ahoffer

This is a tender love story taking place about the time when the Japanese war machine was raping Nanking (Nanjing), enslaving Korean women, attacking the Philippines, and preparing to bomb Australia and America. These contrasts are startling as is the contrast that is in the lesson of the film. Naruse-san teaches us once again that the truth about a person resides not in the words and inferences spoken, rather in direct observation and understanding. Here we have a young women approaching the age of independence being raised by her mother who continually painted the absent father as an unfaithful woman chaser living with a woman of ill repute. The daughter wants to actually meet her father and she wonders why he left her and her mother. She trains to the remote village where the father lives with the infamous lady.

The actual meeting, first when the father and daughter view each other from a distance is the perfect technique Naruse-san used in other films, to the actual polite, respectful way the Japanese greet each other, is quite emotional and the viewer senses the love each has for the other, bridging the years of separation.

The daughter is quite surprised to learn that the so-called infamous woman is simply a very plain and loving farm lady with no special beauty nor male allure. She quite simply loves the man she lives with; she is a marvelous rose, something the man's wife was not.

As far as I know, the film is not available on DVD. I wish it were.

There are some who do not believe that the event where enemy soldiers could actually take a respite from war and meet before again continuing the battle did actually happen or is merely a sentimental myth attached to the Christmas season. Certainly we believe as we wish, and yet there seems to be enough evidence that the event depicted here actually did occur in the manner enacted in Joyeux Noél. The acting and scenes invite the viewer to join the soldiers in the celebration of camaraderie and feel the companion emotions and confusion about who we should really hate as our enemy. In addition to the movie, the story is nicely told in a song entitled, "Christmas in the Trenches" by John McCutcheon; in the CD "Live at Wolf Trap." I wonder if the story has ever been portrayed by a German filmmaker.

The positive things are all you can imagine and more. The acting is believable, the casting just right, the music is spectacular as are the performances, and the story is nice with a little surprise beginning slowly half way thru and blossoming near the end. Except for that there are no real unpredictable moments. The interplay between the story and music is accomplished masterfully. I remember listening to many of those selections as a boy and how the emotions in the music generated tears. The same emotions are here and yet amplified by the conditions in the lives of the people and the needs that drive them. You know the story: a peasant father whose son is a violin talent and who sacrifices everything to move to a big city so the boy can have advanced instruction and rightfully achieve fame and fortune. The boy's mother died when he was a baby and the only thing she left him was a violin, the same one he plays now and cherishes because of her. His talent is recognized by a master teacher who long ago has lost the woman he loved and has withdrawn from society with the exceptions of caring for stray cats and teaching untalented students - for his survival. There is a nice minor theme in the relationship between the teacher sinking and the student rising. A secondary theme develops between the boy and a woman he sees and meets at the train station. She is a man chaser and the boy sees beauty and fun in her beginning with an argument with her boyfriend who she kisses on parting. It turns out that she and the boy live near to each other and he plays violin for her. Because of her, the father wants to change teachers and convinces an up-scale teacher to work with the boy. The teacher reluctantly accepts; however, the boy doesn't want to leave the first teacher. Another energy to drive the plot.

Negative things, which likely trigger the PG label are, in my opinion, minimal. The boy has pictures of women he places in his music books. At first you are to think he is a naughty little boy; indeed, the father accuses him so, and yet you realize eventually that the pictures represent the mother he never met. The boy is enamored by the woman he meets in the train station; he even helps her prepare a party for her boyfriend; and goes with her when she shops. The father gets angry with him; hits him, likely for the first time; takes the picture of the lady away; and the boy hits back, unacceptable in his culture. Also, some of the women are portrayed as mean in their verbal attacks and this includes a young female violinist. The movie should be fine for any child who can read or understand that Chinese dialect. I'd like to see it again and I'll buy the DVD when it is released.