohitsujiclearly has a strong Christian influence, even quoting the story ofJacob’s Ladder from the Book of Genesis in the opening and closingtitle cards, while in the Bible, the lamb is of course a symbol ofinnocence, purity and sacrifice, although it was unclear to mewhether the lamb of the title is supposed to refer to Toshihiko orO-Toyo (or possibly neither). In any case, the rather uninspiredmessage is simply that the wicked will eventually be punished and thegood rewarded.

Thefilm is thought to have been based on an unfinished screenplay by oneNorikuni Yasuda, who has 19 director credits on IMDb between 1924-29,and shot by Hiroshi Nomura, who later worked for Hiroshi Shimizu,Heinsosuke Gosho and Yasushi Sasaki. The two leads, Tsuzuya Moroguchiand Yoshiko Kawada, were big stars of the day who were frequentlycast together – here, they were about halfway through the (atleast) 40 films in which they co-starred. However, it’s YurikoHanabusa who would go on to have the longest career, racking up 242credits on IMDb stretching from 1920 until shortly before her passingin 1970. Among these are starring roles in Souls on the Road(1921), often cited as Japan’s first important film, and Naruse’sWife! Be Like a Rose (1935).

The director and cast came tofilms from the theatre, where they had worked not in kabuki or Noh,but in the new Western-influenced Shingeki (or Shin-engeki)movement. For further info (in Japanese) and to watch the film (without English subtitles), visit the Eiga Meets Shin-engeki website. 

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Obscure Japanese Film #279

Okawa(Yukichi Iwata) has been a teacher on an island in the Inland Sea forthree years. Despite the fact that he’s also a self-confesseddrunkard, he’s popular with the children and most of the otherislanders, especially O-Tsuyu (Chiyoko Mimura), a young woman who hasbecome his mistress. His past is a mystery but he writes his thoughtsin a private diary; in flashback, it’s revealed that he was once arespected headmaster on the mainland. However, he once stumbled upona bag with a considerable amount of money inside (left unattended bythe treasurer for the school rebuilding fund) and decided to keep it;when his conscience began to protest too much, he decided to confesspublicly and informed his wife of his decision. Unfortunately, beforehe could carry out his intentions, she had committed suicide andtaken their young son with her…

ThisShochiku Kamata* production was (like the vast majority of silentJapanese films) long thought completely lost until this 25-minutefragment turned up recently. The original film ran for around 66minutes and would presumably have been screened with live commentaryby a narrator, or benshi; of course, that’s also missinghere, as is a music score. What survives – which seems to be mostof the first half – is in surprisingly good condition, but the filmends abruptly and we never get to see how things turn out. That’s apity, because this was obviously a film of some quality – theperformances are very natural and the photography, though static, iswell-composed.

Thefilm was based on a 1902 story by Doppo Kunikida (1871-1908)**, whilethe screenplay was written by Daisuke Ito, who made his directorialdebut with his own version in 1924 (since lost, of course) and wenton to become a major filmmaker. Director Zanmu Kako (1869-1938) alsocame from the theatre, where he had worked as a playwright and stagedirector. He made around 90 films between 1921 and 1927, almost allof which are entirely lost. That this substantial fragment survivedeven the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 – which severely damaged thestudio where it was made – is a near miracle.

Leadingactor Yukichi Iwata (1887-1980), who is excellent here, was a majorstar of the Japanese silent screen. A former theatre actor, he madehis film debut in 1920 and went on to make over 150 films beforeretiring from the screen around 1942. Today, his most widely-seenfilm is Ozu’s A Mother Should Be Loved (1934). His co-star,Chiyoko Mimura (1903-74) was recruited from the theatre by Kako andsigned to Shochiku. Film critic and historian Junichiro Tanaka(1902-89) singled out her performance in Diary of a Drunkard,saying, ‘She is small and lacks a striking face, but her actingability is undeniable.’ She became a popular star before retiringto look after her family in 1927. Mimura had married film directorKiyohiko Ushihara in 1922; today he’s remembered (if at all) forThe Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen (1938) and RainbowMan (1949).

*ShochikuKamata was a studio founded in Kamata, Tokyo, in 1920 as an off-shootof the theatre company Shochiku Gomei Kaisha. It lasted until 1936,when noise from nearby factories caused problems in making films inthe new talking picture format and led Shochiku to close it down andtransfer their operations to Shochiku Ofuna in Kamakura.

**Kunikidais sufficiently well-regarded that some of his stories have appearedin English translation, although I believe that ‘Diary of aDrunkard’ is not among them. 

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Obscure Japanese Film #278

After Tokyo’s brothels have all been forced to close down by theauthorities, ‘bath houses’ and ‘massage parlours’ spring upeverywhere, unofficially offering more than just a back rub to theirpredominantly male clientele, but stopping short of providing the‘full works’. Asako (Mayumi Ogawa), a country girl desperate toescape an unhappy family life and poverty in rural Chiba, getsconniving former madam Tetsu (Sadako Sawamura) to set her up with ajob in such a bath house. Working under the name of Rie, she findsthat she can make a lot of money quickly and begins investing througha young stockbroker, Sekine (Naoki Sugiura), who’s keen to taketheir relationship further. When Asako’s younger half-sister,Natsuko (Mako Midori), turns up, Asako tries to send her back toChiba, but Natsuko is not only determined to stay but has no qualmsabout what she might have to do to pay her bills…

According toJapanese Wikipedia, this Toei production originated from an idea byproducer Shigeru Okada, who felt that increasing the erotic contentof the studio’s films would be one effective way of luring thedwindling audience away from their TV sets and back into cinemas.This was the studio’s first attempt at doing so, and Okada wasproved to be correct as the film was a substantial hit. Of course,although it was strong stuff at the time, it seems fairly tame today compared to countless later films. Nevertheless, the subject matterand content meant that casting established stars in the two leadingfemale parts was virtually out of the question.

Mayumi Ogawa was amember of the Bungakuza Theatre Company, where she had a strictmentor in Haruko Sugimura. She had done some TV work, but only oneprevious film, Kaneto Shindo’s Mother (1963), in which shehad played a minor role. In this film, Ogawa proves to have realacting ability and to be a strong, charismatic presence who canglower to great effect. She found it hard to shake off the ‘wickedwoman’ image she got stuck with as a result, but went on to enjoy along career before becoming a Buddhist nun in 2008, after which shewent into semi-retirement. In 2012, her daughter published a bookentitled Poison Mama – A 40-Year War with My Mother, MayumiOgawa, which led to their permanent estrangement. She passed awayin March 2026 at the age of 86.

Mako Midori, on theother hand, had taken a TV acting training course, but had not asingle credit under her belt – apparently, director Yusuke Watanabehappened to see her photo and gave her a screen test. Despite concernat her lack of experience, she proved to be a natural and went on towin a Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Actress for her performances inthis and Watanabe’s similarly-themed follow-ups, Akujo andMesu (both also released in 1964). However, she was fired byOkada in 1968 for complaining about the types of roles she was given.By this point, though, she had become popular enough for her modernstyle and willingness to disrobe that she was in demand from otherstudios and continued to have a successful career.

As far as the restof the cast are concerned, many of them, like Ogawa, were members ofBungakuza, who were apparently struggling financially at the time andtherefore very glad of the work – in fact, this was likely abargaining chip used by Okada to help persuade Ogawa to take on acontroversial role. However, Sadako Sawamura was not affiliated withthe company; usually a fine actor, unfortunately in this case sheseems to have seen her role as a crafty old procurer as an excuse togo way over the top.

The originalscreenplay was written by director Watanabe together with KikumaShimoiizaka, whose filmography suggests prolific hack work. The storyhere hinges on a massive coincidence and things become increasinglymelodramatic as the film goes on. Having said that, it’s somewhatremarkable for its undiluted misanthropy in its portrayal of a worldin which everyone’s a scumbag; that’s far from unique in Japanesefilms of this period, but it was seldom seen in Hollywood ones –Sweet Smell of Success (1957) being a notable exception. Thereare also indications that Watanabe was trying to make something alittle classier than expected, and there is some artiness in thecamerawork, while, during the climactic catfight, the sound drops outand we hear only a plaintive Spanish guitar, lending a strange air ofdetachment to the proceedings. All in all, then, no masterpiece, buta well-made, entertaining and interesting film.

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan(no English subtitles)

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The early Meiji era (1870s). O-Den (Machiko Kyo) and Naminosuke (EijiFunakoshi) are young villagers recently married. Naminosuke issuffering from a mysterious illness, but they lack the money to payfor proper medical care. Then Daihachi (Taiji Tonoyama), a man whohad wanted to marry O-Den, turns up and gives her the necessarymoney, but then reveals there’s a catch – she has to sleep withhim for it. The two argue on a bridge with rotten railings andDaihichi rather conveniently falls to his doom below.

The couple hotfootit to Tokyo, where Naminosuke is treated by a dashing young doctor,Sugimoto (Keizo Kawasaki), who dresses in the newly-fashionableWestern style. He gives Naminosuke a medicine which proves veryeffective in stopping the pain, but he becomes reliant on it and it’snot long before O-Den is sleeping with the doctor in order to getrepeat prescriptions – and so begins her fall into immorality...

This Daieiproduction was based on a novel of the same name from 1935 by KanjiKunieda (1892-1956), who hadpreviously provided the source material for TamizoIshida’s Kenkatobi (1939) and Mizoguchi’sUtamaro and His Five Women(1946) among others, but appears to have remained untranslated inEnglish. His novel wasitself based on the story of O-Den (or Oden) Takahashi, who wasconvicted of murder and beheaded in 1879 at the age of 31. Kodansha’sJapan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia contains the followingentry on Takahashi:

Murderess,the most notorious dokufu (wicked woman) of the modern era.Accused of several sex-related murders, Oden was the first woman tobe executed by beheading after the Edo period (1600-1868). Born inwhat is now Gumma Prefecture, she was known from girlhood for herbeauty and promiscuity. Her life of crime began after her husbandcontracted leprosy. When the disease proved incurable, Oden allegedlypoisoned her husband and embarked on a career of prostitution,larceny and homicide. Arrested in 1876 for slitting the throat of aused-clothing merchant at an inn in Asakusa, she was convicted andultimately executed. It was the most sensational crime story of theday, and lurid accounts of Oden’s escapades filled the newspapers.The popular author Kanagaki Robun wrote a spicy novel based on herlife, Takahashi Oden yasha monogatari (1879, Tale of TakahashiOden, the She-Devil), which Kawatake Mokuami adapted as a kabukiplay.

I can’t vouch forthe accuracy of all of the information in the above entry, but it’scertainly clear that O-Den’s life began to be fictionalised in thevery year of her death, and few of her chroniclers seem to haveworried much about the actual facts since. Surprisingly, this filmversion features no throat-slitting, no arrest of O-Den and noexecution. It’s also worth noting that, although it’s widelybelieved that she was the last woman to be executed by beheading inJapan, that’s simply not the case – there were at least a further22 women put to death in this way in the two years following O-Den’sexecution.

O-Den had alreadybeen the subject of at least half a dozen previous films, includingsilent pictures now lost, as well as Nobuo Nakagawa’s DokufuTakahashi Oden (1958), usually known in English as A WickedWoman, and a 1935 version ofKunieda’s novel directed byTamizo Ishida. I doubt thatIshida’s film has survived, but the theme song sungby Kiyozo Shinbashi (who appeared in Sadao Yamanaka’s 1935 film TheMillion Ryo Pot) has,and you can listen to it on YouTube here. Incidentally,the role of O-Den in Ishida’s film was played by Sumiko Suzuki, whohad also played her in a 1929 film. Suzuki (1904-85)is largely forgotten today,but may be known to some as the star of The Ghost Cat andthe Shamisen (1938) andshe apparently cornered the market in ‘ghostcat’ roles.

Thisfilm is so unlike Nakagawa’s version of O-Den’s story from onlytwo years previously that it would be easy to miss the fact that theywere inspired by the same real-life person. Director Keigo Kimura,who also wrote the screenplay, avoids the obvious exploitationelements of the story and focuses instead on charting the moraldownfall of a woman who begins as a model wife trying her best tohelp her suffering husband. Having been the one to turn Machiko Kyointo a star in his 1949 film A Fool’s Love and worked withher frequently since, he was perhaps also concerned with providingher with a juicy role, which he certainly did. It’s a verysympathetic portrayal of O-Den which views her largely as a victim ofcircumstance – or fate – and her journey into cynicism is played perfectly by Kyo. In fact, performances are top-notch all round,with Eiji Funakoshi being especially believable in a difficult roleas a man frequently almost out of his mind with pain.

Kimurapays considerable attention to period detail, and we see how thethen-recent opening up of Japan has introduced various novelexperiences to its people, from the eating of beef to having aphotograph taken. In terms of style, he uses mainly long- andmedium-shots throughout, with few close-ups and slightly longer takesthan usual, allowing plenty of freedom to his actors, something whichis especially apparent in Kyo and Funakoshi’s final, dramatic scenetogether. Kimura also seldom cuts to his main characters whentransitioning between scenes, opting instead to focus briefly onrandom people going about their business: a crouching rickshaw drivertapping his pipe on the wheel of his vehicle, a young childfascinated by a sparkler, an old man enjoying a bottle of beer at afestival. As someone who’s always disliked the received wisdomthat everything should be there to move the plot along, I heartilyapprove of these beautiful moments, and it’s these more thananything that, for me, make this an exceptionally fine film.

Anote on the title:

The ‘O’ in O-Den’s name is anhonorific prefix seldom used today, while the ‘Den’ (伝) can mean ‘legend’ in English, and the film is sometimes listedas ‘The Legendary Hell’, whichmakes little sense and, as far as I’m aware, was never an officialrelease title. It does seemodd to use to use ‘O-Den Hell’ as a title without the characterの,which would indicate that the English should be ‘O-Den’s Hell’or ‘The Hell of O-Den’; my guess is that O-Den Hell is a sort ofnickname, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.

Thanks to A.K.

DVD at Amazon Japan(no English subtitles)

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Obscure Japanese Film #276

Fujimura (ShiroOsaka) is an unrepentant criminal released from prison only to findtwo yakuza whose money he has stolen waiting for him outside. Heflees and boards a train bound for Yamashiro, but they follow himonto the train. However, Fujimura finds that he has a doppelgangeramong the passengers and manages to swap clothes with him while he’sasleep in an effort to shake off his pursuers. It works, but whenFujimura reaches Yamashiro he realises that Bunpei Sagara (alsoplayed by Osaka), the man whose identity he has assumed, is arepresentative from the Ministry of Education whose mission is todeliver a lecture on the importance of morality and decide if thetown is worthy of receiving a 10 million yen grant. The town’s VIPsqueue up to kiss his butt and Fujimura continues to play the role ofSagara...

If the basic plot ofthis Nikkatsu production sounds familiar, that’s because it’s anuncredited reworking of Gogol’s play The Government Inspector.However, thecredited source is a series of essays by Yukio Mishima originallypublished in the weekly magazine Shukan Myojo,so it was presumably the screenplay authors (AtsundoKubota* and director Katsumi Nishikawa) who came up with the idea ofraiding Gogol for the storyline. The film retains the title of theessay series which, according to Japanese Wikipedia, ‘is modelledafter Ihara Saikaku’s Twenty Unfilial Acts of Japan,which parodies the Chinese Twenty-Four Paragons of FilialPiety and contains carefullyselected stories of “unfilial children”.’ Mishima’s essays,which were later collected in book form, have yet to appear inEnglish, but were,apparently, humorous attackson the hypocrisies of thetime. In any case, he clearly approved of the film as he evenappears in it as himself in abrief prologue and epilogue.

Theupright facadepresented by the town ofYamashiro soon proves to be acomplete sham, and the place ispopulated largely by amoraleccentrics: twoyoung students plotting the perfect murder,a high school girl raffling off her virginity, a middle-agedChristian housewife (Chieko Misaki) fantasising about her youngmuscleman driver, an anti-moral education protest group, and a nerdwho claims to be a lady-killer (Pigs and Battleships’Hiroyuki Nagato). 

The biggest star in the film, Yumeji Tsukioka, isabsent for most of the picture but plays a TV star returning to herhometown to think about her future, while leading actor Shiro Osakawas usually found further down the cast list but acquits himself wellin the comic double role. Director Nishikawa seems quite at home withall the absurdist comedy and keeps things moving at a steady pace.

*Sometimesincorrectly translated as Atsuto Kubota.

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Obscure Japanese Film #275

Ushinosuke (Takahiro Tamura) is a Kyoto actor who elopes with a youngwoman, O-Ume (Mayumi Ogawa), in a small boat. She decides they mustdie together and attacks him with a knife; the boat capsizes in thestruggle and only Ushinosuke survives. Seven years later, inrepentance, he has become a monk at Enmei-in Temple in Edo under thenew name of Dogyo, but his faith is continually tested by lustfulyoung women like Okura (Reiko Ohara), who apparently find his pompouspiety and shaven pate irresistible.

One day, Ryuzen(Nobuo Kaneko), who knows about Dogyo’s past, comes to themonastery to train as a monk, but appears to have some form ofblackmail in mind. Meanwhile, the elderly head priest is dying buttries to seduce Dogyo on his deathbed. A shocked Dogyo runs off andlets himself be seduced by Okura instead while Ryuzen is finishingoff the old priest. For some reason, Dogyo then decides to become thewickedest priest that ever lived...

This monksploitationmeller from Toei was part of the studio’s drive to lure dwindlingaudiences back into the cinema with the promise of more eroticcontent, although said content remains mostly rather tame at thisearly stage. The fact that it was made in black and white and thestar is Takahiro Tamura (who had seldom carried a picture before thisone) seems indicative of a low budget, as does the silly script byB-movie hack Kikuma Shimoiizaka. Director Eiichi Kudo of 13Assassins (1963) fame pulls off a few memorable moments, but theunconvincing characters and over-the-top performances soon provetiresome, making the film quite a let-down after a strong openingsequence.

A note on the title:

Although ConvictedWoman appears to have been an official English title, it doesn’tfit the content; the Japanese title can be translated as ‘FemaleTransgression’ or ‘Women Breaking the Commandments’, either ofwhich make more sense in light of the story.

Thanks to A.K.

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Obscure Japanese Film #274

Mori (Chojuro Kawarasaki) is one of many day labourers scrambling forjobs clearing up the rubble of post-war Tokyo. After failing to findwork one day, he returns to the slum where he lives with his wife,Sato (played by Kawarasaki’s real-life wife, Shizue), and twochildren only to learn that they’re to be evicted the followingday. Sato decides that she should take the kids and stay with hersister until Mori can find a new place.

Mori has a chance ofimproving his lot when he’s offered a job as a lathe operator, butthere’s one problem – how can he survive until payday when hisboss won’t give him an advance? Old lady Akiyama (Choko Iida) comesto the rescue by gathering the day labourers together and gettingthem all to chip in a few yen for Mori, but if it weren’t for badluck, Mori wouldn’t have any luck at all…

After hisblacklisting from the major studios for being a member of theCommunist Party, director Tadashi Imai founded Shinsei Eigasha (theNew Star Film Company) with fellow director Satsuo Yamamoto andproducer Takero Ito. This was the first film produced by the companyand they actually financed it by getting members of the public tocontribute 50 yen each. Considering that Imai also managed to producea good film which was well-reviewed and made a profit, this is animpressive achievement indeed.

Under suchcircumstances, it’s not surprising that there are no big moviestars in the film, although leading actor Chojuro Kawarasaki was amajor star of the kabuki theatre and played the lead role inoccasional films, such as Sadao Yamanaka’s Priest of Darkness(1936). A communist sympathiser since the late 1920s, he and histheatre group, Zenshinza (the ‘Progressive Troupe’), joined theJapanese Communist Party en masse in 1949, and it was apparentlyZenshinza which was largely responsible for raising the money to makeAnd Yet We Live by soliciting donations from their audiencesas they toured the country. (According to Japanese Wikipedia,Kawarasaki was later expelled from the JCP in 1967 for being aMaoist.) Kawarasaki and his troupe were later featured in KozaburoYoshimura’s excellent The Beauty and the Water Dragon(1955), which I have previously reviewed. His performance here isdecent if unremarkable; there’s a drunk scene I disliked, partlybecause Kawarasaki – like most Japanese actors of the time in suchscenes, it seems – overdoes it, but also because I thought thatMori wouldn’t have been so stupid and irresponsible in hissituation. However, it is the fact that Mori is portrayed as a flawedindividual rather than an idealised working class hero which helpsthe film to rise above mere commie propaganda. In terms of acting,though, it’s Choko Iida who provides the most memorablecharacterisation as the feisty old woman.

In A HundredYears of Japanese Film, Donald Richie states that ‘The film’sinspiration was De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief (1949) [sic].Imai shot on the streets of Tokyo, around the major downtown railwayterminal of Ueno. His camera was often hidden, and the camera wassometimes placed in real situations.’ While not quite the classicthat De Sica’s film certainly is, And Yet We Live is still avery well-made and effective film in the same neorealist vein.

The film benefitsfrom an interesting and mostly excellent score by Masao Oki(1901-71), a highly-regarded composer whose film work was limited,although he worked for Imai on a number of films. His Symphony No.5 ‘Hiroshima’ (1953) is generally regarded as his masterpiece, butis unrelated to the film Hiroshima released the same year.

Watch And Yet WeLive with English subtitles on my YouTube channel here.

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Obscure Japanese Film #273

Minoru (Takahiro Tamura) is a middle-aged man who returns to theisland of Okinoerabu in the far south of Japan for the first time inover 30 years. He relives long-forgotten memories of his childhoodand his widowed mother (Atsuko Kaku), who died there when he wasstill a boy (Arai Yohiro), and meets an old man (Kamatari Fujiwara) who had been inlove with her.

Based on anautobiographical novel by Jiro Isshiki (1916-88) which won the OsamuDazai prize on its publication in 1967, this was the first ofjust two films directed by renowned cinematographer ToichiroNarushima (1925-93), who also worked as his own DP and producer herein addition to co-writing the screenplay. Previously, he had providedfirst-rate camerawork for mostly ‘new wave’ directors such asYoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda, Noboru Nakamura and NagisaOshima after starting out as an assistant cameraman for KeisukeKinoshita. He clearly learnt a few things from working with suchacclaimed filmmakers as, not only is the photography in this film asstriking as one would expect from Narushima, but he proves to have afirm hand in other areas too.

The story is thesort of nostalgic, sentimental material that could easily have becomecloying, but Narushima mostly avoids this by preventing his actorsfrom overdoing it and staging his scenes with taste and subtlety,while the device of having the young and old Minoru frequentlyappearing together - almost as if the older one were a timetraveller – works especially well, as does the purposefully non-chronological unfolding of events in the flashbacks (the most dramatic scene is held back until the older Minoru can finally face it). Time within Memory alsobenefits from its well-used locations and Toru Takemitsu’s score,which provides much of the emotional resonance even if its not one ofhis greatest.

Delivering a fineperformance in only her third film appearance, Atsuko Kaku won theMainichi Film Concours Award for Best Actress, but for some reasonnever made another film. Like Tatsuya Nakadai and many otherwell-known Japanese actors, she was a member of the Haiyuza theatrecompany. 

As a passive observer of his own past, Takahiro Tamura hasless to do despiteostensibly having the lead role, while other notables among the castinclude Yunosuke Ito as Minoru’s eccentric inventor grandfather and Hisano Yamaoka as his wife, Taiji Tonoyama as a shopkeeper sympathetic to the youngMinoru, and Jun Hamamura as a mumbo-jumbo mumbling shaman. However,it’s Kamatari Fujiwara who impresses the most among the supportingcast when he sings and accompanies himself on the shamisen ina uniquely individual style (assuming he wasn’t dubbed).

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Obscure Japanese Film #272

The late Muromachi period,c.1467, the beginning of the Onin War. Samé, or ‘Shark boy’(Kinnosuke Nakamura), is a young shark fisherman who lives as anoutcast near a fishing village on the Echizen coast. As itinerants,his family are not accepted by the villagers and he is forced to handover his catch every day and accept the scraps they allow him to keepfor himself. When hostility towards the itinerants increases, theirhuts are burned and Samé’s mother (Akiko Kazami) killed, so he andan itinerant elder(Yoshi Kato)decide to head for the capital (Kyoto) on foot in search of a betterfuture. 

However, the old manfalls ill andpasses away en route, after which Samé hooks up with a middle-agedwoman (Michiyo Kogure) making the same journey alone. She has amysterious supply of meat which keeps them going but, horrified todiscover that it’s actually human flesh, Samé abandons her andcontinues on his own.

It’sa time of widespread famine, and Samé turns to stealing in order tosurvive. He’s taken under the wing of Shirasawa (Minoru Chiaki), aone-armed criminal with a black mark on his face, who teaches Saméto be more ambitious in his thievery and even encourages him to kill.Inevitably, the pupil eventually turns on his master and, by the timeSamé has become a fully-fledged adult, he’s a ruthless man indeed. 

He next joins a gang of mercenaries led by Genji of Chikushi (DaisukeKato) in the hope of receiving not only wealth but a position ofpower in exchange for the heads he takes in battle. By this time, hiswillingness to commit evil seems to know no bounds, but when he triesto rape a nun (Yoshiko Mita), her unexpected reaction awakens hislost humanity.

Basedon a best-selling, prize-winning two-part novel of the same name byNobuhiko Matsugi (1932-2016) and adapted for the screen by directorTomotaka Tasaka’s regular collaborator Naoyuki Suzuki (who alsofrequently worked for Tomu Uchida), like many of Tasaka’s films,this is a lengthy one, clocking in at around 165 minutes. With formerkabuki actor Kinnosuke Nakamura – one of the biggest stars ofJapanese cinema at the time – in the lead role. it was a majorproduction for Toei, so it’s surprising that it’s not betterknown, though this is likely because it was not an award winner andappears to have been out of circulation for many years. At the time,Kinema Junpo ranked it 17th in the list of bestfilms of 1964, and it was the third most successful of the year interms of box office.

Thefilm depends heavily on its star, Kinnosuke Nakamura, a talentedactor but one who had a tendency to go over the top, which hecertainly does here, with his maniacal laugh being overused in thelater scenes. It might also have been better to cast a younger actorin the part of Samé as a boy – indeed, it took me a while torealise that the 32-year-old actor was playing a boy at thebeginning. Regarding the other cast members, it’s as surprising tosee Michiyo Kogure as a cannibal as it is predictable to see thecadaverous Jun Hamamura – who had already tasted ‘monkey meat’in Fires on the Plain (1959) – desperate for a taste, butit’s the two Seven Samurai veterans, Minoru Chiaki andDaisuke Kato, who come off best as Nakamura’s two mentors ofvillainy.

LikeNakamura, director Tasaka was left-leaning politically, and the filmmakes it very clear that Samé is driven to crime by poverty and themerciless feudal system. Although most of Samé’s actions areselfish ones, at one point he clearly takes sides when he attackssome men escorting stocks of rice, liberating the food not for hisown benefit, but for all the starving poor to share. This scene isalso an example of several complex action sequences involvingnumerous actors that Tasaka stages quite brilliantly. His usualcinematographer at the time, Masahiko Iimura, makes effective use ofcolour and widescreen, although I couldn’t help thinking that blackand white would have suited such dark material better. There’s alsoa fitting score by one of Japan’s top film composers, Masaru Sato.However, well worth seeing though it is, I wouldn’t personally makeany claims for this film as a lost masterpiece because I found it rather lacking in subtlety both in terms of story and performance, and Ididn’t buy Samé’s rather corny religious redemption at the end.

Thanksto A.K.

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