Oboroyo no onna (1936) User Reviews

But It's the Woman Who Pays

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 October 2020]

Toshiko Iizuka begins an affair with Shin Tokudaiji. When she falls pregnant, he offers to declare her his wife, but she says she can manage on her own, rather than blighting his life before he begins it. She does fall in with a plan for Tokudaji's uncle, Takeshi Sakamoto, to pretend to be her lover, and for him and his wife to adopt 'his' child.

In the Western world, this story would be told from Miss Iizuka's viewpoint, and she would be the central character. Here, however, the film concentrates more on the warm relationship between uncle and nephew, and it is more than half an hour into the film before Miss Iizuka appears.

Heinosuke Gosho was not the only director to make films whose point-of-view was someone outside the center of the events; Mikio Naruse's SOUND OF THE MOUNTAIN did much the same, although the movie concerned itself with the impact of events on the protagonist. Despite that, this movie does not offer any sense of the impact of events. That may, however, be the point of the movie; Miss Iikuza suffers, Mitsuko Yoshikawa as Sakamoto's wife is aggrieved, and the men get off scot-free.

Average 1930's Japanese drama

[pscamp01 · 6/10 · 3 September 2012]

Very mild spoilers ahead: This is an obscure Japanese drama from the 1930's about the fairly common story (in Japanese movies anyway) about a single mother who is slaving away to provide a better life for her son. The son is feeling stifled by her attention and is studying law, a subject he is not particularly interested in. Trouble comes when he meets a woman who is beneath his station who takes a romantic interest in him. This is mostly a light drama with some comedic touches. Unfortunately, the movie is indifferently directed and goes on much too long. The actor who portrays the son gives him such a passive character that it is hard to care what happens. There are some good points about the movie, however, most particularly the performance of Takeshi Sakamoto, who plays the boy's uncle, who goes to rather drastic lengths to resolve the situation. Mr. Sakamoto was the actor who played the Kihachi character in a number of Ozu's movies from the 30's and his character here is very similar. The ending of the movie is also very affecting which makes up for the tedium of a lot of the earlier scenes. All in all, not a bad movie, but certainly no lost classic.