Shin Saburi is devoted to his wife, Kuniko Miyake, and his younger sister, Michiko Kuwano. He works in the research department of a large corporation, Miss Kuwano as a secretary to a business man, and Miss Miyake makes a home for all three of them. Saburi is hard-working, accurate in his work, generous to people in his office, and despised by his co-workers because he plays Go with one of the directors. That director has a nephew he is planning to make his heir, and he has fallen in love with Miss Kuwano. The director asks Saburi if she will marry him. He says he will discuss it with her. In the hothouse, jealous environment of the business, this is overheard and the word goes out that Saburi is selling her for a promotion, which comes through about the same time..... because he is good at his work.
I have seen about a dozen movies by Yasujirô Shimazu, who directed this film. Going over my reviews, I am struck by the fact that most of the time I have no idea what points he is making in his films. This is a perfectly plotted and performed drama, but there are scenes, like the one in which the three leads are picnicking near Fuji, that are obscure to me. Likewise, most of his movies seem perfectly ordinary dramas, passable but no more.... and one devastating masterpiece in OKAYO NO KAKUGO.
Clearly Shimazu had something more than the ability to direct them fast and adequately. While I have seen few of the almost 150 movies he directed between 1921 and his death in 1945 at the age of 48, I usually can't see what it is. Is it peculiarly Japanese, a failure on my part, both, or something else entirely? Even with hat in mind, I can't see more to this movie than is apparent, no subtext, nothing about the human condition.
With Ken Uehara, Reikichi Kawamura, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Chishû Ryû.
