Happiness of Us Alone

"Namonaku mazushiku utsukushiku" (Our Happiness Alone, 1961) is the feature-length directorial debut of Matsuyama Zenzo. It is one of the best debuts by any Japanese director, but then Matsuyama did not start cold. By 1961, he had achieved a great career as a screenwriter for directors like Kinoshita and Kobayashi, and through Kinoshita, he had also married Takamine Hideko, one of Japan's greatest actresses. "Our Happiness Alone" features a screenplay by Matsuyama, made to suit the fantastic talent of his wife. Takamine gives one of her best performances here.

The film tells the story of a deaf couple struggling through the post-war years. Takamine has become deaf in adult age, because of the war, while her husband (played equally great by Kobayashi Keiju) has been deaf and dumb since birth. The film shows the hardships that they must go through in their everyday existence. You really feel for the characters, and because they have to endure so much, every happy moment feels utterly beautiful and may bring a tear to the spectator's eye. But soon, reality will slap you right back.

I don't want to enclose too many plot details, but the film is certainly highly memorable. I've watched hundreds of gendai-geki films, and the deafness of the leads really makes an impact to the narrative: you should never take things for granted. I hoped for a different ending, but this one is fine too.

All in all, this film should be better known. Strangely, there exists a sequel with the same actors returning, and also an Indian remake.

One of the five best Japanese films I've ever seen.

The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and dumb. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.

The beauty of this charming yet realistic film is that the couple (who communicate with each other exclusively in sign language, which is subtitled) are neither patronized nor glorified by the director. They are treated straight, as two very normal people with ordinary lives, who just happen to be hearing-impaired.

Alfred Hitchcock once described drama as "ordinary life with the boring bits cut out". Another great feature of this film is that much of the story consists of bits of ordinary life, yet it never becomes boring. Indeed, and this is amazing considering the domestic quality of the storytelling, the film proceeds at a cracking pace, covering about a decade in just under two hours. The couple decide to have a child, but the baby dies, and only because of their parents' deafness. After agonizing about laying blame, the couple put this tragedy behind them and have another child ... who turns out to be a ghastly little boy. And this is only the beginning of their troubles.

The acting is first rate by all the major players. I particularly liked Akiko's spirited mother. But it's lead actress Hikedo Takamine who turns in a tour-de-force, with her expressive pierrot face. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. It is simply wonderful.