Anjô-ke no butôkai

An atmospheric forties melodrama made and set in postwar Japan, but which timelessly recalls subjects as far flung both historically and geographically as Ray's 'The Music Room' and Visconti's 'The Leopard'.

The daughters of the nouveau pauvre flock in search of eligible bachelors in a fashion Jane Austin would have recognised and seen as recently as P.L.Travers having to submit to the clammy embrace of Walt Disney in 'Saving Mr Banks' to keep her home.

This was a great look at how the bourgeois deal with the same situations as everyday people who face reality. The family feel self-assured and almost cocky that nothing is going to take away what they feel is their worth, but very soon it becomes apparent that the foundation to their wealth (and what they consider happiness) is weak and footed in imbalance. Yoshimura portrays a shift in post-war society, from the old realist regime to a new liberal dismantlement of the old. While films of the time reflected the underdog's role in a settling after war, the flipping of the script allows us to see the rich as human and personable, who can suffer just as much, but ultimately are still privileged above those of the underclass.

The film is just as much a vehicle for Setsuko Hara as it is for the directorial elegance of Yoshimura, bringing along a naivety evident in her Ozu roles. She appears to be the only character with a level-headed approach to her family's situation, attaining a level of strength above the men she is surrounded with. Overall, it's entertaining and drenched in allegory while also sustaining a dramatic lightness that makes it endearing.

It's post-war Japan. Titles of nobility have been stripped from the aristocracy, and agrarian reform has done the same to their incomes. The Anjo family is broke. They're down to their mansion, which is about to be taken from them by business associates, who used their rank as fronts for arms manufacture before the war. Second daughter Setsuko Hara wants them to live in the new world, but the others are unwilling to let go. So the night before the house goes, they throw a party, where all the skeletons come out of the closets.

Kôzaburô Yoshimura's movie starts with Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, but in typical Japanese fashion removes the original's snide humor and replaces it with pain and loss. The images borrow heavily from French Magical Realism, the precursor to film noir, but here, the wreckage, the artifacts overturned, the strings of pearls broken and scattered on the beach, the empty wine bottles scattered beneath the furniture token not just the end, but a chance to start over again.

With the destruction of the old class system, there is a chance for something new and better to arise. Those who are successful include black marketeers, but also honest entrepreneurs. The old nobility may lose their titles and lands, but they will at least live in the new, real world, and perhaps, add a touch of grace.

After the war everything changed, sort of. The wealthy were suddenly poor and the social titles were now gone. Masters and servants were on the same plane. This is the story of how the Anjos, an industrialist's family, has to deal with it. The father (Osamu Takizawa) is planning a suicide. Oldest brother Masahiko (Masayuki Mori) plunges into total nihilism, not even caring that his maid Kiku (Michiko Ikuno) is in love with him. Elder sister Akiko (Yumiko Aizone) is in her own despair, not knowing what to do about her suitor. Only Atsuko (Setsuko Hara) seems clear-headed and ready to face the cloudy future. It's up to her to keep the family together. The story is based on Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard, but it's also a not-so-subtle allegory of postwar Japanese society. The country that thought itself a major player in Asia, treating its neighbors with contempt, was now suffering the consequences of its actions. So will it slide into despair or nihilism, or will it take a more courageous, practical view? Atsuko points the way.

This shamefully neglected 1947 Japanese film will probably never be seen by most people. I was fortunate enough to catch it at a current Japanese film retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It does not appear to be available on video. This is a shame, because it is much better than many better known Japanese films. It concerns a family that was a member of the Japanese nobility. During the forced democratization that occurred during the post-WWII occupation, they are forced to give up not only their titles but most of their wealth and property as well. The film superbly illustrates the role of status in individual identity and the extent to which loss of status can cause identity to disintegrate. It reminds me somewhat of Renoir's "Grand Illusion," which is also about the passing of the old order. It forced us to ask whether the existence of a nobility was any worse than the piratic capitalists who followed them. See this if you can!