Neko to Shôzô to futari no onna

Alicia Malone, in her TCM introduction, called this film from Shiro Toyoda a comedy. I wish to totally disagree. First of all, it's easily a half hour too long and excessive length is almost always a comedy killer. Secondly, as a previous reviewer observed, the dialogue and mood tend to be on the sad, rather than funny, side. Thirdly, and most importantly, there aren't any sustained laughs. Occasionally Toyoda makes a feeble attempt at physical comedy (an ice cream cone thrown in an innocent bystander's face or an insincere suicide attempt) but the main physical action, rather than being humorous, revolves around violent cat fights (no pun intended) between the two women of the film's title that verge on the abusive. And speaking of abusive I really could have done without the animal variety to which director Toyoda subjected Lily. All in all, a rather ugly film. No wonder Pauline Kael liked it. C plus.

Hisaya Morishige argues with his wife, Isuzu Yamada, over his cat, so he divorces her and marries vivacious young Kyôko Kagawa, who also objects to his cat. He wants a simple life, and people are too complicated. When he discovers Miss Kagawa has given the cat away with his mother's permission, he runs away from home.

Shirô Toyoda's movie is one of his rare comedies, it says here, but I didn't find it particularly amusing. One issue is its length, almost 140 minutes, another is the rather lugubrious sense of humor that the Japanese seem to have, and a third is the insistence on a story that is inherently tragic, one about a man who cannot sustain an adult relationship with his wives, nor his disappointed mother. The author of the novel this is based on, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, had a reputation for dealing with issues of sexual identity, and the film makes that point about Morishige.

In the end, it reminded me of the observation that HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS starts out with the Grinch wanting to live with his dog far from people. As a dog owner, I sympathize. People are, alas, complicated, while animals are simple, even if we often anthropomorphize their motivations. I don't think this is a comedy at all, but a story about a man who gives up on people when he recognizes them for what they are. His fixation on his cat is a descent into madness. Not funny at all.

(1956) Shozo, a Cat, and Two Women (In Japanese with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA/ COMEDY

Adapted from the novel by Jun'ichirô Tanizaki, that has a wife, Shinako (Isuzu Yamada) already packed and prepared to leaving the household, who besides not getting along with her mother in law, Orin (Chieko Naniwa). She resents the fact that her husband, Shozo (Hisaya Morishige) pays more attention to his pet cat, Lily than he does on her. And when Shinako moves out to living with her sister's place. Shozo's mother, Orin takes full advantage of the situation by setting his son up with a much wealthier woman, Fukuko (Kyôko Kagawa) who's father appears to own the house they live in. The "love triangle" comes into play is when Shinako begins to feel unwanted by her sister and her husband living with them, when they already made plans beforehand to rent the room she is moving in to somebody, someone willing to pay them more. And Shinako then tries to manipulate the situation by attempting to back into Shozo's life again by convincing the wealthy, Fukuko to realize that he loves the cat, Lily than he loves her.

Although, I did not find any of this funny, I did however, found it amusing and that it did not lose focus from the actual theme. It's kind of crazy, both women are vying for the same man when they are perhaps better suitors vying for the much younger and wealthier, Fukuko. I can understand why Shinako wants to move back with him as she looks middle age, and is about the same age as her husband Shozo. But in terms of Fukuko, who enjoys sunbathing on the beach and spending money, in actuality, she could have easily have found somebody else. As it was obvious to Fukuko Shozo's mother had a financial reason, and is just as deceitful as her daughter in law Shinako, ending the movie in a rather ambiguous note.