La Femme du docteur Hanaoka

Seishu Hanoka (1760-1835) was a Japanese physician. He developed tsusensan, and performed the first successful operations under a general anaesthesic in the modern world, forty years before his western counterparts. That's the sort of story that makes a good medical biography, and that's what we have here: the tale of how his wife, Ayako Wakao, and his mother-in-law, Hideko Takamine, were his guinea pigs for the anaesthesic, after he stopped killing cats with it.

That feminist, women-must-suffer take one story was undoubtedly what attracted the actresses to the story, and Raizo Ichikawa must have jumped at the chance to work with two such superb actresses.... and to get top billing.

The movie is slow-moving, but that's no inappropriate, given the long time-line of the story. It's beautifully designed and performed, and should reward the patient audience.

Masumura must have had an interest in medicine, since merely a year after "Akai tenshi" (The Red Angel, 1966) he made "Hanaoka Seishu no tsuma" (The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka, 1967). Hanaoka (played in this film by Ichikawa Raizo) was a Japanese pioneer of medicine, who lived from 1760 to 1835, and invented an early anesthetic from herbs, long before western alternatives. The film views the doctor's work, but is more interested in the women in his life, his mother (Takamine Hideko) and his wife (Wakao Ayako).

The screenplay is by Shindo Kaneto, who based it on a novel. Shindo penned many a great film for Masumura, but this time we have more of a mixed bag. The depiction of the man in the middle is just one more film about a "dead doctor". Nothing new to the genre. The women are much stronger as characters. This is a movie you would just love to show Sigmund Freud and hear his thoughts about the characters. There is initially a bit of a lesbian subtext, as Wakao agrees to marry to the doctor's family, because she is so impressed by Takamine's beauty. Quickly, however, they become rivals of the doctor's attention. Both want to be the most important woman for him, and they both offer themselves as test subjects when the doctor starts developing his risky formula.

As you would expect from Masumura, there is critique against feudal family values. The film gives both women a little sympathy, and shows how difficult it is to be a woman in any age, in a system centered around men. Takamine is good and restrained as the mother-in-law, secretly wise and conducting herself masterfully. Wakao plays the character through whom we as the audience enter this family. Her reaction shots and gradual character build-up were the best thing in the film. Even in a lesser Masumura work, this actress elevates the material.

For me, the film was not one of Masumura's better works, his standards being really high. It is well shot, and knows the story it wants to tell, but I found it a little dull often, and also the bleak atmosphere forms a very large gray mass where individual moments fail to make an impact. Also I am not okay with animal cruelty in films, even when it's done to establish historical accuracy. There are movies that are a lot worse in this regard, but I would anyway not recommend this to cat-lovers.