Aaand… she’s back! Welcome back, we were getting a little worried 
I’ve clocked in no less than 7 JP films in the last week - mostly oldies (of course?) 
Among them, only one was a dud. The others were:
こころ / The Heart
1955, Kon Ichikawa
Nobuchi is a man without friends, who every month visits the grave of his colleague (and friend) from college, Kaji. In his own words: he doesn’t trust anyone, because he doesn’t trust himself. He has been married to Shizu for 13 years, and while their marriage is functional, it’s an unhappy one.
At one point he meets a young student, Hioki, who considers Nobuchi a teacher (sensei), they strike off a sort of friendship, and eventually Nobuchi confesses what has been plaguing him: a dark tale of friendship ruined by jealousy, betrayal and guilt.
zzz
The “present” is in 1912, at the end of the Meiji era - we hear about the Emperor’s death from a newspaper, but the tale itself takes place (in flashbacks) while Nobuchi and Kaji were students, renting rooms in Shizu’s and her mother’s home.
Masayuki Mori has another “unpleasant” role (after Floating Clouds) but he did a fine job with it. Actually, the acting in general is quite good, as is the direction. The cinematography is cool too (for the 50s), and the story as it unfolds keeps thing quite tense, although it is slow paced.
Although… I didn’t fully understand why Kaji did what he did, must be a Japanese thing 
In summary: nicely done, but perhaps not the best choice for a Sunday flick 
7.5-8/10
雁 / Gan (The Wild Geese, The Mistress)
1953, Shirô Toyoda
In Meiji-era Japan (late 1800s?), Otama is considered “damaged goods” because she was tricked by her former fiancee, who happened to already have a wife and kids.
As the film begins, she is… erm, offered, as a mistress to loan shark Suezo by a woman who owes him money. Otama and her father are told that he is a proper businessman and widower, although his wife is (of course?) alive and well.
In wanting to care for her father, Otama ends up trapped in this relationship, even when she learns the truth. Later she meets a young medical student, but can she escape the current situation?
(Well, this being a 50s Japanese production, you’ve probably guessed the answer to that question…).
zzz
TLDR: Meiji-era Japan didn’t much care for its women and treated them like shit property and commodity.
What do I begin with?
This is a melodrama, yes, but a very human one with entirely believable problems, a tale of personal sacrifice to the benefit of “family” and lost dreams, told in a quiet and delicate way.
It’s one of those that shows how little I actually know about Japanese classic cinema 
Just when I thought I was comfortable and happy with the Ozu-Kurosawa-Misoguchi-Naruse quartet, bang out of nowhere comes Shiro Toyoda.
The direction here is pretty much impeccable relying equally on dialogue and body language to express characters’s feelings, the story flows very well with mood and atmosphere swings, the environment (setting) adds various symbols for the plight of the main character.
And to round things off, the cinematography and lighting are outstanding and often painting-like - it’s all sooo pretty to look at.
Such a shame that the DVD transfer isn’t too good. This one would benefit greatly from a remaster on Blu-ray, but I’m guessing there’s no better source to scan from.
And although the film is highly critical of the attitude towards women in Japanese society of old, Toyoda is careful to not fall under the straight white/black characterization, but rather with various shades of grey to give humanity even to the “bad” characters (there’s quite a few of them, by the way).
And then we have Hideko Takamine, in what feels like a typical role for her by now, and she does knock it out of the park… again!!!
Her character talks less and feels more, yet with a fine balance between exercising restraint and showing emotion… always with a certain grace to her demeanor.
She rarely smiles in this film (as she isn’t given many reasons to), but when she does… boy does she light up the scenes. One word comes to mind: radiant
There’s actually a scene at one point, where the lighting around her moving from background to foreground and suddenly brigthness her face - such a simple trick but so effective and sweet.
I’ve yet to decide who I like best, Takamine with her natural attitude or Hara with her high-class distinctness… do I even have to choose?!? 
9/10 rather than full marks, for a couple of reasons, but really only the first is a valid complaint:
- The background score is almost constant, becoming a bit tiresome; I kinda missed some silence at times.
- I’m not sure how to interpret the final scene: I want it to be some sort of happy ending for Otama but I don’t know if it meant a permanent decision or just a fleeting moment of defiance before resignation. Just for once I’d like to see a film where Hideko Takamine plays a happy character with an “and they lived happily ever after” ending.
祇園囃子 / A Geisha
1953, Kenji Mizoguchi
In post-WW2 Japan, a young girl named Eiko visits geisha Myoharu, asking to be taken in as a maiko - a geisha apprentice. Reluctant at first, Myoharu accepts and moreover takes on a debt of 300k yen needed for Eiko’s “introduction” into the trade.
Soon enough, when they refuse sexual advances from certain customers, their livelihood in the business is put in peril and choices must be made.
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A star is born?
This was Ayako Wakao’s first major role. She was 19-20 at the time (although she doesn’t look older than 14-15 in the film) and indeed makes a good appearance here, but she’s only in a supporting role as Eiko.
The titular geisha (at least in the English translation of the title) is Miyoharu, played by Michiyo Kogure, who even though appears cold and calculated right at the beginning of the film, becomes a kind sister/mother figure to Eiko and eventually makes a sacrifice to secure the future of the young girl.
Being filmed in the 50s and with its setting in “present day Japan” must have been quite a bold move from Mizoguchi at the time, but then again he was probably in a comfortable enough position already.
Early on when Eiko is in training we (and the maikos) are told of how geishas are symbols of the inherent beauty of Japan, and even called “Intangible Cultural Assets”, but soon after we find out that this is quite far from a “comfortable” film - it sheds some light on the darker side of the business, with some (most?) of the women being forced into prostitution through certain “indirect” means. I won’t pretend to know much on the subject but I’m guessing since the film got made it couldn’t have been an uncommon state of affairs at the time.
However, it does fall a bit on the wayside, as pretty much all men are evil ones wanting and caring for nothing but sex (except one, and that one wants money off the back of the daughter he rejected not long before) and with Miyoharu herself being just a little too good, perhaps.
Still, the story isn’t bad at all and the two ladies put in good performances. Definitely worth the hour and a half.
I do wonder how it might have looked had it been shot in colour, with all those spectacular kimonos on display…
(…and I’m certainly going to want to see Ms. Wakao in later roles, she’s a beaut )
7.5-8/10
安城家の舞踏会 / The Ball at the Anjo House
1947, Kôzaburô Yoshimura
The end of WW2 marked, among other things, the dissolution of peerage in Japan. Aristocrat family Anjo (patriarch, one son and two daughters) are faced with losing their old way of life. They decide one last ball at the family mansion before giving it up.
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This reminded me of Checkov’s The Cherry Orchard, but it’s a more serious and mostly sad take.
The widowed father is, perhaps understandably so, the most affected by the coming change and plans suicide after finding out that those he once thoughts friends were only interested in the title of Earl that he had. However, he is also grateful for the abandoning of the class system as now he can do something he’s been wanting to but couldn’t for 15 years due to class restrictions: marry a geisha he’s been in love with all this time.
The son takes a rather nihilistic approach to the whole thing. And while he may be a spoiled entitled brat (he seduced the maid to whom he promised marriage although he never meant to, later commits sexual assault on someone else), he does care for his father and sisters and by the end of the film grows a little. Masayuki Mori in again an “unpleasant” role - go figure 
The older daughter is a little snobbish and can’t conceive of giving any attention to the former family chauffeur who is now a successful entrepreneur. He’s been in love with her all along and maybe she with him too, but to her such a relationship is still inconceivable.
The younger daughter is the liberal sheep of the family, the one with her head on her shoulders and looking forward to the changes in Japanese society. Setsuko Hara… well what can one say? THAT smile!!! 
I keep hovering between her and Hideko Takamine and cannot/don’t want to decide 
And that tango at the end… just lovely!
Anyway, it’s a very nice tale of personal melodrama and social upheaval, all tightly packed within 90 minutes. I loved it, but also couldn’t help feel that this was a post-war occupation-influenced film, in an “you’ve gotta go this way with it, if you want this movie to see the light of day” way. Maybe I’m wrong…
I initially gave it an 8-8.5, but now I’m bumping it slightly to 8.5-9
妻は告白する / A Wife Confesses
1961, Yasuzô Masumura
Ayako is a young wife in an unhappy marriage with an older man, now on trial for murder: after a climbing accident with the husband and an associate, she cut the rope her husband was dangling from, slowly killing her due to the pressure applied by his weight - was it murder or “necessity death” to save herself?
The situation is complicated by rumours of an affair she may or may not have had with the young associate.
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A courtroom drama, then. Told in flashbacks as various characters give evidence about the relationships between the three characters and the events leading up to the death.
But that only lasts for the first two thirds of the film, and by the end of it all it no longer matters whether she is innocent or guilty, as other questions arise, perhaps more important.
It’s a tale of a young woman’s desires and internal struggles while trapped in a society with questionable values when it comes to the positioning of men and women within the family.
Some (male) characters are convinced she should have died together with her oppresive husband. She’s wearing the traditional kimonos most of the time, and in the one scene where she switches to Western-style dressing, it ends badly.
A black and white film it may be, but it’s not that clear cut - pretty much everything in it is just in various shades of (mostly dark) grey and all quite smartly done.
The shooting style is interesting with close takes in tight spaces and often “interrupted” scenes, but the feeling of claustrophobia can get a bit heavy - I’m fairly certain this was intentional.
Acting-wise it has a few moments of overly dramatic but it’s not bothersome, it was a very enjoyable watch.
It’s only a 91m film but it took me longer to finish because most of the time Ayako Wakao (the teen maiko from A Geisha some 8 years back) was on screen I was too busy looking at her and was missing the subtitles, so had to rewind often enough 
(because no, I’ve not really made any tangible progress with listening comprehension and can’t make do without EN subtitles )
In any case… I now know why they have come up with the word 美人 - its main function is to describe Ayako Wakao!
And finally a more recent film:
湯を沸かすほどの熱い愛 / Her Love Boils Bathwater
2016, Ryôta Nakano
Futaba is a single mother with a 16yo daughter (who is being bullied at school, because… Japan, I guess) after her husband left about a year prior.
One day out of the blue she finds out she has terminal cancer, with only a few months, if not mere weeks, left to live.
Rather than giving up, she sets out to accomplish a few tasks: finding her runaway immature husband (who happens to also have another daughter in tow), restarting the family’s public bathouse business, instilling independence and strength of will in her daughter… and other things.
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Shot in only 17 days, with Rie Miyazawa having had only 5 days to lose A LOT of weight (so as to show the physical decline - not that she had much to begin with) this was Japan’s submission to the Oscars that year. It did not get a nomination, but the film won multiple awards at home, including a bunch of “best actress” for Rie Miyazawa (Futaba) and Hana Sugisaki (Azumi, the daughter).
It’s a melodrama, yes, with some tearjerker moments - mostly due to twists in the story in the second half - but the story overall is good and the film is well put together and not overly cheesy.
Actually, whatever cheese there is, is just about adequate within the larger context of parental abandonment, family values (even when the family seems to be makeshift), and (of course) motherhood… with or without blood ties.
I’d say both actresses deserved those awards they got. Rie Miyazawa I had seen in a couple other films, but I wonder what came of Hana Sugisaki, as she did show promise here.
A solid 8 from me.
And hey… it’s available for free on the JFF Theatre website, so definitely worth at least checking out
EDIT- This last one was a little better on the listening comprehension front, actually.
I wonder if it’s because the language has changed over the decades which makes older speaking style harder to understand for us learners?
Just a totally uninformed guess, though - take it with a huge pinch of salt