I have nothing to say about this well done dark comedy other than the goddess rocks harder than ever, while looking at her best. The only real downside of this movie is that the plot gets a bit jumbled and difficult to follow towards the finale, hence I give it an 8,5 instead of a 9. Other than that, it's highly recommended, especially to fans of Ayako Wakao such as myself.
5 Reviews
"selfish and calculating"...
manfromplanetx12 April 2020
Our opening introduction to Mr & Mrs Maeda follows the pair as they hurriedly stash out of sight all their valued possessions, for on the way up the apartment stairs their son's boss with an accountant to present accusations of large-scale embezzlement...
So begins this brilliant cynical social satire you could almost say chamber drama, stay tuned, unravelling in a volatile atmosphere the offbeat story has some extraordinary surprises ahead...
The outstanding film is a deliriously black humoured, a distinctive collaboration between two masters of their art director Yûzô Kawashima and writer Kaneto Shindô,. Complimenting the tale is vibrant expressive colour cinematography, composed cleverly within the tight settings by Nobuo Munekawa .
Coming back to the film after some years spellbound throughout compels me to give an extra shout-out for this classic film, one that still mysteriously lingers somewhat in obscurity.
A knockout cast of flawed characters excel in the confined apartment setting , but one role in particular I will single out. Every captivating performance from Ayako Wakao is always her best, here she is exceptional as the titular character. . Yasuzo Masumura reflected in a 1970 interview that Wakao was, "selfish and calculating ... she's hardly a pure-hearted woman and she knows it."...
A formidable natural, this is the very essence of her chic, scintillating role as the firms manipulative accountant Yukie, "The Graceful Brute" !
Say no more, Shitoyakana kedamono for me a treasured essential of Classic Japanese Cinema. Highly Entertaining
Highly Recommended !!
Clever and Original!
nywwjpsa8 July 2002
The original story of amazingly greedy people with cheat, embezzle and corruption, is an original, written by Kaneto Shindo. It's all set in this little apartment of the Maeda family. The son's taking money from the talent agency that he's working for. But the money's somehow missing. Who's taking it? Parents, who act like they're poor, seem to be hiding something. Or is that the daughter, the writer's mistress? Maybe the tax man, who was helping the agency to evade a tax? The singer looks like he lost so much money, too. Who's the most greedy, clever, smart, sexy and strongest but never seems to show that and always behave gracefully?? This absolute classic (directed by a legend Yuzo Kawashima),beautifully shot and acted should be seen more...and watch out the title role, played by the greatest Ayako Wakao!
An excellent comedy from the later year of the Japanese Golden Age
kekseksa30 May 2018
When watching Japanese films of the thirties, fifties and early sixties (a bit of a hiatus for the war), I find myself constantly asking myself two questions. Why are Japanese films still for the most part so little known and how was it that the Japanese were able to produce fine films with such consistency over such a long period when one compares them particularly with the huge volume of junk churned out by the US film industry in order to produce a small corpus of good films?
Japan was by this time was the largest single country producing film in the world,, in itself a remarkable fact for a monolingual film industry relatively unreliant on exports. The Japanese were overtaken by India sometime in the seventies but that the Indian and European film industries should be, as they currently remain, the largest is completely unsurprising (they each produce something like 1000 films a year). Both are huge continents with cinema traditions that are multilingual with several different centres of production (the majority of Indian films are made in the various centers in South India not in Bombay) but of the monolingual traditions ((with films being made largely in one centre - Hollywood or Tokyo) ,only the US was really comparable but produced many fewer films in total as well as and many fewer of high quality.
This Kawashima film is a beautifully observed and at times very funny satire on the moral postwar Japan, an area in which Kawashima was something of a specialist. Certain key scenes - the moment when the family remember their time of poverty or the brother and sister's wild dance in the sunset, Wakao's surreal imagined "stair-walk" as she recounts her plans for the future - are unforgettable. Wakao' performance is often rightly praised but it is actually the eerily 'ordinary" performances of Yûnosuke Itô and Hisano Yamaoka as the parents that make this film so remarkable.
I have only seen two other films by him but both are excellent in very different ways. Suzaki Paradaisu: Akashingô (1956) is a more melancholy postwar study of a drifting couple while Bakumatsu taiyôden (1957) is a very funny period drama with comedian Frankie Sakkai which also has a sly contemporary relevance. Both are strongly recommended..Kawashima was a major influence on Shohei Imamura (who co-wrote Bakumatsu taiyôden) whose early comedies like Hateshinaki yokubô (1958) and Buta to gunkan (1961) cover rather similar territory. Also to be discoveerd for those who do not already know them.
Japan was by this time was the largest single country producing film in the world,, in itself a remarkable fact for a monolingual film industry relatively unreliant on exports. The Japanese were overtaken by India sometime in the seventies but that the Indian and European film industries should be, as they currently remain, the largest is completely unsurprising (they each produce something like 1000 films a year). Both are huge continents with cinema traditions that are multilingual with several different centres of production (the majority of Indian films are made in the various centers in South India not in Bombay) but of the monolingual traditions ((with films being made largely in one centre - Hollywood or Tokyo) ,only the US was really comparable but produced many fewer films in total as well as and many fewer of high quality.
This Kawashima film is a beautifully observed and at times very funny satire on the moral postwar Japan, an area in which Kawashima was something of a specialist. Certain key scenes - the moment when the family remember their time of poverty or the brother and sister's wild dance in the sunset, Wakao's surreal imagined "stair-walk" as she recounts her plans for the future - are unforgettable. Wakao' performance is often rightly praised but it is actually the eerily 'ordinary" performances of Yûnosuke Itô and Hisano Yamaoka as the parents that make this film so remarkable.
I have only seen two other films by him but both are excellent in very different ways. Suzaki Paradaisu: Akashingô (1956) is a more melancholy postwar study of a drifting couple while Bakumatsu taiyôden (1957) is a very funny period drama with comedian Frankie Sakkai which also has a sly contemporary relevance. Both are strongly recommended..Kawashima was a major influence on Shohei Imamura (who co-wrote Bakumatsu taiyôden) whose early comedies like Hateshinaki yokubô (1958) and Buta to gunkan (1961) cover rather similar territory. Also to be discoveerd for those who do not already know them.
Elegant Beast
BandSAboutMovies18 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Directed by Yuzo Kawashima and written by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba), this is the story of the Maeda family. They live in a small apartment and are always ready to hide just how much money they have, all so they can continue the plans of their father figure, ex-naval officer Tokizo (Yunosuke Ito).
Tomoko (Yuko Hamada) is sleeping with a rich author, but is always asking for more money, always for the family. Minoru (Manamitsu Kawabata) works at a music talent agency and is stealing money. As for where it all goes, Tokizo is investing in a new Japanese military while Minoru keeps spending it all on Yukie (Ayako Wakao) who is going to figure all of this out because she's the accountant at the same company. But the joke is on them, because Yukie has been sleeping with more than one man, all so she can have her own hotel.
Now the author can evict them, the family can sell everything they've bought and another scam will have to be created. At least this isn't the same poverty they dealt with at the end of the war. Somehow, this is all within an apartment.
Tomoko (Yuko Hamada) is sleeping with a rich author, but is always asking for more money, always for the family. Minoru (Manamitsu Kawabata) works at a music talent agency and is stealing money. As for where it all goes, Tokizo is investing in a new Japanese military while Minoru keeps spending it all on Yukie (Ayako Wakao) who is going to figure all of this out because she's the accountant at the same company. But the joke is on them, because Yukie has been sleeping with more than one man, all so she can have her own hotel.
Now the author can evict them, the family can sell everything they've bought and another scam will have to be created. At least this isn't the same poverty they dealt with at the end of the war. Somehow, this is all within an apartment.
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