Shamisen to ôtobai

This early Shinoda film is about a generation gap between a widow and her daughter who has just graduated from high school. The daughter, who is having romance problems of her own, is appalled when the mother gets a suitor. Meanwhile the mother's new boyfriend has a secret of his own. Among other things, this movie is a look at the changing attitudes between the generation in postwar Japan. The mother is a popular kouta (a form of traditional Japanese song) performer and instructor while the daughter wears Western clothes and listens to rock and roll and jazz. (The literal translation of the movie's title--Shamisen and Motorcycle-- more accurately describes this conflict.) The cinematography, soundtrack and acting in this movie are all so good that it seems almost churlish to complain about the story itself. It isn't particularly bad but it isn't all that interesting either. But it's too Shinoda's credit (the script apparently was forced on him by the studio) that everything else about the movie is so good that he makes it worth watching anyway.