"I think it's raising a child, not giving birth to one, that makes a woman a mother."
In a nutshell: a wealthy actor returns from Hollywood to Japan to seek out the biological daughter she left behind, and taking advantage of her ex-husband's bankruptcy, she abducts the girl over both the child's and stepmother's wishes. What follows is a drama that's remarkable for having broached the topic of the rights of biological/step mothers in 1932, and for having done so with such honesty.
There is a sense of vibrancy in this film created from the emotions involved for each of its three main female characters (the little girl included), but also from the camera work and editing. Director Mikio Naruse gives us montage sequences, lots of long zooms into the faces of his actors, and plenty of freedom for them to express themselves. Yoshiko Okada (the biological mom) and Yukiko Tsukuba (the stepmom) have several fine moments even if Naruse falls in love with zooming in on them a little too much, reducing the potency of the effect. Even the little girl (Toshiko Kojima) is allowed to show her emotions in unvarnished ways, at one point saying "Grandma, why do you keep me in this house? I'm starting to hate you too."
All of these things help overcome issues with the story, which is so simple that it lags at times, and resolves itself too conveniently. The poignant separation doesn't land with quite as much punch as it could have because the actor was hard to sympathize with. Aside from the kidnapping that's out of the blue, we've learned that she had run off with another man five years earlier, leaving her husband and baby. It's clear she's learned a bitter lesson in life, but a little more nuance would have helped. Meanwhile, of the male characters, I loved the pickpocket who adds a bit of comic relief, but it's a little unfortunate that the wonderful little grifting scheme he has going with his buddy never went anyway after the opening scene.
Overall, though - a fine and engaging effort, one that I really enjoyed.
In a nutshell: a wealthy actor returns from Hollywood to Japan to seek out the biological daughter she left behind, and taking advantage of her ex-husband's bankruptcy, she abducts the girl over both the child's and stepmother's wishes. What follows is a drama that's remarkable for having broached the topic of the rights of biological/step mothers in 1932, and for having done so with such honesty.
There is a sense of vibrancy in this film created from the emotions involved for each of its three main female characters (the little girl included), but also from the camera work and editing. Director Mikio Naruse gives us montage sequences, lots of long zooms into the faces of his actors, and plenty of freedom for them to express themselves. Yoshiko Okada (the biological mom) and Yukiko Tsukuba (the stepmom) have several fine moments even if Naruse falls in love with zooming in on them a little too much, reducing the potency of the effect. Even the little girl (Toshiko Kojima) is allowed to show her emotions in unvarnished ways, at one point saying "Grandma, why do you keep me in this house? I'm starting to hate you too."
All of these things help overcome issues with the story, which is so simple that it lags at times, and resolves itself too conveniently. The poignant separation doesn't land with quite as much punch as it could have because the actor was hard to sympathize with. Aside from the kidnapping that's out of the blue, we've learned that she had run off with another man five years earlier, leaving her husband and baby. It's clear she's learned a bitter lesson in life, but a little more nuance would have helped. Meanwhile, of the male characters, I loved the pickpocket who adds a bit of comic relief, but it's a little unfortunate that the wonderful little grifting scheme he has going with his buddy never went anyway after the opening scene.
Overall, though - a fine and engaging effort, one that I really enjoyed.