A Wife Confesses

A wife in an unhappy marriage is accused of killing her husband during mountain climbing. The first two-thirds of the movie goes between current (1961) time and flashbacks to earlier times. The last third is almost all current. Based on a novel.

I spent the first half of the movie trying to determine if she was innocent or guilty until that became less important. Ayako Wakao plays the lead character. One of the best Japanese actresses of the 1960's & 1970's and gives a performance here that surpasses many academy award winners. At times things get a bit emotional as I was drawn in not only to her situation but her possible love interest and his fiance. The story unfolds as the movie goes on. It begins with the question of her guilt or innocence but a number of other questions develop along the way.

This really is an outstanding movie. It doesn't follow any simple trajectory. It is a straight drama. Definitely a bit dark. The acting performances are excellent. The cinematography is focused on the characters whereby the locations are merely a background used only as a point of reference. If you are looking for an engaging drama, I highly recommend this film!

Again male chauvinism rings true with a woman too stupid to get out of her own way marries some old dude who forcibly sexually assaults her. She spends most of the movie with her head bowed in submission and makes the dumbest decision imaginable.

Add the flip flopping love interest who is equally unfit to make sound decisions and here you have the makings of a dull movie with predictable twist and turns that can be seen well up the road.

And do people just walk around with potassium cyanide in their purse for just such occasions. Such as having some whiny flip flopping dude reject a cute girls offering of a new apartment or to see him at his whim?

It went from so so to straight out the window corniness.

2 reviews only? This is sad, this is too good to be forgotten. Not that this is some kind of masterpiece neither it will blow your mind. But it is a very good courtroom drama/thriller with great acting performances and a clever script. And i haven't even mentioned its biggest quality : Ending is so brilliant that it makes you question your judgement about what you watched. I cannot be more specific in order to avoid spoilers. All i can say is that the viewer might guess from the start where it goes but there are so many layers here that it's difficult to judge these characters correctly. You think it's black or white but it's neither : The whole movie is a gray area. And that's the brilliance of this movie. I know i am being too vague but if you have the opportunity to watch it, do it, especially if you are a fan of this genre. Watch it and you will understand what i mean.

This film begins with an attractive woman by the name of "Ayako Takigawa" (Ayako Wakao) being enveloped by the press as she is led into a courtroom where she is charged with the murder of her husband "Ryokichi Takigawa" (Eitaro Ozawa). She subsequently pleads not guilty and the story of how she sent her husband tumbling down a steep mountain proceeds from there with certain witnesses called to testify and voice their concerns about her true agenda. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good drama which makes good use of the flashback technique to enhance the overall story. Likewise, having a beautiful actress like Ayako Wakao certainly didn't hurt the picture either. In any case, while there were some scenes that caused the film to drag in certain places, I thought that this was an interesting film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

It's interesting watching this while Anatomy of a Fall is still fairly fresh in my memory, because the premises are very similar, but both it and A Wife Confesses end up being very different in the end. A Wife Confesses is snappier and shorter, perhaps in a way that makes the courtroom stuff actually feel a little anticlimactic, by the time the final act comes around.

But at the same time, I don't think this courtroom drama is always interested in the courtroom stuff, and that's okay. Outside said courtroom, A Wife Confesses can feel a little melodramatic, but it's pretty tight at 90 minutes long, and the acting is good throughout. I think most of it holds up fairly well, and while it's not my favorite out of the Yasuzô Masumura-directed films I've seen so far, it's definitely not my least favorite either.